A resolution to keep on writing, even if I do get rejected a lot.

                                                      By Dave Hamby

              I just came from a great Rotary meeting. Our guest speaker was a well dressed, well spoken young man (in his thirties) who has enjoyed a lot of successes in his life, but came to us to talk about a recent kidney transplant he had undergone.  

             Unlike so many speakers in the civic club circuit he wasn’t trying to sell us anything, wasn’t looking for an endorsement, didn’t need volunteers or money for some great cause he was promoting, he just wanted to share his life experience and pass on a little wisdom he had gleaned through his worrisome and challenging ordeal.

              The wisdom he shared is common and well known, you know, get your priorities straight, get in touch with what’s really important ,hug your kids a lot, live today as though it might be your last day on earth,(cause it just might be,) always look on the bright side of things, be positive.  The same stuff you hear from folks who have survived life changing ordeals and are now out doing the motivational speaking thing that so many folks do and even more folks listen to.  Still, its stuff I needed to hear again.

              When he told us about how his brother gave up one of his kidneys so he could live, I had to start thinking, “Would I do that?”  

              I’m reasonably certain I would, even though my brother smokes and drinks a lot and doesn’t seem to be real interested in living a long and healthy life.  I’d have to put some kind of conditions on my gift though, like if he dies from all of his unhealthy living I’d get my kidney back.  I know you can live a full life with only one kidney, but the idea of having a spare in stock really appeals to me.

               I’m also reasonably certain that if I needed a kidney my brother would share one of his with me.  I’d wonder how good it would be with all the booze it’s processed throughout his lifetime.  I’d probably have a hangover for a month after the transplant.

              Our speaker told us about how ordinarily a person would have to wait for as much as four years for an acceptable donor organ and we all concurred that being an organ donor would be a good thing.  One of the folks in our club wondered out loud how this wait could be so long, considering all the middle age men riding around on motorcycles now, many without helmets.  Another fellow came up with a new word, “donorcycles.”

             The other thing our speaker talked about was doing that in life that is enjoyable and fulfilling.  I’m at a junction in my life and I really needed to hear what he had to say.  

              I really enjoy writing and would like very much to be able to do this for a living.   The problem is that it’s hard to make a decent living as a writer.  With two kids about to go to college and hopefully a decent retirement in my future, I need to earn something substantial in the way of an income.

              To that end I’ve been soliciting other newspapers to pick me up as a columnist and syndicate this column.  

               So far I’ve approached over eighty newspapers in Texas and have received only four responses.   All of these responses were, “No thanks!”   I’m thinking all of the rest chose not to respond in order to spare my feelings

               All of this rejection has had an effect on my ego.  Looking on the positive side, at least I’ve got one editor who doesn’t reject me.  I really appreciate that. I do have to quit hugging Andy every time I see him or else he may change his mind.

               Not to be deterred I decided to see if there were other avenues for me to try.   I went to one of the local bookstores to do a little research on what magazines I could solicit for my writing.  I figure if I’m going to get rejected it’s a lot better to be rejected by a big city magazine than a small town newspaper.

               I ran into a small problem when I got to the magazine stand.  There’s a bunch of different magazines out there.  There are magazines for auto enthusiasts, computer nerds, photography nuts, and motorcycle magazines for future organ donors.  There are even magazines for aspiring writers.  Most of the men’s magazines are pictorial in nature, if you know what I mean, and those that aren’t are fitness magazines.  You have to buy the pictorial kind before you can browse through them because they’re wrapped in plastic.  Outside of the letters to the editor, I’m going to assume there are not many humorous stories in those magazines.  

                Scanning through a few of the other magazines I didn’t find much in the way of humor, which may or may not be a bad thing.  Maybe I can write for a women’s magazine. That would be one way I could get my wife and daughters to read my stuff.

                Thanks to this mornings speaker I have a new resolve to keep on trying.  If I’m not successful in my writing endeavors it’ll not be for a lack of effort.  It may be because of a dearth of humor or things to write about, but it won’t be because I didn’t try.

                Incredibly right after this column ran the aforementioned editor resigned and moved to Virginia.   So far my new editor hasn’t fired me, but he won’t let me hug him either.   I’ve had a little luck in the magazine area, but I sure could use a little more.   If you’re a publisher or an editor please drop me a line.   I promise I won’t start blubbering out of gratitude.

This article originally appeared in the Round Rock Leader.