Jeff, after 6 months of filing all of your posts (except your new year's post that I read first when it came out) into a reading file, I have finally read them all. My husband was diagnosed with PD last summer and your friend Kate referred me to you. I wasn't ready to read them as we transitioned to the news of his diagnosis. Now we are on a sun-break from Amsterdam and have been in Thailand for 3 weeks. I have been able to give them all the attention they deserved and read each one. I have enjoyed your stories from your travels and found how you weave in the challenges you face now with your life today while taking us on your very interesting journey in the past years. The NO WHINING ON THE YACHT has become my daily mantra and I have shared it widely. Like you, I know how privileged we are in this scary world we are in today and feel so fortunate to have been born in the 50's and experienced the US in the 60's-90's. Most importantly, I asked my husband to read your posts and he did. We can no longer bury our head in the sand, and like you, "we're not done yet." Thank you again for sharing your many stories and reminding us that PD is only one part of all of our stories
What an amazing message to wake up to Sharene! Thank you for reminding me why I write this column. And I love that you've adopted our New Year's motto!
Thank you for taking us with you into this abundantly rich place. I don't know that I'll ever actually go, but after reading these passages, I feel as though I've been. Beautiful.
Congrats on the new edition! That was the book that introduced me to you and your work, after having heard an interview with you on NPR. I do believe a reread is in order!
I was introduced to you and your writing through your reading from The Size of the World via KQED, I suppose, right when it came out. Loved it so much that it has lived on my venerated book shelf, where I keep some of my favorite book treasures. You are in company there with my grandfather's first edition A Child's Garden of Verses, Barbara Kingsolver's Prodigal Summer, e.e. Cummings Selection of Poems, the Complete Annotated Book of Grateful Dead Lyrics, by the amazing David Dodd, and The Boys King Arthur, illustrated by N.C. Wyeth, to name a few. Looking forward to adding the new edition to the shelf!
This really warms my heart, Karen. I can't even remember that KQED interview, but I'm very happy that the book will have another life and hopefully reach some new hands as well. Thank you so very much for placing me in such good company, it's truly an honor…you had me at Barbara Kingsolver but the Grateful Dead cinched it.
Jeff-Though I'm far away this year, you are never far from my thoughts. I doubt that you know how much I love and treasure The Size of the World, which I had read long before we met. Indeed, I used a quote from the book in my 2002 Holiday Letter to explain the emotional challenges associated with deciding to sell my company and take on a new executive role: "What I want to explore is the feasibility of backing out. And whether or not my career—not to mention my self-esteem—could survive it. The problem is I know that, whatever I do, I’ll wish I had done the opposite. If I go, I’ll wish I’d stayed and finished my novel. If I stay, I’ll always regret that I didn’t face up to a great challenge.”
Thank you so much, Vijay. In the end, the great challenge won out… As it did for you as well. And I think we're both the better for it. Thanks for inspiring me in turn with your contagious good humor, legendary hospitality (on and off the Playa], and friendship.
Ecstatic Orange Juice!!! Yum and Wow! I remember having some incredible fresh-squeezed street OJ in Istanbul once or twice upon a life...wonder how it compares?!?
Jeff, I find it quiet moving to watch you (from my distance, and occasionally up close) accepting the constrained circumstances of your current life with such apparent equanimity. Bummer about the head-fake from Google Glass -- I hadn't heard about that. I loved "Size of the World." Audacity!
Jeff, after 6 months of filing all of your posts (except your new year's post that I read first when it came out) into a reading file, I have finally read them all. My husband was diagnosed with PD last summer and your friend Kate referred me to you. I wasn't ready to read them as we transitioned to the news of his diagnosis. Now we are on a sun-break from Amsterdam and have been in Thailand for 3 weeks. I have been able to give them all the attention they deserved and read each one. I have enjoyed your stories from your travels and found how you weave in the challenges you face now with your life today while taking us on your very interesting journey in the past years. The NO WHINING ON THE YACHT has become my daily mantra and I have shared it widely. Like you, I know how privileged we are in this scary world we are in today and feel so fortunate to have been born in the 50's and experienced the US in the 60's-90's. Most importantly, I asked my husband to read your posts and he did. We can no longer bury our head in the sand, and like you, "we're not done yet." Thank you again for sharing your many stories and reminding us that PD is only one part of all of our stories
What an amazing message to wake up to Sharene! Thank you for reminding me why I write this column. And I love that you've adopted our New Year's motto!
Thank you for taking us with you into this abundantly rich place. I don't know that I'll ever actually go, but after reading these passages, I feel as though I've been. Beautiful.
Congrats on the new edition! That was the book that introduced me to you and your work, after having heard an interview with you on NPR. I do believe a reread is in order!
WONDEREFUL ! ILOVED READING IT.
I well remember the beautiful poetic prose of that book when I read it. Thanks for the reprise.
That is good news, Jeff! Looking forward to getting new copies and gifting them to my nephews, to encourage them to travel to parts unseen..
I was introduced to you and your writing through your reading from The Size of the World via KQED, I suppose, right when it came out. Loved it so much that it has lived on my venerated book shelf, where I keep some of my favorite book treasures. You are in company there with my grandfather's first edition A Child's Garden of Verses, Barbara Kingsolver's Prodigal Summer, e.e. Cummings Selection of Poems, the Complete Annotated Book of Grateful Dead Lyrics, by the amazing David Dodd, and The Boys King Arthur, illustrated by N.C. Wyeth, to name a few. Looking forward to adding the new edition to the shelf!
This really warms my heart, Karen. I can't even remember that KQED interview, but I'm very happy that the book will have another life and hopefully reach some new hands as well. Thank you so very much for placing me in such good company, it's truly an honor…you had me at Barbara Kingsolver but the Grateful Dead cinched it.
Jeff-Though I'm far away this year, you are never far from my thoughts. I doubt that you know how much I love and treasure The Size of the World, which I had read long before we met. Indeed, I used a quote from the book in my 2002 Holiday Letter to explain the emotional challenges associated with deciding to sell my company and take on a new executive role: "What I want to explore is the feasibility of backing out. And whether or not my career—not to mention my self-esteem—could survive it. The problem is I know that, whatever I do, I’ll wish I had done the opposite. If I go, I’ll wish I’d stayed and finished my novel. If I stay, I’ll always regret that I didn’t face up to a great challenge.”
Thank you so much, Vijay. In the end, the great challenge won out… As it did for you as well. And I think we're both the better for it. Thanks for inspiring me in turn with your contagious good humor, legendary hospitality (on and off the Playa], and friendship.
You've really squeezed a lot of juice out of this big world!😍
It's squeezed a lot of juice out of me as well!
Oh, the glory of oranges! That is such great news about the book. Congratulations! ❤️
Thank you, Jeff. Looking forward to purchasing and reading your upcoming edition. I’m thirsty for it (and some Marrakesh OJ!).
Love the oranges. I had forgotten that story and it had me hauling out my original copy to re- encounter other gems.
Ecstatic Orange Juice!!! Yum and Wow! I remember having some incredible fresh-squeezed street OJ in Istanbul once or twice upon a life...wonder how it compares?!?
Jeff, I find it quiet moving to watch you (from my distance, and occasionally up close) accepting the constrained circumstances of your current life with such apparent equanimity. Bummer about the head-fake from Google Glass -- I hadn't heard about that. I loved "Size of the World." Audacity!