What to do with the 26th of 27th version of my year end, holiday letter, something that started out as a mockery of the form, subsumed most of its annoying characteristics, and has survived from being typed (on a typewriter!) to being emailed? Some change is in order, but certainly not wholesale change.
First, a big change: far less politics/religion/rants. I just built a website where I am posting all that, for when you are thinking, “This world is a crazy place. What is the least crazy way to think about it? Or, I’d rather read something reliably funny.” Currently there are a number of humorous things I’ve written over the years, some ideas about sports, the article I sent some of you about my last trip to India (no pix), and one article about violence, with lots of photos. I hope if you go to it you will be endlessly entertained, bemused, and, sometimes, infuriated. The address, and please go there, bookmark it, and share it with everyone you can, is
http://terence-orourkejr.squarespace.com
There is also a way to subscribe so any new posts would come to your email directly at the bottom of each page. You may be able to just subscribe to one of the options IF I set them up correctly.
The year in recap is retained. I started out in New Zealand in Waimate, and I celebrated my 50th birthday there (the locals had lovely parties for me, including red velvet cake). I got back to the states the end of March and had a short break before starting a job in Philipsburg, PA, about 100 minutes from Danville. It was a terrible job with some fun people who made the best of it (I have fun wherever I am). Somehow I made it through August before another short break and a job even closer to Danville, in Lewisburg and Milton (much better jobs, not as much fun).
It was a great (and expensive!!) year for travel. I got around to the best spots in New Zealand again (except, sigh, Banks Peninsula). My go-to travel buddies, the resilient Greg and Kathy Wright, met me in Melbourne and trusted a little over a week of their lives to me. We had a great time in Melbourne and also took the Spirit of Tasmania on an overnight voyage (in rough seas) to Tasmania, a unique island with a lot to see and do (oh, kangaroos – do you miss my excellent scratching?). In early July I flew to the Dominican Republic with my sister Kelly and her family for a relaxing week with pleasant weather at a resort in Punta Cana. Also in July we had a family week at the Keuka Lake cottage that went well (I also went up there for two other solo weekends full of physical activity). During my break in September, I flew to Bermuda to visit the Wakely’s and their new dog, Dougal. They really showed me a great time, including the Coconut Rocket. After landing in Philly, I drove to Silver Spring and stayed with the Brunsell-Greitzers en route to Roanoke, VA to spend 5 days with the Wrights. This letter will go out before another big trip: to Patagonia to hike Torres Del Paine National Park with my nephew, Andrew. I will send out a supplement about that trip, which should put the O’ in awesome. Other adventures: my sister, Candace, and I went to Camelback Mountain Adventures to zip line, ride a mountain coaster and do a treetop obstacle course in October, and I went with Kelly, Mike and Carlie Mills to a minor league hockey game. Candace and I saw James Taylor in concert late on the 1st of December, the eve of her birthday.
Golf: I played in 4 countries and joined Frosty Valley Country Club in Danville for the year under their discount plan. I played as much as I could (even when just above freezing) but never got good (though some signs of life near the end of the year). I also got new clubs after selling most of them in N.Z. – they did help.
Health and Fitness: I am getting better at being a vegetarian and avoid dairy as much as possible (google D-galactulose), but it is hard to avoid cheese and milk yogurt (soy yogurt is not very good). I lost about 10 pounds from March to August and am in fantastic shape at the moment, with my weightlifting coming around as I am almost over every possible kind of elbow tendinitis one can get. Since I turned 50, I thought I would start running some races again, having not wanted to compete in running other than against myself for decades. I ran 3 half-marathons, including a rugged trail one, and ran a relay leg in a bike-kayak-run triathlon. I was quite pleased with how well I did and how I handled each one (I won my age group in the trail race) and look forward to getting better yet, or at least staving off the inevitable decline. For now, I can say no one trains like I do, and it is hard to argue with the results.
HUMOR
Quips I had loaded up but never used in 2014:
a. I’m moderately hairy, about like a Berwick middle-schooler. Oh, only a male one, though.
b. I’m not much of an egg eater, but if you’re giving those “range eggs” away for “free”, I’ll take a few.
c. What’s the most scoops anyone has eaten at one time this year? I’ll have one more than that.
d. “I’m the humblest man in the world!” I might have actually said that once or twice.
e. There are 3 kinds of drivers when it comes to runners and bikers: the first go out of their way to keep things safe; the second (blessedly small, but it only takes one) are hostile and willing to endanger us; the third are so busy texting or talking on their phone they don’t notice either way.
Quips I did use in 2014: to some extent, you had to be there…..
a. “I dress for the weather I want, not the weather I have.” Uttered at the first tee, temperature 52F, wearing short sleeved shirt and shorts in April (it got warm quickly and I was fine).
b. “It has a little bit of this, a little bit of that. Eh, it doesn’t really matter, they can always randomly change it.” In response to a co-worker’s mispronouncing “arboretum” as “arbitrarium”
Food Innovations that haven’t caught on (yet):
1. Steamed grapes, 2. Poached Python, 3. Freshly Thrown Tomatoes, 4. Curried Calf Calves, 5. Death by Gluten Cake, 6. Organic Spam, 7. Wilted Meat Loaf, 8. Alaskan King Roach Legs, 9. Whale Oiled Kale, 10. Sun dried Mountain Oysters
Most Annoying Images/Memories of 2014
10. Snap hook into the trees (various holes), 9. Guy juggling while running beating me for the first 10 miles of half marathon (I finally got past him), 8. Hundreds of prescription refills in my Philipsburg inbox, 7. Augusta National choosing a war criminal as its first female member, 6. Thousands (?) of returning American citizens in line at immigration in San Francisco airport, 5. Tripping and falling hard in the last mile of my first half marathon of the year, 4. People staring at their phones, 3. Ebola hype, 2. Running in the dark. 1. People staring at their phones at the gym sitting on equipment I want to use (would easily be all ten if I let it).
