Here’s something
that made me happy today: did you know there is a fellowship in the name of
Erma Bombeck and Anna Lefler? It annually awards two recipients with a two-week
retreat at the hotel of the University of Dayton and a slot at the Erma Bombeck
Writers Workshop. The university sponsors the program. Dayton is the late
humorist’s hometown.
It’s particularly
fitting to remember Bombeck at this time of year because of her essay, “Where
did Christmas go?” The humorist, who once said only a thin line separates
laughter and pain, began that piece with, “There is nothing sadder in this world than to awake Christmas morning and not be a
child,” and ended it with, “Time, self-pity, apathy, bitterness and exhaustion
can take the Christmas out of the child, but you cannot take the child out of
Christmas.”
In these troubled
times in our country, we need all we can get of Erma Bombeck—and of he spirit
of Christmas, no matter the faith you follow.
Something else
that made me happy today: lunch with an old friend. I can’t tell you how long I’ve
known Jim Lee, but it’s a long time. When he was chair of English at the University
of North Texas, he’d call me to announce he’d had a million-dollar idea, and I’d
cringe because I knew it meant work for me. Later, he moved to Fort Worth and
became a regular volunteer at TCU Press, serving, as the provost so clearly
specified, “without compensation.” We worked together, we edited books together
(Literary Fort Worth, Elmer Kelton:
Essays and Memories, and probably others), he wrote at least one book under
my tenure (Adventures of a Texas
Humanist). We were partners in crime, frequent guests together at literary
events, and constant lunch companions. When I retired and he tired of his
unpaid position, we drifted apart, and I hadn’t seen him in several years
We do email
occasionally, and recently I wrote and told him I didn’t like to let people who’d
mattered to me slip out of my life. Would he come to lunch at the cottage? He would
and did. We had a good time, catching up on people (how neat that he remembers
all my kids and asked about them) and sharing stories old and new, commiserating
about age and friends now gone. I hope we do it again.
And more
happiness: Betty and I went to Pacific Table for our weekly dinner and split
Trout Amandine. It came with a choice of zucchini or root vegetables. She
wanted the root vegetables, but I hesitated when I heard parsnips, turnips, and
rutabaga. Then I threw caution to the winds and deferred to her taste. The vegetables were good, the trout was
wonderful, and it was a pleasant if quick dinner.
Too much happiness
in my world to let Roy Moore and the likes dim it, though I will continue to speak
out That’s how outraged I am about what is being done to our country. Oops, I
forgot—happiness is the word of the day.
