January 19: Poetry to Write, Classic Saint Marty, New Cartoon

I have some pleasant work to do tonight.  After I'm done with this post, I'm going to write in my journal for a couple of hours.  Poetry journaling exercises.  I don't usually have an excuse to simply sit and write.  Tonight, I do.  I'm preparing for the poetry workshop I'm teaching tomorrow night.

I hope I don't get too tired.  I spent the weekend cleaning for money, one house yesterday and one today.  I'm a little sore at the moment, but that's about all.  I'm thinking about having some special hot chocolate tonight.  Bailey's Irish Cream and warm cocoa.  It might get my creative juices flowing, or it might put me right to sleep.  It's a chance I'm willing to take.

I do have a Classic Saint Marty for you guys this evening, from the very first year of the blog.  This episode first aired on October 7, 2010.  It's sort of about disappointment, but mostly it's about unexpected blessings.  And the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Enjoy.  Saint Marty has to go mix up some inspiration for himself now.

October 7, 2010:  Our Lady of the Rosary

And the winner of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature was...

Not me.

It wasn't the unpronounceable African writer.  It wasn't even Cormac McCarthy, the writer who wouldn't have pissed me off if he had won.  In fact, I might have even been able to work up a little happiness this morning if McCarthy took home the big kahuna.

The winner is.....NOT YOU!!!!!!!!

As I sat at my computer at 6:45 a.m., watching the webcast from the Swedish Academy in Stockholm, I experienced a kind of excitement I used to feel on my birthdays and Christmases as a child.  Now, I knew I didn't stand a snowball's chance in Fiji of winning.  Don't think I'm some kind of delusional egomaniac.  I'm not delusional.  I just was excited.  I can be excited without being mentally unstable. 

Any way, the commentator on the webcast was saying, "And, in about five minutes' time, the Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy, Peter Englund, will walk through those doors into the Great Hall to announce the winner of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature."  I was sucking down my Diet Mountain Dew.  Then the commentator said, "Right now, the Permanent Secretary is calling the winner to congratulate him or her on being selected."

And the phone on my desk rang.

October 7 is the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.  It originated  around 1571 as a celebration of a "naval victory over the Turks" by Don Juan of Austria.  Don Juan credited his success to the recitation of the rosary.  In 1716, Emperor Charles VI again defeated the Turks in battle, and Pope Clement XI extended the feast to the entire church.  Finally, in 1961, the day officially became known as the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.  It's a day celebrating the power of prayer, of victory due to divine intervention.

Now my rational mind knew my ringing phone was pure coincidence, but the six-year-old-kid-on-Christmas-morning side of me thought, "IwonIwonIwonIwonIwonIwonIwonIwonIwonIwon!!!!!!"  For several seconds, I had a disconnect from reality as I reached for the phone.

I cleared my throat, picked up the receiver, and said, "Hello, this is Marty."

There was a pause.  Was that long distance static I heard?  Then a voice said, "Hi, daddy."

Five minutes later, Peter Englund entered the Great Hall and announced the Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa had won the Nobel Prize.

My miracle was the conversation I had with my beautiful, nine-year-old daughter.

There's always next year.

Confessions of Saint Marty