BEING USEFUL LIKE ROBERT FULGHUM

This isn’t Robert Fulghum, it’s me being useful in my Robert Fulghum beard which has gone the way of every beard that dared show itself on my face.

He is probably a better beard steward than me. My enthusiasm for grooming an extra pet in the house lasts about six months.

The last dog lived sixteen years; the current dog is going on five.

Am I being useful for them? More than I am to a beard.

On his website, Mr. Fulghum asks:

 

Why Do I Continue Writing?

Here he is in his Utah place in a picture worth a few thousand words.

From the looks of the room, there’s more than a few thousand words on the wall.

This is the guy who said he learned everything he needed to know in kindergarten, wrote a book about it, then more.

And still more. Somewhere along the line he learned how to break down a story into manageable parts and organize notes for continuity.

I’m not peeling the Fulghum onion too far to learn more about him, like his connection to things Czech, but just enough to get the idea of why someone would continue writing, as if there’s a rational answer.

From Fulghum:

 

Often, without realizing it, we fill important places in each other’s lives.

It’s that way with the guy at the corner grocery, the mechanic at the local garage, the family doctor, teachers, coworkers, and neighbors.

Good people who are always “there,” who can be relied upon in small, ordinary ways.

People who, by example, teach us, bless us, encourage us, support us, uplift us in the daily-ness of life.

 

I like ‘the daily-ness of life’, which is old guy code for tedium, banality, repetition.

Who fills important places in your life? My life?

Let me check my social media feed for a reminder. Lol, just kidding. Kidding?

If that didn’t sound funny, you might have a problem to work on.

Daily-ness reminds me of the Chekhov misquote:

Any idiot can face a crisis; it’s this day-to-day living that wears you out.

 

Fulghum Keeps Writing To Be Useful

He says:

 

I want to be one of those.

You may be one of those, yourself.

There are those who depend on you, watch you, learn from you, are inspired by you, and count on you being in their world.

You may never have proof of your importance to them, but you are more important than you may think.

There are those who couldn’t do without you.

The rub is that you don’t always know who. We seldom make this mutual influence clear to each other.

But being aware of the possibility that you are useful in this world is the doorway into assuring that will come to be true.

My way is to keep writing and sharing that. What’s yours?

 

Since Robert Fulghum is asking a baby boomer blogger, among other visitors to his page, he deserves an answer.

Why do I keep writing boompdx? Because I’m not done.

Not for the fame, not the money, not the travel, or the wine, women, and song.

If you do something and you’re not done, keep going.

How many readers here feel inspired by my work? See, I’m not done. I’ll get you.

 

The Czech Connection

Never look a gift horse in the mouth?

If I had Czech readers would I want to know why?

I have readers across the world clicking here. Why? Bots?

Robert Fulghum knows why he’s big in the Czech Republic:

“My books have done extraordinarily well in the Czech language. Like the all time best English language sales in Czech. So I’m thinking, ‘Why is this true?’

So I went to Prague and I was going to do a book signing and there was this incredible line. And it looked like it was going on forever.

So I stopped at the end of the line and I thought, these people always have to line up for bread or sausages or whatever. So I asked this woman why she was standing in line.

And she said, ‘Oh: Robert Fulghum.’ And I said, ‘That’s me!’

And she picked up the book and she looked at the back and she said, ‘No. He’s much better looking than you are.'”

The Czech Republic experience was not over yet.

“So that night we’re at a big banquet that the publisher threw. And I said to her, ‘Why are my books so well received in the Czech Republic?’

And she asked if I wanted to know the truth. And I told her I did.

And she said, ‘It’s because your translator is a much better writer than you are.’

And how would I know? I don’t read Czech.

 

PS:

Would I have a huge readership if someone interpreted my work? How about your work?

If you write, maybe. If you don’t, no.

 

PSS:

If something draws my interest, I’m writing about it.

If not, I’ve got history to draw my interest.

Together, they give plenty of topics to work through.

Everything I need to know I learned in one geology class taught by a retiring professor with no fucks left to give in 1990.

We studied for a lifetime of teaching, then had to adjust to continental drift, plate tectonics.

If we didn’t agree, we had to find new jobs.

 

The class was called Rocks For Jocks where sports guys could take it, send their girlfriends in after the first class, then come back at the end of the term to take the final.

What they all missed was the bittersweet long goodbye from a man who had more to give than geology, and he was great.

That was the class that sealed it for the science requirement I needed to graduate.

That last word here goes to Robert Fulghum:

“I don’t think the thing is to be well known, but being worth knowing.”