Dear LPG,

When I finally retired from work, I felt that I needed to take a look at the many things that I could choose as future past-times and pinpoint a few to pursue, but there was a fundamental choice about how I would use my future resources. Would I use my brawn doing physically hard work or my brain while reserving my bodily strength?  Perhaps because my career never included it, I have always wanted to do literary work and so I chose the latter, and now I nearly feel like an accomplished writer.

 I have written many articles during a decade or more of retirement, some of which have been included in newspapers, magazines, and online, with some being featured on the pages of LPG. Feeling the need to always be moving forward with my work, I now find myself with a new challenge, a play which I am scripting.

Having made writing my post-retirement mission, I can count my written words in millions, and I am still enjoying my writing.  I sometimes feel that the downside to all this is that not many people know about my achievements, so while I know that my writings are read, I have no idea of how the pieces are judged and that is what I would like to happen.  I am still hoping that it will happen because acknowledgement of my achievement would make me a happy and contented man.

This is how I felt until recently when, I had a conversation about all this with a friend who pointed out that there are many writers who never lived to become famous, but whose work becomes appreciated after they are around to see the effect that their work had on the world.  During that conversation it was also pointed out that if only one person appreciates or takes notice of something you have written, it is worth writing.

My point is that it does not really matter what you have chosen to do with your life, it may well be that the significance might be greatly valued when it is too late for you to appreciate that you are appreciated. You don’t have to be there to be famous.

Rudy Morgan

LPG, taking Rudy’s chosen past-time onboard, shares a couple of the  many lists of authors who really became famous posthumously.

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