My father, DeWitt Gilmore Jr, was a true inspiration to me. Despite being an amputee – he lost his leg in a baseball accident in 1948 – he never let his disability hold him back from achieving his goals. In fact, in 1950, just two years after the accident, according to the local newspaper, my dad was back on the pitcher's mound, “mowing down” batters for White Plains High with the help of a prosthesis/his replacement leg. And while he won the game for the team, the article in this post doesn’t mention his mighty challenge, how he was playing with one leg. The writer was so busy being creative & eloquent (and razor-sharp) in a Mark Twain kind of way, that the great achievement underlying it all was lost. Almost (heh-heh). But over 70 years later my sister Julie Norris dug up an old newspaper article at the White Plains library in the midst of the pandemic, and this article tells it all. I had an awakening moment when surgically reading thru the aged document, come to find out that the article was written two years AFTER his accident. That is, AFTER he lost his leg. For us, that was so monumental, the realisation that dad recuperated, and was still able to win the baseball field with his high school team. Yeah hold that, slacker! Procrastinator. Or as my dad used to say “stick that in your pipe and smoke it!”So, at 4am i’m taking a break from my Creative momentum, not to throw my DNA in your face, but to ask  this question: what have you given up on? What is the big tragedy in your life that stops you? What sorts of excuses have you leaned on to comfort your denial; excuses, that have stopped you from whatever the goal is or was?
STOP IT WITH THE EXCUSES!
Me. Gilmore has spoken.
https://www.scribd.com/document/634846223/White-Plains-Defeats-Authors-DAD-s-Article-RE-DeWitt-GIlmore
Living in the modern world comes with a unique set of challenges and pressures. From the constant need to be connected to the world through technology to the ever-increasing demand for productivity and success, it can often feel like we are stuck in a never-ending rat race. For many men, this can be overwhelming, leading them to consider giving up on the conventional way of life and embracing a simpler, more minimalist existence.
The East Coast of the United States now had no borders or state lines. Instead of pieces of a pie, the entire coast appears to be one big old barren, ruined city. And the only sound we hear now is the wind howling through the streets and deserted buildings, the only structures that remain after the solar meltdown. I hate to say it, but the Sun, the single most important asset to life on Earth… The Sun was to blame for all the death and destruction, and the few of us who survived knew it to be “God’s Will” instead of a calamity or a natural disaster. I guess that’s just our way of coping with it all. But today, the sun is friendly and manageable, even if it's so scorching hot as it blazes down on the cracked pavement where we stand. It's both weird and Godly all at once, how it shimmers across the atmosphere in a kind of heated haze that makes it hard to see. Amidst the rubble, Dalia and I are simply two figures trudging forward, with our faces hidden behind gas masks.
Here in Georgia, yet another ruined landscape, we found some protection under a bridge, an overpass that appears to be as deserted as its surroundings. But we won’t make the mistake of relaxing our own security measures. Naturally, if anyone reads this in the future, you’ve already seen our past run-ins. So you know what’s possible. And so we stand strong and stay vigilant. For now, this is our hidden bunker that blocks the unreasonable and extremely scorching sunlight. Yes, we’re tired, but we will continue to be blessed, to restore, and to remain resilient. We’ll use our natural skills and ingenuity to overcome every obstacle. I hope I have the discipline to write many more of these entries, how it feels like I’m documenting the beginning of a new world. I mean, I hope it's not. I hope there's life out there on the West Coast and beyond. But there’s no tellin. I just feel that this should be a running document, and I get to be the reporter. This is life as we know it; nothing in the past matters. No more Internet, no more cellphones or TV. No more fancy cars or planes. You gotta walk, just like I gotta walk. So the playing field is somewhat even. Except for those who have taken it upon themselves to be authority figures. And I get it, some people were just born to be important, to be in the front holding the flag. But for Dalia and I, we’re loving the real things, like how the sun is bathing the city with its warm glow of light instead of the meltdown that nearly annihilated so many of us. But this nourishing sunlight feels normal to us when there’s nothing normal about this place looking like a ghost town. And if we can have many more days like today, I’m content with what it is, and the journey will be worth it. FULL-STOP
But it’s not just me! When we look at ants, we see a reflection of the values that we as humans hold dear. Ants work diligently and tirelessly, never giving up despite the challenges that they face. They have an amazing ability to work as a team and help each other reach the same goal. In fact, working as a team is so important to ants that they have developed different jobs and ways to talk to each other to make sure they are all working together well.