Music in 2014:
LIVE: REM “Live at the Olympia” Recorded in 2007, it has rousing versions of some of their oldest songs (still the best music to dance to). Bob Mould “Live at ATP 2008”; Against Me “Americans Abroad” – punk-ish. NEW BANDS: Surfer Blood “Pythons” – check out “Demon Dance” and “Phantom Limb”; Against Me “Trangender Dysphoria Blues” – groundbreaking song cycle about the singer/guitarist’s struggle with his/her gender identity. “***KMYLIFE666” and “Paralytic States” are worthy; Satellite “Calling Birds”; Liam Bailey “Definitely Now”; Twin Peaks “Wild Onion” OLD FAVES: Stephen Malkmus “Wig Out at Jagbags”; Roddy Woomble “Listen to Keep”; The Fratellis “We Need Medicine”; Bob Mould “Beauty and Ruin”; The Pixies “EP2”; Van Wagner “Fringe”; Damien Rice “My Favorite Faded Fantasy”
On turning 50: I am in spectacular health for my age, but still, being 50 has had me thinking, like so many others, about how much time I have left, what I want to do with that time, and what might do me in. I definitely feel the finiteness of my existence, and though aging has affected my abilities in obvious ways to me, I feel like this may be the best I’m going to be. I am not as strong or as smart as I was, but I am wiser, have a lot more money, and retain an enormous amount of energy, endurance, self-confidence, and self-discipline. I am functioning on a daily basis much closer to my limits (though still not very close to them). My motto, at least to myself, the past years has been, “My life is not about me.” I’d have to say it is about me more now than I would like; I have not been able to find an outlet for my penchant to help others much beyond giving money away the past few years and being a caring and attentive physician when I work. It is very interesting to be at this point in life when I didn’t think I would last this long. I hope the world will eventually be better for having me around even though, like the billions before me, I will be dust soon enough.
A young man with whom I worked told me he was rewarding himself amidst a busy day with a McDonalds milkshake. It prompted me to wonder why we so often “reward” ourselves with things that are bad for us: getting really drunk after a promotion or a victory, going out late, eating something unhealthy, etc. Instead, we should resist all the propaganda and simply go to bed early to give our stressed bodies the rest they need and stay away from crappy food – the Terry O’Rourke celebration.
BOOKS 2014: FUNNY: Coyote V. Acme and Dating Your Mom by Ian Frazier; One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories by B. J. Novak THOUGHT-PROVOKING: Lost at Sea: The Jon Ronson Mysteries by Jon Ronson (the English journalist takes on an eclectic assortment of overlooked outrages); The Story of America: Essays on Origins by Jill LePore (the solid gold New Yorker writer’s essays on early America in all their amusing glory); 1491 (Second Edition): New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles Mann (A treasure. Our predecessors on this continent were hardly primitive); OUTRAGES: Children of the Poor Clares: The Collusion Between Church and State that Betrayed Thousands of Children in Ireland’s Industrial Schools by Heather Laskey and Mavis Arnold (how Church run schools/orphanages used state support to mistreat and exploit desperate and needy children); Meatonomics: How the Rigged Economics of Meat and Dairy Make You Consume Too Much by David Robinson Simon (Your worst fears of Industrial Food Production realized – it is destroying everything in its path, thousands of meat eaters at a time, with tenacious government support); Dirty Wars: The World is a Battlefield by Jeremy Scahill (the secret U.S. military actions causing tremendous disruptions in the most fragile societies all over the world – see the much shorter movie of the same name for a quick mind blowing). CHARMING: Jeanne D’Arc: Her Life and Death by Mrs. Margaret Oliphant (a delightful retelling of the life of the (2nd?) greatest person who ever lived – my second biography of Joan); Escape Velocity - all the writing of the legendary humorist and reporter Charles Portis the editor could find, from his no-nonsense reporting at the frontlines of the civil rights movement to his droll travel writings and everything in between. I also reread Norwood and Masters of Atlantis by Mr. Portis while working in Philipsburg, two of the funniest novels written in the past century; Break it Down: Stories by Lydia Davis (one of the most original stylists of our time).
Odds and Ends: On one trip from Philipsburg to Danville, with a helping wind, I got 57.6mpg in my clean diesel Jetta (driving only 68mph). I have now prayed a rosary every day for over 8 years. I have health insurance for the first time since my air force days – a minimalist policy I didn’t use at all and bought at healthcare.gov. I still don’t need reading glasses. A reminder to check out the Terence O’Rourke channel on youtube – especially after I return from Patagonia.
Thank yous: as always to Terence and Sandra O’ for letting me stay with them, doing my laundry at times, handling my mail, feeding me, and especially for almost never making meals with meat the last three months (she made some really good things); Greg and Kathy Wright for their high Terry Tolerance and good attitudes; The B-Gs for their ready hospitality; the Wakely’s for all they did to make my visit nice and their ego-boosting emails; Candace, for helping when I took my mom to Pittsburgh and being motivated to try some new things; the Ricottas for feeding me (pesto!), Kelly and Mike for including me, and Aunt Sheila and Uncle Mike for pre-trip lodging. I can’t live my unusual life without your help.
I hope you have a wonderful holiday season and an even better 2015!
Terry O’Rourke, tlojrmd@gmail.com, 570-238-2084