By G. E.
Shuman
I’ve done a
lot of writing in my time. I’m not bragging about that; it’s just what I love
to do, and as with most people, what I love to do is what I’ve done a lot of.
It all
started when I was a teen. I distinctly remember the secret guilty pleasure I
felt when one of my high school teachers would assign a written report to my
class. The moans that went around the classroom were strange to me. I just
loved the chance to do research and write a report and had no idea why the
moans were occurring. What was I missing? Then there was the school newspaper,
to which I was a regular fiction contributor. I’m not sure why I was, but I
was. Those were the days.
I was still
in high school when my hometown newspaper did a story about the sixteen-year-old
boy who received personal replies from letters written to President Nixon and
Thomas Paine, the then NASA administrator, in response to letters he had
written to those men. Like I said, I do love to write.
Although my daily
work life did not center around writing, I always thought that it should have. I
mistakenly felt that I needed to have some advanced degree to be an ‘author’
and knew that was not likely to be in my future. Sometimes opportunities are
simply missed in life. Stories of ‘starving writers’ occupied my mind as I did
other things to provide for my family, instead of seriously tackling the job of
writing. Oh well.
I did
succeed in securing a lasting outlet for my many tangled thoughts. That outlet
is this wonderful little newspaper, The World. Many years ago, while still in
that ‘other’ work life that I lead because I felt that I had no choice, I
screwed up the courage to ask my good friend, Gary Hass, The World’s
co-publisher, if I could try doing a column for it. Gary immediately said
‘yes’. My hope is that he has never regretted that answer. I certainly have
never regretted asking the question. The Lord willing, if I make it until next
mid-May, I will have occupied this space in the paper with my terribly tortured
thoughts, every other week, for thirty full, continuous years. I have never
known where my thoughts and stories come from; I just know where they go, which
is right here.
Over the
years I have also managed to churn out three novels and an autobiography of my
childhood growing up in Central Maine. (A wise person would hurry now to their
computer or phone and check out the works of George E. Shuman on Amazon. And I
know you’re a wise person.) If you do so, remember to search my full name, as,
believe it or not, there is another George Shuman on that site, and his stuff
is not my stuff. Nuff said.
The old
comedian, George Burns, once said that if you find something that you love to
do, and then find someone willing to pay you to do it, you will never have to
work a day in your life.
So, don’t
neglect your obligations, but follow your dreams too. Find something that you
love to do… and do it.
