Blogiversary Alphabet: K is for Keepin' On...

I dedicate today's post to the man behind my tag phrase and motto, Seth Gilkerson. And the tag phrase is "Keep on keepin' on..."

Keep On Keepin' On...

Several years ago I had the pleasure of meeting Seth Gilkerson. I was working for a few elderly folks, helping them cook and clean while visiting them. Seth was one of those individuals. He has since passed on. But I still think of him.

Seth was absolutely amazing. Married to a sweetheart who had already died by the time I met him. They have one daughter. Seth was in the military, a biologist, a teacher, a farmer, and of course a writer.

He told me some of the best stories. Of times from when he visited the great pyramids. Of times when a herd of sheep stopped the traffic on an old dirt road in Egypt. He wrote country songs and mailed them off to Tennessee to have them recorded for his own personal pleasure.

He designed his own home in western North Carolina to be energy efficient by utilizing the heat of the sun by strategically placing windows in the most optimal locations. I only sat with this man because he broke his foot while working on his back deck, in his eighties! And I'm so glad I had the opportunity to meet him. The pleasure was all mine. He was always my favorite - of all the folks I sat with that summer.

Seth always said, "Keep on keepin' on." No matter what you do in life, don't give up. Don't become lazy. Keep caring. Keep working. Keep on keepin' on!!!

"The urge to write is a gravity of the mind.  It pulls at you until you make some sense of your thoughts, and then try to put them on paper in logical and sensible combinations.  Sometimes the process begins in frustration and ends in ecstasy.  Other times it begins in ecstasy and rapidly tumbles into despair.  For me, this gravity is as essential for writing as is the gravity which brings the rains."

That I know of, he wrote and published four books. Two books of short stories, and two novels. Three of which I was privileged to receive a copy.

1. Fingerprints and Other Stories. Hicksville, NY: Exposition Press, 1979.
2. Wait For Me and Other Stories. Aurora, CO: National Writers Press, 1982.
3. That Bastard War. Great Neck, NY: Todd & Honeywell, 1986.
4. Rose and Charlie. Watermark Press, 1989.

Short Bio: as quoted from UNCA: "Seth Gilkerson was born in 1907 in West Virginia. By the time he began writing fiction, he was well into his retirement and had had enough jobs to fill several lifetimes. Gilkerson had been a farmer, coal miner, country school teacher, captain in the Army, college professor, clinical microbiologist, and a researcher in the fields of tuberculosis and lung cancer immunodiagnosis. The last of this work took Gilkerson to Asheville, North Carolina, where he published several papers on his research."

Who inspires you? Share in the comments below!

Keep on keepin' on...

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