the clog

Fading youth...

You know you're old when you've outlived your childhood heroes. I've outlived at least two of them. One was Roald Dahl. The other was Shel Silverstein.

What brought on this train of thought? Well, I was digging around my horde of books in my brother's home (long story, don't ask) when I came across two well worn books: A Light in the Attic and Where the Sidewalk Ends.
I would love to say that the books became well worn because I read them over and over again, but that would be a lie. I had bought them in a second hand bookstore a couple of years back, put them among my horde and promptly forgot about them. Not that I don't love them, but beyond the general perusing I had no real USE for them. Which is a shame because they are books that remind us about childhood and youth (something that I could very well appreciate when I first encountered Silverstein's writing when I was 10). I realize now that they are useful for that if nothing else: to remind us about youth. Anyway, I wondered what new books Silverstein had written, so I did a quick web search. To my horror I found that he had died in 1999, which, to my mind, is a bloody long time ago to keep going unnoticed by me.

So now the mission that I have put to myself is to disseminate his philosophy and works to everyone I know (and some that I don't). So if you're reading this and have a way to get to some of his works, do it! If you're a friend of mine and I'm relatively in contact with you believe me when I say that I WILL be forcing his works on you. Think of it as a gentle form of the Spanish Inquisition. You'll thank me later. Oh, and for those of you who have never read ANY Roald Dahl...read some before I find out. You'll also thank me later.

Amen

Rumoku out!