Time is running out

MONDAY, 7 FEBRUARY 2011

This evening I saw the news that Gary Moore had passed away yesterday.

This afternoon, while watching the video of “End of the Line” by the Traveling Wilburys, I made two decisions:

1. I need a business partner. Additional capital will be nice, but it is more for the critical voice that will not be impressed by another “fantastic” idea. “Convince me,” I need to hear.

2. I am almost forty. I reckon I have at most five years to do something with the writing I produced in my twenties and thirties. If I do something with it, my vocation as a writer of semi-unique material will continue. If I carry on with my writing in the same vein as the last five years – with every now and then a move in the right direction only to lose momentum … I can forget about it. It will be over and done with.

Gary Moore died yesterday. But as I listen to his masterpiece “The Messiah Will Come Again”, I realise: he made music, and his music is his legacy.

[Eleven days later, on 18 February 2011, one of my favourite Afrikaans singers, Lucas Maree, also died. It confirmed the importance of the thoughts of 7 February 2011: If you have something to say, if you think you have something to contribute, don’t procrastinate.]

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