Tracy Lee Simmons

I got to go to a talk given by Tracy Lee Simmons today.  He's the guy that wrote Climbing Parnassus. (Though he said he's done a lot of other stuff too!) I bought the book back when it first came out, but, alas, it was back when I had many smallish children and I was homeschooling them all.  During that period of time I would frequently start books, never to finish them.  I am afraid Climbing Parnassus fell into that category.  I am pretty sure I still have it, but, alas again, most of my books are in boxes or on shelves that have been blocked by said boxes.  So I can not get to it right now.  However, in the next couple of weeks, I anticipate being able to sort through and re-shelve my books.  And then when I find it, I will really read it this time!

The talk was great.  He doesn't really give many talks, not really his thing, but he made an exception this time.  It is coming on the 15th year of the publication of the book and the publishers want to re-issue it and they want him to do some publicity for it.

Anyway, Professor Simmons came across as a warm, humble and devout intellectual.   I really related to him on a personal level.  He talked about his parents who were children of the Depression and World War II (mine too) and his dad was a bomber pilot in WWII.   Mine too!  Mine was in the Pacific while his father flew over Germany.  He said a lot of things that really resonated with me.  I wish I could have talked to him one on one a bit, but he left very soon after the talk.