Hemingway

  “Hemingway” is the new PBS series by Ken Burns.  It is nice to know that I have so much in common with the great man; not that I could begin to compare my writing skills with the author but because we share some of the same attributes.  For example, he liked to be at his desk to write before 5:00 am while the air was still cool, and he could watch the sun come up.  Once he was finished working, he would start to drink, sometimes as early as 10:00 am.  Hemingway had his favorite bar, whether his was living in Havana or Key West, and when he wasn’t drinking at a dive bar then he would get loaded on his boat, the “Pilar.”

   Hemingway believed that an author must experience life in order to write about it.  His books, whether non-fiction or novels, were about his personal experiences.  For example, “A Farewell to Arms” is the story of an ambulance driver in WWI.  “For Whom the Bell Tolls” is about the Spanish Civil War and, even though Hemingway didn’t actively fight in the war, he was in Spain to see the devastation.  “The Old Man and the Sea” witnesses a fishing expedition and “The Sun Also Rises” is about bull fighting, which he never participated in but did go to watch.  “A Movable Feast” chronicles his experiences as an expat in Paris after WWI and, finally, “The Green Hills of Africa” summarizes his safari excursions.  Similarly, I have written three books about my experiences with triathlon, traveling, and growing up in Louisville.

   Even after he became a world-famous writer, Hemingway had difficulty supporting his exorbitant lifestyle.  To solve his financial problems, Hemingway married money.  It was the only way that he could afford his big house in Havana and Key West and to staff his private fishing boat.  While my wife and I aren’t rich, we’ve inherited money from both of our parents and can retire into our expensive condo.  The difference between Hemingway and me is that I have managed to stay married.  One of the best quotes from the miniseries is, “good fortune is as light as a feather but very few are strong enough to carry it.”  Unlike Hemingway, I am strong enough and intend on holding onto my good fortune with both hands.

   Hemingway's final act was to commit suicide, just as his father had done twenty years before.  He moved to the middle of nowhere, away from his fans and the sea that he loved so much, and took pout a gun to pull the trigger.  This is where Hemingway and I part ways as sometimes I have dark moods but I have never reached that level of despair.  Why would he do such an awful thing?  He was a complicated man, and for much of his life, he was a great man.  Of course he was vane. An author has to be vane if he is going to believe that the public would be interested in reading his work.  Maybe he couldn't stand the thought of being second rate as he watched his abilities leave him.  Maybe alcohol could no longer help him to escape the "black dog" of depression, as Lincoln called it.  I think that he was tired of being Ernest Hemingway and that his final act had to come to self-destruction, much in the same way that it came to Elvis and Prince and Michael Jackson.