I can still remember the day I could read, and how it opened all the doors in the universe for me. I can't imagine waiting until I was in my nineties to have this gift. I can't imagine having the courage to admit to anyone that I couldn't read, but this amazing man, Jim Henry admitted to his flaw, and not only learned to read, but penned a book! Talk about going from 0-60 in seconds flat!
We all take our ability to read for granted, and spend our lives just living, going from task to task, not really noticing how our lives slip away from us. Jim Henry's life didn't slip away from him. Instead, he wrote it down just as soon has was as able to, and what a gift it is to the rest of us. Henry writes simply, and though far from perfect, he reminds me of Ernest Hemingway, who was taught as a journalist to just give the facts. I'd call this writing from the heart. No fancy words, metaphors, turns of phrase to deflect the reader from seeing just who the writer really is. This is how Henry writes.
The book is short, the chapters are shorter. Just the facts without blame or any kind of excess drama. Maybe it's because Henry has lived so long that there is not artifice left in him. He gives us his life, warts and all. The story that really stuck me, was the one where, as a young man, Henry was a fighter, because he needed the money, yet he threw the fight because he couldn't afford a doctor if he got hurt.
Henry admitted to others that he threw the fight, and because of their disappointment, he never fought again. The shame of that thrown fight followed him for seventies years until he finally admitted it to others. Can you imagine? This is what the man is ashamed of? Oh that Mr. Henry were a politician . . . well, he obviously grew up in a different time and place, and without the courage he displayed in learning to read, we wouldn't be blessed with this unique insight into a man looking back over his life with such honesty.
Maybe we need to think about giving a pen to all of our elderly. We could use their wisdom.
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