Death, Please Leave!

“Death, please leave.”

  

   I mean, get the Hell out of here.  I have too much to do right now and going forward.  And don’t come back for a long time.  I am healthy, I exercise, I work a full-time job, all of this during the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, which has tried to destroy our health as a society and our way of life.  Go away.  Go elsewhere.  Go wave your hand over a drug dealer or a mobster or a terrorist or any other bad person.  I am good, leave me the f--k alone.

   To quote the good Laurence Sterne, whom Death took in 1768, he said that he had “forty volumes to write and forty thousand things to say and do, which nobody in the world will say or do for me, except for myself…”  Dear God, help get this black-cloaked hoodlum away from me.  I want no part of him. This is not a debate.  Send him down the road, to look for and find a lesser person, less likely to embrace life as I do.  I want to live longer, say, 30 years and seven weeks, that’ll get me to 90.  God, thank you in advance, for your help.

   The number 40,000 resonates with me on a grand scale.  I have been writing a book about the Revolutionary War in Long Island City, N.Y. (1776-1783) for two and one half years now.  I’ve missed a few deadlines already, yet, there is light at the end of the tunnel.  When I signed the book contract in November of 2017, I grossly, if not flagrantly, underestimated the work that needed to be done.  If I say so myself, I am highly motivated to see this book project through, yet it is figuratively kicking the crap out of me.  Every freakin’ day I carry this information around, on my portable hard drive, working on it at home, when I can, and at work, when I can.  Job efficiency comes first as I really need to remain employed.  My job is not terrifically demanding, yet I am the main overnight security element for a luxury high-rise building in New York City.  As much as I would love to set up a home office and research center in my building lobby, I cannot.

   Forty thousand.  Forty thousand words is what I must provide and present to my book editor in the very near future.  Additionally, I have to provide 120 images, with all usage rights secured, accompanied by 120 captions.  This labor of love is truly a labor of love, yet at times I hardly like it. 

   To the dismay of my lovely wife, and family and friends, my love of history is sometimes (oftentimes) off-putting.  People, while trying to be polite, may think to themselves, “When is he going to shut the heck up? (while maintaining their clenched-teeth smile).  One quick story…those are words that I can seldom (never) adhere to.  I have done many exciting and fun and cool things in my life, to include visiting the Pyramids, Red Square in Moscow, East Berlin, hiked the Scottish Highlands, skied in the Canadian Rockies, jogged 10 miles in Hawaii, jumped out of perfectly good airplanes, snorkeled, parasailed, and met a few ladies along the way. Whew.  I have many stories, but this doesn’t necessarily mean that people want to hear those stories.  People have often thought towards me, “Please stop talking.”

     40,000 words.  How hard can that be?  Mr. Death, here is my reason for you to leave me be. Leave me as the living, breathing, endeavoring night doorman historian that God is allowing me to be.

     The main hindrances to this book writing operation are, at times, my own procrastinations, and the magnitude of information that I have gathered.  In five years (2014-2019) of gathering information, sources, copied book pages, photos, images, paintings, sketches, and pertinent important documents, I have accumulated a VAST amount of data.  I have reviewed and scrutinized at least fifty 1776 period maps online, in local Queens and NYC historical societies and libraries, and scores, if not hundreds, of primary, secondary, and recent historical sources.  Every time I think I have gathered sufficient information to prove a point or to highlight an argument, I find more data on the topic.  

   This book is important because, 244 years ago all of the modern Borough of Queens, then Queens County, was witness to major British military operations after the Battle of Long Island in Brooklyn on August 27, 1776, and leading to the Invasion of New York on September 15, 1776.  Western Queens was fully occupied by the military might of the British King and Empire from August 1776 to November 1783, a full seven years. The Hessians were even here for the duration.  And nobody knows about it or cares about it.  I do.  That’s what I have to offer.

   My greatest hope is that someone one hundred years from now, in 2121, will say, “I have the Melnick book about the American Revolution.  He did a great job.”

   Another setback is that I want this to be a larger in scope, more instructive, illuminating, and enlightening work, my masterpiece, if you will.  My book editor thinks otherwise. Since it is my first book with me as the only writer, he said let’s stick to 40,000 words.  Fiddlesticks, I say.

   My numbers have reached over 500 images to review to select 120 and, yes, 151,000 words in a grand word document to pare it down to 40,000.

    As I drive on with this noble endeavor, I firmly believe that I am the only one who will do this, right now, at this time.  No one, absolutely no one, has gathered this information that I have gathered.  If I do not do this, if I do not write this book, I am a damned fool.  I am even tired of discussing it.

   On the upside, my 120 images have been approved, and my chapters one through seven are currently under a strong review.  As a novice, I must adhere to all suggestions and directions presented to me by the editor, whether I disagree or not.

    My greatest fear is, of course, perishing too early with the book unfinished.  I hope to never say these words upon my deathbed:  “I love you………    

………………..……………..Finish the book.

   So, did you get that, Mr. Death?  Go away.  I am busy. I have a freakin’ book to write.  And another book after that.  I am healthy and highly motivated.  You don’t need me now.  Come back after July 17, 2050.  Then we can talk.

Regards,

Richard M.

Richard M.

May 23, 2020