I’ve always been strange. Even as a child, I didn’t quite fit in with anyone. You assume that everyone is born with basic “equipment”; Simple social skills or at least a template of “normal” to start from. I didn’t get mine, whatever it was. So by the time I was in the third grade, everyone knew that “Steve’s kind of strange”. It was very lonely. So naturally, I turned to books.

I read a lot. So much so, that my dad once told me to “Come downstairs and watch some TV with the family. You’re going to ruin your eyes with all that reading.” It was the seventies. He probably didn’t even know what was wrong with that statement. Anyways…

I spent all of my spare time reading. Everything I could get my hands on. I even read an instructional manual for “Petroleum Distillation Methods” just for the hell of it. Every genre, I explored, but could never find that one book. The book that made me say, “Now this is amazing!” That is until the summer after third grade.

During the school year, I had made a couple of friends and we would spend time talking about music and reading and science. Nerdy, I know, but that’s what we were like. I remember going over to my friend Brian’s house and listening to “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” by Elton John. The lyrics of the songs were amazing and I commented how it would be awesome if someone wrote a book that was lyrical and full of perfect words, the way those songs were.

Brian smiled, “Ever read Bradbury?”

I’d never heard of him. As much as I read, Brian thought that was really funny.

“Here,” he handed me a worn paperback copy of “The Martian Chronicles”. That was the day my life changed forever.

Within those pages, I found a world that was so richly described, that it was easy to lose myself within its confines. The words themselves thrilled me. I had never read anything like it, but as soon as I finished the first page, I knew it was the thing I’d been looking for. Escape was finally mine. Escape from a world where people were cruel and I stuck out like a wart on a witch’s nose. A world where I didn’t fit in and was considered to be abnormal. Escape for just a little while.

The added bonus was the cast of characters that Ray Bradbury filled his stories with. Some of them so twisted and strange, I felt almost normal by comparison. Any time after that, if I was feeling strange or like I didn’t fit in, all I had to do was crack open a Bradbury and some of the more pitiful characters would bring me back to reality. I wasn’t so strange.

The other thing that I saw in his work, that really changed me as a person, is the life lessons and “slice of life” instances that he instills in his work. I looked at the human beings (and sometimes aliens) and saw that they were good people caught up in unusual circumstances they battled to overcome. In most cases I thought and felt the way the characters did. It was like I was akin to them. Like I belonged. Like I was really human. That was the first time that had ever happened. I suddenly felt like I was a part of something.

Over the years I have had some dark times. Times when I couldn’t see the beauty and wonder around all around me. I didn’t fear because I always knew that all I had to do was open up a Bradbury and my sight would be restored. So, I’ve always turned to him when I needed to feel “normal” or needed to know that it was alright to be Human and that I wasn’t alone. Or if I needed to escape to someplace so unique that my mind would be riveted by the details and fascinated by the way the words were strung together, I’d turn to him. His worlds are lush and intriguing.

That’s one of the reasons I became a writer. So maybe I could help someone the way he helped me. If I could provide an escape for even one person, it would be totally worth it to me. I can only imagine how Mr. Bradbury feels with his legion of fans.

But how did he save my life? Well, he didn’t run into a burning building and drag out my unconscious body if that’s what you think. He just taught me what was important in life and not only that, but that it was important to live a life. There were at least a couple of times when I couldn’t see going on any longer and then, “Oh look. A new Bradbury book.” I’d have to read it of course and by the time I was done, I had that feeling back again. That feeling that I wasn’t so strange, that I was a human like many others and that the world is full of beauty and wonder and magic.

So thanks, Ray.

That was beautiful, Steven. Thank you for a lovely holiday gift to us all. May I be the first to welcome you to the board and congratulate you on writing and publishing. One of the best letters I ever got was from Ray after sending him a copy of my book. He said so many talk about writing, so few do it, and now here was this book to be praised and admired. I feel better every time I think of it and hope to continue living up to the inspiration he has originated in me. As for writing my feeling is the same as yours. I have read other writers, but Ray is as great or greater than all the others put together, and, yes, I do have to live to read every word written by and about him, and believe it or not in 36 years I have not yet caught up on that illustrious goal!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: dandelion,

Well said, indeed!
God bless us, every one!