Aha!

I've been compulsively reading the biography of Gerald Durrell, written by Douglas Botting.

So many nuggets of life are in that book, not the least of which is Botting's ability to tell about a human being in all his fullness (faults in full view) with love enough to make room for errors.

Writing skill aside, Durrell's story reads like a warning, as well as a call to arms for anyone with grand ideas. First of all, don't turn to drink to comfort you in your solitude, exhaustion, and humiliation. Second, the establishment is going to make fun of you. Do what you know you need to do anyway.

Durrell certainly didn't mean the above to be my lessons drawn from his life. He wanted me to focus on ecological concerns and conservation. But instead, I saw how a man used the fame he gained from what he would consider mindless sheep (humans) to save numerous varieties of mindless sheep (ugly and uninteresting animals).

Another pebble in my thought-shoe is the idea that Durrell's first wife nagged him into writing (delightful books) and he continued writing, For Forty Years, as a means to earn money for his real work. No wonder he drank, and what if his drinking actually held him back? Boggling, puzzling, and compelling is the story of a chemically dependent hero.