So, since most of my posts have been a bit of a downer, centralized around Stinky Pete and all, and I have therefore resolved to write a post that does not mention Stinky Pete at all. No allusions, no reference, not a single mention of the little bugger at all.
Apparently, this is not that post.
However, this post might be good practice from this point forward. And since the holidays have just passed (for my family, Christmas) and we live in a very consumeristic society, I’m going to talk about the shallow subject of presents.
Or, as most six-year-olds probably referred to them as, “PRESENTS!”
Today I’m going to speak of a particular gift that I have always loved to receive: a book, and not just any book. I was fortunate enough this year to receive a collection of the late Andy Rooney’s works entitled 60 Years of Wisdom and Wit. So far (I’m only about halfway through the book at the moment) the collection is thoroughly living up to its name, and I am thrilled.
Mr. Rooney’s writing style is refreshingly direct and free of frou-frou, yet simultaneously introspective and comforting. His typewriter seems to seep those unspoken truths we all feel, but never realize. Rooney’s simple views helped him to notice things that the rest of us would never have noticed.
Never before have I been so enraptured by such simple observations of such a commonplace item as a chair. I will never look at a menu the same way again. All thanks to Mr. Rooney, whom I was (and am still) woefully ignorant of. After I finish this book, I’m resolving to change that.
I’m really hoping that some of his 60 Minutes segments are on YouTube, so that I may have the privilege of hearing this man’s words from his own mouth, as he rumpledly sits behind a desk he made with his own hands.