This is a very hard letter to write. The decision that led to it has been
many weeks in the making so please understand that I do not do this lightly,
nor in haste.
I will not be able to actively participate on the FML for an unknown period
of time. I must also suspend publication of the PML for a similar period;
and -this hurts the most- I will be unable to respond to many of the
wonderful letters that you are kind enough to send us. I will, however,
continue to correspond with a few folks with whom I have developed a special
relationship. I cannot forget those with whom I have formed a deep and
close bond nor those who have a special need of what I humbly offer them.
The reasons I make this decision are many. Before I go into them, I will
briefly descibe the history of Paw Paw on the FML, in case some of you new
folks are wondering who the heck I am and why I am writing this.
Last September, Tater came to live with Mee Maw and me. Shortly thereafter,
we subscibed to the Net and discovered this wonderful list. I jumped right
in and began sharing Tater's adventures as well as my own special brand of
craziness and views of how the world ought to be.
To my utter amazement, folks started writing back to me. I kept writing
more letters and even more folks wrote to me. To make a very long story as
short as possible, I received almost 200 letters in one 3 day period. 99
and 44/100 percent of them were nice letters. There were a few 'flames' but
I quickly got over them and learned to ingore them, with the help of so many
friends.
In an attempt to keep up with all of this nice mail, I started the PML - The
Paw Paw and Tater Mailing list. This eventually became the Paw Paw, Tater
and Odie mailing list because 'ferret math' done struck at my house. Enough
background - on to the WHY of my decision.
I make my living as an electrician. (Iv'e done other things including being
a minister and being an announcer on a classical radio station.) Electrical
work is something that I dearly love to do. I'm pretty good at it and it
has been very kind to me for many years. It is, however, a very physically
demanding job. No, I'm not a Union man - I work for a living.
I am now much closer to retirement age than I would care to be. My body is
starting to tell me that I cannot continue to do the things I am used to
doing. With this in mind, I have turned to something that has always
brought me great pleasure - the writing of stories and poems. It is in this
direction that I am now directing my energies. Heck, I'm even good at it.
The reason I am retiring from active particiapation on the FML is that I
have have become so caught up in its good spirit and many friends that I
have been neglecting my writing, with which I hope to support Mee Maw,
Tater, Odie and myself in years to come. I'm an old fashioned fert and feel
that I owe a personal reply to everyone who writes a nice letter to me. The
end result has been that I spend all of my free time trying to keep up with
the FML, PML and personal letters. I started a story at the beginning of
January and have not written a single word of it since. This is not a good
thing since I hope to keep us out of the poorhouse with my writing when the
ol' body is too tired to do 'lectric work for 10-12 hours a day.
It is for this reason that I must go away for a time. I will miss each and
every one of you. I will continue to read and enjoy the FML every day and
care about evreything that happens to you and your 'special gifts from God'.
I suppose that, in Internet terms, I shall be a 'Lurker' for a time. I
shall 'Delurk' as soon as I can.
Thank you for all the love and kind thoughts you have sent this way. They
will not be forgotten. I SHALL return - let that be a warning to you.
With much love and humble thanks. I remain, your silent friend,
Paw Paw (Michael J. Schieman - coming soon to a bookstore near you)
[Moderator's note: I think many of us will really miss your wonderful
stories. But a warning to you too: We'll be waiting! BIG]
[Posted in FML issue 1541]
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