Not surprisingly, my first week of the Bradbury Challenge (more specifically, the 3/1/52 version of this challenge) went a little rough.
I made a few tactical decisions I knew would complicate it. First, I started during the holiday season which came with multiple layers on its own. Besides the usual holiday festivities, my middle son was home from college, which meant fetching him, unpacking, then packing and taking him back. We also decided on a family vacation away from home. In the end, the primary reason for jumping right in was to just arbitrarily dismiss all excuses not to.
So, of course, comedy demands it stumble right on day one. The additional decision I made that complicated things was to choose Wendell Berry as my starting essayist. Of my three chosen authors so far, his works are the longest. Far longer than I had expected. This even includes breaking some of them into separate essays whenever he clearly defines a part one and part two. Given all the other conflicting pulls on my time, by the time I got to O. Henry’s “Bexar Scrip No. 2692” I could barely function.
“Bexar Scrip No. 2692” I read as my head sagged forward and a fog of sleep took over.
“Bexar Scrip No. 2692” I read again as I awoke startled.
“Bexar Scrip No. 2692” I read after waking yet again. And again. and again … then maybe yet one more time …
Eventually I gave up and went to bed, vowing to read it the next day.
Day two started out great. While on our vacation my wife and I decided we needed to get out and hike more. Exercise yes, but exercise by getting out in nature, not on a treadmill. She picked the park, and we had a nice, little hike. Much easier than the mountainous hikes we attempted in Georgia. It was good to get outside and unusually aligned with my new reading since the Wendell Berry essays I am reading now all focus on the woods and river where he grew up.
“Bexar Scrip No. 2692” I read and my eyes fluttered, my vision wavered and my head sagged forward in sleep.
Apparently, our little hike took more out of me than I thought. After the day’s normal activities I had nothing left. I didn’t even make it to the bed before falling asleep this time and slept the night on the couch. Now, I was a whole day behind, not just one story.
Day three, hellbent for victory I tried valiantly to catch up, but Wendell Berry’s “The Long Legged House” was fifty-two pages long! I elected to treat parts one and two as two separate essays and almost managed to catch up.
In the end, it took me all the way to day six to level set my reading. Hopefully, I will now be able to keep the “3/1” part of the challenge on track. I still have to get the “52” part in the mix and write my weekly short story later today.
This Week’s report card:
Poetry (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)
- The Spirit of Poetry
- Hymn to the Night
- A Psalm of Life
- The Light of Stars
- Footsteps of an Angel
- The Skeleton in Armor
- The Wreck of Hesperus
Essays (Wendell Berry)
- The Rise
- The Long Legged House (part 1)
- The Long Legged House (part 2)
- A Native Hill (part 1)
- A Native Hill (part 2)
- A Native Hill (part 3)
- The Hidden Wound (chapter 4)
Short Stories (O. Henry)
- Bexar Scrip No. 2692
- Three Paragraphs
- A Personal Insult
- When the Train Comes In
- Why He Hesitated
- Something for Baby
- Too Wise