“I’m a writer and I look after our little house here in this coastal rural village while my wife works and supports me.
“What I do is to write and speak and I also help other people by reading what they have written and help them improve it. The really curious might ask “What do you write and speak about?” To a nine-year-old I would reply by saying something like “Social things.” That would be a platform for answering any further questions. I could probably also say that I have spent many years teaching in the university and these days I am living quietly in order to do more reading and writing. I might say that I write books.”
Writing and composition is what I have done from a very early age. Even before primary school I was writing and reading and, later, during school years that expanded to summarizing, composing, editing, and debating. Later on, when I became a university lecturer and was viewed as a professional thinker—a theorist—I learned to enjoy the same kind of laborious work.
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A model praised for its humility and moral seriousness often casts a long shadow.
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