Joe Haldeman's Blog, page 97

life is all you have

(Responding to Neale Morison) I liked Hemingway's statement of that so well I used it as the dedication to THE HEMINGWAY HOAX --

"He had already learned that there was only one day at a time and that it was always the day you were in. It would be today until it was tonight and tomorrow it would be today again. This was the main thing he had learned so far."

That's from "The Last Good Country." It's a funny quote because it's only a hair away from being a perfect Hemingway satire. If he hadn't

Losing existential contact

I would think it would be more like "everybody else in that timeline goes on business as usual, with you dead."

But it's very late, for me, and I'm not making a lot of sense.

Had a great post-birthday bash, 16 people stuffing themselves on hamburgers, chicken, and chorizo. Man, that chorizo was good.

Quite a bit of work for the person who's supposed to be taking it easy, some said. But this kind of chore puts me in cook heaven. Straightforward stuff you ca do with a spatula in one hand and a

life is sweet

For my 66th birthday yesterday I celebrated by doing a metric century, 100 kilometers, on the bicycle. (I didn't feel in shape to do a real Amurrican century.) Because it's getting hot around noon, I bought a nice bright light and started pedaling around 4:30. It was very pleasant, toodling around the neighborhoods in the bright moonlight.

I wanted to see some new territory, though, so I just did ten miles, had some breakfast, and then at sunup drove the bike out to the Devil's Millhopper park

arms and men

Going back to Robin's note of last week, I remember the comfortable mocking attitude some American military types had back in the early eighties -- claiming (I think with justification) that the Soviet Union started its adventure in Afghanistan mainly to give combat experience to its officer corps and NCO's. Almost two generations without a serious land war was undermining their army's credibility. Some people even noticed that that was one reason we were in Vietnam. Give the officers a taste

memorial day

Dave, I wonder whether we'd even recognize kindergarten in 2084, post-Gutenberg. They might still have graham crackers and milk and nap time. But then after nappies, they plug in the nice lady who's describing quantum mechanics.

Memorial Day, and once again the local Veterans for Peace has made a silent statement along 8th Avenue. Nearly a mile of straight east-west road through forest and parkland. Crowded this weekend with nearly five thousand small gravestones, separated by year markers an