Blog & News:

bars and fears

Feb 5th, 07

So I'm reading this insanely good memoir, The Tender Bar, by JR Moehringer. Memoirs are about the only thing I can read anymore. I'm not much for fiction. We're all full of enough good truths to share that making up stories doesn't seem like a good idea.

Ok, so basic story: JR grows up on Long Island with a real tough family situation. Father, never around. Mother, hard working and lonely. Everyone always seems to leave. The one constant in his life is the bar. Even when he's young, the bar is his place of solace. He grows up, and the bar grows in importance. I'm with him on all of this. A good bar is a man's best friend, offering a place and time to think and drink.

I haven't finished it yet, but I just stumbled on this section that kind of kicked me in the gut. A wake up call. It's this piece of advice from one of JR's role models.

"Think about fear, decide right now how you're going to deal with fear, because fear is going to be the great issue of your life, I promise you. Fear will be the fuel for all your success and the root cause of all your failure, and the underlying dilemma in every story you tell yourself about yourself. And the only chance you'll have against fear? Follow it. Steer by it. Don't think of fear as the villain. Think of fear as your guide, your pathfinder."

Funny enough that I could find my week's inspiration from a book about the beauty of a bar, but it just feels so true. I've been doing a lot of writing over the last month, and much of it feels like it's about a fear of growing up and growing older.

I've never been much of a "quote" guy. A lot of people like to put quotes above their beds and on their refrigerators to live by, but I just never stumble across quotes that look like they should be the kind of thing I see every time I open my eyes in the morning or pour a glass of milk. But if I was, I think I'd tape this quote to my dashboard.

In Chicago for the night, which is officially the most alive city in America, despite being colder than the North Pole. Hope everyone's well and warm, and I'm anxious to get on the road.

Cheers,
dm

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