I have this tendency to choose books or stories by reading the first line. If they are provocative or well written, I’m in. If the author fails to intrigue me in the first few words of the story about to be presented, I usually move on. They don’t have to be long or filled with a lot of detail.
“Call me Ishmael”
It’s more than enough to make me believe I want to board the Peaquod.
I’ve been told to give books a chance…and there have been many I had, against my better judgement, and liked. But I still am going to be captured more by a first line than a recommendation or review.
“There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it” - Gotta know more about this kid.
“Elmer Gantry was drunk” - I’m coming to the tent meeting
“It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn't know what I was doing in New York.” - Shiver.
Your first glimpse of beauty is enough to make you believe.
One winter I was in Ft. Lauderdale when I met a homeless man. The weather was perfect and we sat on a stone wall and ate a slice of pizza and watched the girls go by. We had a great time hanging out when his questions revealed that I had flown from New York City to join him on this wall on the edge of paradise. “New York City? That’s where I’m from! Born and raised in Brooklyn?”. We chatted for a while about New York and how amazing of a city it really is and both of us realizing how much different the weather was there. “That’s why I came here.” He told me. I was intrigued as to how a homeless man from New York ended up on a beach in Florida. So I asked.
“I was here when I was a boy and I remembered it…so I just started walking”.
I decided that I had just met the smartest homeless man who ever lived.
New York had it’s share of homeless who in that moment were just trying to survive. This man saw something beautiful and believed that the journey…no matter how difficult…was worth trying. He knew that there was a possibility that he wouldn’t make it…that he would die along the way…but the man had seen Ft. Lauderdale…it made his feet move.
His first glimpse of beauty made him a man who believed.
So much of life is enough to make a man doubt. There is enough chaos and confusion to spin one around and make you stay in the winter. Nights can be long and lonely and there seldom seems like there is enough of…well, anything. Some might even say I’m a fool to even try.
However, I’ve seen beauty…I’ve read the first line. I believe. I can’t unsee it. You’ll find me somewhere on I-95.
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