Alex From Ann Arbor

October 23, 2016

When I was in 7, my Mom bought me "The Big Orange Splot" and read it with me. I discovered the concept of what it meant to be unique and that accepting that people's differences should embraced. It sparked in me my lifelong identity as a dreamer and introduced me to creativity, I loved it.

When I was 10, my Mom bought me your "5 Novels" book and my personal favorite, "Borgel". She would read them with me at night. Whether it was Borgel, The Last Guru, Alan Meldenson etc…the thing I remember most fondly is that we enjoyed them and laughed together. We bonded over our newly discovered weird sense of humor. I loved it.

Many years later when she was losing her battle with cancer, I read to her. I read "The Big Orange Splot" and "Time of Wonder" by Robert McClousky, two of our favorites. Despite that depressingly heartbreaking situation, reading those books to her brought comfort and an odd sense of serenity to my father, my sister and I. I appreciate your role in that sir.

I suppose the purpose of this is to just say thank you. Thank you Daniel for helping to form my earliest understanding of creativity. Thank you for teaching me about acceptance of the strange. Thank you for being a weirdo (I mean that in the best possible way). Most of all thank you for facilitating some of the best, most fun times my Mom and I ever shared together. I loved them all.

I'm 28 now. I'm sitting here in a comfy chair on a rainy Sunday afternoon drinking a cold beer and listening to your reading of "Borgel". It makes me smile, it reminds me of happy memories. I feel good. I am content.

I owe this moment to you, i figured the least I could do was let you know about it.

Thank you.

I've written a lot of things over quite a few years, and this is not the first time I've been told similar things.  What always strikes me is that the whole creative undertaking isn't complete until the thing is read, and it's the reader who makes it whatever it is, and makes it worth whatever it's worth.  So, while I accept the honor of what you've conveyed, please accept my thanks for taking some stories I put together mostly for my own amusement, and giving them real value in your life.