Where it all comes from

The mysteries of work ethic, plus Links of the Week: fan letters, puppy fraud, Crying Jordan's birthday, and much more ...

The other day I had lunch with my dear friend Joe Posnanski. We tend to have long rambling lunches, the kind where sometimes they start to close the place around us while we’re talking, and the conversation can go anywhere. This time one of the topics was work ethic.

Joe and I both grew up in blue-collar families — he has written about that beautifully, and I’ve written some about it, too. It has affected us in different ways, but one thing we have in common is that we think about our backgrounds all the time. How our parents had to work shaped how we think about work.

I’m pulled in both directions. I’ll take on too many projects sometimes — there are lots of reasons for that, but one of them is that my folks often worked multiple jobs for long hours and I don’t want to be different. But then I push back against it because my folks worked so hard at least in part so I wouldn’t have to. Am I honoring them more by grinding it out or taking it easy? The answer is somewhere in between, of course, but it’s hard to keep the level just right.

Last night I dreamed about my mom and her sister, my Aunt Mae. They’re both gone now but in the dream we were having some kind of family reunion and tons of people were around. Mama and Aunt Mae were in charge of the cooking and it didn’t look like there would be nearly enough — I remember looking in the oven and seeing three little chunks of roast sizzling in a dish. But it was a loaves-and-fishes situation —somehow I knew they would figure out a way to feed us all.

I woke up and thought about the dream for a minute. Then I splashed some water in my face and had a bowl of cereal and went to work.

10 things I wanted to share this week:

1. My other post this week was about getting a great fan letter — and why all of us should write them.

2. This week’s guest on the SouthBound podcast was Dr. Benjamin Gilmer. Gilmer took over a small-town medical practice that had two strange things about it: 1) the previous doctor had the same last name, and 2) that doctor was in prison for murdering his own father. Benjamin Gilmer decided to find out the whole story, and he’s got a fascinating new book about it called THE OTHER DR. GILMER.

3. My weekly for WFAE was about a police stop based on mistaken identity, and why it matters.

4. I was mesmerized by this Longform Podcast episode with Chloe Cooper Jones, whose memoir EASY BEAUTY is about trying to understand her disability — and how other people react to it — by traveling the world looking for beauty. I’ve had EASY BEAUTY in my to-read stack for a few weeks … after listening to her power and grace in the way she talked about it, it shot to the top of the pile.

5. DOG NEWS: While I work on my book about the Westminster Dog Show and the bond between dogs and their people, I’m devoting this slot to dog stories. This week: Google filed its first consumer protection lawsuit — against a man accused of puppy fraud.

6. My buddy David Fleming has a great piece for ESPN on the 10-year anniversary of the Crying Jordan meme. In case you’re not sure what that is:

   

7. There’s a new batch of recordings going into the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry, including one of the most important moments of my young life: Henry Aaron’s record-breaking 715th home run.
   

8. We got a little weary of dark and despondent European murder mysteries, so this week we opted for something lighter: MURDER IN PROVENCE, about a couple solving crimes in between glasses of wine and long lounges in bed. It reminded me of those old Saturday night mysteries on NBC, like MCMILLAN AND WIFE.

9. I read THE LAW OF INNOCENCE, one of Michael Connelly’s Lincoln Lawyer novels. It did exactly what it was supposed to do: distract me from the real world for a few enjoyable hours. It’s also the first novel I’ve read where COVID is part of the story.

10. Thanks to the great Brian Koppelman for his rave about Raleigh singer/songwriter Kate Rhudy — I’m really enjoying her songs. Here’s “Ships in the Night”:
    
    

If you’re interested in my memoir, THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM, it’s available in hardback, paperback, audiobook and e-book. I’d be grateful.