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Tag Archives: Authors

My.Daily.Distraction ~ Post 125: S.W.A.K.

24 Tuesday Feb 2015

Posted by duckykoren in Authors, Aviation, Books

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Antoine De Saint Exupery, Authors, Friends, Grandmothers, Hearts, letters, Mail, Planes, Post Office

I will always regret that I never gave my Grandmother a tour of the post office where I work, while I still had the chance.

She was the most prolific letter writer I’ve ever known. She loved sending letters. Indeed, she would take time out of every day and write out postcards and letters to friends and family.

I would have shown her that the post office is more vibrantly mechanized than she could have ever imagined. From the tow motors carrying big steel cages crammed with parcels and containers of mail, to the video coding desks, culling belts and letter sorting machines, she would have loved the magic that she was witnessing.

However to me, it’s just organized chaos.

The plant where I work is full of machines that can each process almost 50,000 pieces of mail an hour.

During the Christmas period, 1.5 million pieces of mail are dumped, machined, sorted and dispatched each twenty-four hour period.

That’s a lot of mail.

One of my favourite authors, Antoine De Saint Exupery, author of ‘The Little Prince’ was among the first pilots to ever fly mail from point to point.

In his book Wind Sand and Stars, he eloquently recorded his thoughts as he flew his plane with it’s cargo of mail over the Sahara Desert.

Mail in the late 1930’s was very different from what it is now.

Today the majority of mail is business related. The mail stream consists mostly of credit card bills, receipts, invoices, account statements, and of course junk mail.

However, back then the mail consisted almost entirely of personal letters. These were letters from mother to son, husband to wife, friend to friend, beloved to beloved.

And so, as this pilot and author flew high in the sky alone at night with his cargo, he marvelled at the stars above and pondered the points of light below while trying to imagine the precious contents of the letters. Antoine De Saint Exupery firmly believed that he was doing an important task. The letters he carried contained validations of love and friendship from loved ones separated by time and distance.

It was indeed a different world back then and I wish we could get some of it back.

It might do our digitized hearts some good.

❤

My.Daily.Distraction ~ Part 22: How To Turn Scraps Into Gold

20 Thursday Nov 2014

Posted by duckykoren in Authors, Fiction, Writing

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Authors, Books, Broadcaster, Clark Gable, Fiction, Gold, Journalist, Margaret Mitchell, Movies, Paul Harvey, Radio, Scarlett, Scraps, Viviene Leigh, Writers

Several years back while driving to work I listened to a short commentary by American radio broadcaster Paul Harvey. He was best known for his famous radio segments called “The Rest Of The Story” which was fortunately carried by Canadian radio stations.

When I was very young I had the good fortune to see Paul Harvey speak in person.

He appeared as a guest speaker at Toronto’s ‘People’s Church’.

His appearance at the church became quite the controversy when during the service it was established that he was not a secular Christian.

In his defence, he never claimed to be one to begin with.

But I digress…

Back to my car and my drive into work:

One day, as I listened on the radio Paul Harvey had an exceptional tale to tell.

He told the story of a young woman who was born in 1900.

Fiercely independent, she insisted on working outside of the home.

This continued until she unfortunately severely injured her leg and was unable to work for several years.

As Paul Harvey describes it, this woman became very bored while convalescing at home.

Housebound and with limited mobility, she one day took a long look around her home and noticed that she had accumulated hundreds of small scraps of paper which were strewn all around her house.

They were everywhere. There were bits of paper stuffed in books, inside drawers, vases, cupboards, anywhere you could possibly imagine.

She had hand written on each slip of paper a story of some kind.

These were stories that she had heard throughout her years. Some stories came from family members and some came from friends. Some stories were experiences that she herself had. There were stories that she had read in the newspaper while others were considered local legends.

Any story that she found remotely interesting would be jot down on a piece of paper and saved for later use.

As history would have it, the time eventually came for her to put all these stories to good use.

The name of this woman was Margaret Mitchell.

It took her several years to skillfully put all these stories together into a book which became very popular. In turn, this book then led to one of the greatest motion pictures of all time.

Perhaps you’ve heard of this book.

It was called…

Gone With The Wind.

And so, how many slips of paper have you got hidden around your home?

Like Margaret, I have accumulated quite the collection…

And her story has given me hope.

My.Daily.Distraction ~ Post 6: Thank You Erma Bombeck

06 Thursday Nov 2014

Posted by duckykoren in Authors, Books, Comedians, Television, Writing

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Advice, Authors, Bowl Of Cherries, Columns, Depression, Erma Bombeck, Futility, Good Morning America, Home, Housewives, Housework, Marriage, Newlywed, Newspaper Columns, Newspapers, Writers

When I was young my father would often catch me writing at the kitchen table.

He would ask me what I was writing about and I would proudly tell him that I was working on a story I had made up.

He would then shake his head sadly, look me in the eye and say:

“Any author will tell you time and again that it has been proven in order to be a good writer you have to:

…WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW.”

I remember rolling my eyes at these words and dismissively turning my thoughts back to my work of fiction while he would go his own way and continue to putter around the house.

And that was that.

I don’t think I ever finished that story.

In fact, I can’t even remember what it was about.

Years later, the first author that I ever seriously paid attention to was Erma Bombeck.

At the time I was a newlywed and struggling with the concept of trying to maintain due diligence in the upkeep of hearth and home.

It wasn’t easy.

There was no manual to consult.

I found myself looking forward to Erma’s segments on the television show ‘Good Morning America.’

With her priceless self-effacing wit, she recounted her struggles as she strived to maintain the illusion of a perfect housewife.

She talked about keeping up with the household chores, the dog, the kids, the husband, and the ongoing hopelessness that she was doomed to fail on all counts.

Basically, she was obviously…

‘Writing what she knew.’

However the most incredible thing about this wonderful lady was that she did all that with an spark of humour.

Through her wit and wisdom, I learned I was not alone in my domestic futility.

The first book I read written by Erma Bombeck was:

“If Life Is Like A Bowl Of Cherries Then Why Do I Always Get The Pits?”

What housewife could not love that title?

And with every couple of weeks I would return to my local library and pick up her books one after the other.

With each book, I learned to laugh my way through the housekeeping blues.

And if I couldn’t laugh, I could at least smirk and then move on.

The most important lesson that I learned from her was when I was a young mother.

In her newspaper column she related her struggles trying to balance a clean house with a young newborn.

Unfortunately, I have never been able to find that article again after reading it only once or twice.

However, her lesson still resonates within me.

In a nutshell the column went something like this:

“Who really cares about the dust underneath the toilet when there is a brand-new baby in the house, to be played with, fussed over and loved?”

She of course was absolutely right.

Thank you Erma Bombeck.

I’ll never forget you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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