Not a review
In December of 1941 Ernest Hemingway outfitted his boat the Pilar into a Q-boat1. He then went out on patrol for German U-boats. Not only did he patrol the seas around Cuba (remember this is before the Cuban Missile Crisis2) he created a counterintelligence unit headquartered in his guesthouse to surveil Falangists3 and Nazi sympathizers. At this time in his life Hemingway was in his 40’s and probably starting to suffer from the depression that eventually caused him to end his life. I am not a Hemingway scholar nor do I claim to be a scholar of anything but this is fascinating to say the least.
This leads to me to wonder what other famous historical figures were doing during major historical events. Like did George Washington lead rebels across the Delaware during the American Revolution? Was Abraham Lincoln planning military strategy with Grant during the Civil War? Was F. Scott Fitzgerald friends with Hemingway while they were both in Europe during the 1920’s? So many questions we can’t answer about the past but maybe we should.
History is a weird thing in that it is static and cannot change yet we continue to discover new and interesting things about what happened all the time. Some history is well documented, such as the not-hypotheticals I mentioned above. While some history is lost to time. Things like the Diary of Anne Frank are important not only because they show the world the scary parts of history but they show us ordinary lives. I mean as ordinary as a life can be when hiding from Nazi’s so your whole family won’t be taken away and murdered. Yet still an ordinary person doing ordinary stuff. We spend so much time in history class talking about the crossings of Delaware rivers that we don’t spend enough time talking about the ordinary people of the time. I think that is why we have so much desire by people to “make a name for themselves”, to “leave your mark on the world” and all those high ideals.
A majority of the world is just ordinary people doing ordinary things. I saw someone on Twitter during Covid-19 post about what people did during other major world changing events. Come to find out they just went about their days just like we do. Journals from the middle ages as well as other times of non-notable figures shows people just existing. Not to say that people should not do fantastical things if they are able to but perhaps it is okay if the opportunity never comes.
Every person is unique and important for something. Unfortunately some of us will only be important and unique to a small handful of people. Most of us will never say something profound and deep that gets repeated for generations. We might say something profound and deep that gets repeated by our family or our friends for a generation.
I will probably never write the Great American Novel but I can write things down for myself and maybe the few of you who read these. I called this The Old Man and the Sea because I started talking about an old man at sea who wrote a book called The Old Man and the Sea. Hemingway I am not. I am not Fitzgerald writing a book that will be taught in high schools across America for generations. I am not Tolkien, creating a language and mythology so deep they have classes about it at Oxford. I will not be those things, maybe I will have a weird shift in my abilities and knowledge later in life and will write one great and perfect novel like Harper Lee but that is unlikely.
Am I trying to sell myself short? No I am just accepting that life can be fulfilling even if I am not making a giant impact on the whole world. My life is not insignificant in that I am important to the people in my life and those I help through work and my daily life. I am insignificant when it comes to massive global change. Does that stop me from voting, recycling, or reducing my waste? No because I do have an impact just not monumental and that is okay.
Some actor or famous person was once asked how much work went into getting to where they are and they had a response that seemed important. I don’t remember the exact words so I will paraphrase what I remember. They said that it was like 10-15% hard work and all the rest of it was luck. Luck and random chance can be the deciding factor in a lot of things. This can be seen when a movie comes out and it does poorly at the box office but years later people start to find it and it takes on a sort of after life. It is seen as “before it’s time” or “too smart”. Luck and timing have a lot to do with people “making it”. Yes they work hard but you can work hard your whole life and be the best at whatever it is you do and never get recognized because luck and timing were not in your favor.
Another thing said by another famous person that resonates is Keanu Reeves was asked, “what happens when we die?” and his response was, “I don’t know what happens when we die but I do know the people we love miss us.” Which is true. There are people who love us and they will miss us when we are gone. So whether you are Keanu Reeves effortlessly being a kind human. Or Hemingway mounting 1-man operating against fascists. Or Fitzgerald writing THE great American novel. We all have importance to someone. For me it is my family and my friends. For you it may be the same, or your cat, or your coworkers, or you may be the next Hemingway or Fitzgerald and will have millions of people who miss you when you are gone.
Just remember the words of Bill S. Preston, Esq. and Ted “Theodore” Logan, “Be excellent to each other and party on, dudes!”
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q-ship ↩︎
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Missile_Crisis ↩︎
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falangism ↩︎
The Fresh Persepctive 