1 00:00:04,920 --> 00:00:10,080 Speaker 1: Welcome to the ten minute Storyteller. That's me Bill Simpson, 2 00:00:10,280 --> 00:00:15,040 Speaker 1: your host, narrator and author. We hear at the ten 3 00:00:15,080 --> 00:00:19,720 Speaker 1: minute Storyteller endeavor to entertain you with tall tales or 4 00:00:19,720 --> 00:00:24,840 Speaker 1: rendered swiftly and with the utmost empathy. We pledge to 5 00:00:25,000 --> 00:00:29,520 Speaker 1: pack as much entertainment, emotion, and exploration into the human 6 00:00:29,560 --> 00:00:35,640 Speaker 1: condition as ten minutes will permit. Many novels on steroids. 7 00:00:40,000 --> 00:00:44,120 Speaker 1: This week we meet James. More than a century ago, 8 00:00:44,720 --> 00:00:50,279 Speaker 1: James penned a critically acclaimed bestseller. Hollywood even made a 9 00:00:50,320 --> 00:00:54,400 Speaker 1: movie out of the novel, starring al Pacino. The success 10 00:00:54,600 --> 00:00:58,680 Speaker 1: of the book helped James earn tenure at the university 11 00:00:59,120 --> 00:01:05,640 Speaker 1: where he taught, and writing tenure put James on easy street, 12 00:01:06,160 --> 00:01:17,720 Speaker 1: or did it tenure? His routine never varies. Up at 13 00:01:17,800 --> 00:01:24,920 Speaker 1: six long hot shower, including a slow, meticulous shave, James 14 00:01:25,040 --> 00:01:28,720 Speaker 1: might pass over particular areas of his chin and neck 15 00:01:29,040 --> 00:01:32,520 Speaker 1: three or four times until the skin is as smooth 16 00:01:32,720 --> 00:01:38,040 Speaker 1: as a baby's butt, depending upon the weather. It doesn't 17 00:01:38,200 --> 00:01:41,800 Speaker 1: ary much in this temperate city. James dresses in either 18 00:01:41,920 --> 00:01:46,360 Speaker 1: shorts or sweatpants T shirt with maybe a sweatshirt and 19 00:01:47,040 --> 00:01:54,080 Speaker 1: new balance sneakers over the years. His wardrobe has changed considerably. 20 00:01:54,920 --> 00:01:57,520 Speaker 1: During the first decade and a half of his teaching 21 00:01:57,800 --> 00:02:01,680 Speaker 1: writing career, when he felt it necessary to make an impression, 22 00:02:02,240 --> 00:02:07,400 Speaker 1: James wore expensive, custom made Italian suits with fine silk 23 00:02:07,600 --> 00:02:13,120 Speaker 1: neckties and the finest leather footwear. Eventually, he loosened up 24 00:02:13,120 --> 00:02:16,959 Speaker 1: and went with chinos, an open collar, button down shirt, 25 00:02:17,160 --> 00:02:21,840 Speaker 1: and a blue blazer. He traded the finest leather footwear 26 00:02:22,080 --> 00:02:26,919 Speaker 1: for loafers, and then in his mid forties, not long 27 00:02:27,040 --> 00:02:31,400 Speaker 1: after he received tenure, James started to pack on a 28 00:02:31,400 --> 00:02:35,079 Speaker 1: little heft around the midriff and his blood pressure numbers 29 00:02:35,120 --> 00:02:38,720 Speaker 1: began to climb. His doc told him a few less 30 00:02:38,800 --> 00:02:43,040 Speaker 1: calories and maybe a little exercise, So that's when he 31 00:02:43,320 --> 00:02:47,240 Speaker 1: stopped eating pretzels with Hershey Bars. He just loved the 32 00:02:47,280 --> 00:02:51,480 Speaker 1: salty and sweet all mixed together, and he started walking. 33 00:02:51,960 --> 00:02:56,160 Speaker 1: And he simplified his wardrobe even further by going with 34 00:02:56,280 --> 00:02:59,960 Speaker 1: loose fitting khakis, cotton sweaters, and for the first time 35 00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:04,880 Speaker 1: time in his life, sneakers. To this day, he prefers 36 00:03:05,160 --> 00:03:11,359 Speaker 1: the New Balance nine fifty five size ten double wide. 37 00:03:11,440 --> 00:03:14,920 Speaker 1: Eight or ten years ago, the khakis and cotton sweaters 38 00:03:14,960 --> 00:03:19,679 Speaker 1: gave way to his present ultra casual wardrobe shorts or 39 00:03:19,720 --> 00:03:23,799 Speaker 1: sweatpants with a quick dry t shirt, usually black or 40 00:03:23,919 --> 00:03:28,960 Speaker 1: navy blue. James cooks a cup of oatmeal, toasts a 41 00:03:28,960 --> 00:03:33,320 Speaker 1: piece of multi grain bread. He spreads organic peanut butter 42 00:03:33,400 --> 00:03:35,840 Speaker 1: on the right side of the toast, folds it over, 43 00:03:36,040 --> 00:03:40,440 Speaker 1: and consumes the peanut butter sandwich in three well chewed bites. 44 00:03:41,600 --> 00:03:45,960 Speaker 1: While the oatmeal cooks, he combs his thinning hair, pulls 45 00:03:46,000 --> 00:03:49,040 Speaker 1: on his nifty watch that keeps track of his health, 46 00:03:49,400 --> 00:03:52,880 Speaker 1: heart rate, blood pressure, steps taken, miles, walk to calories, burnt, 47 00:03:53,400 --> 00:03:57,320 Speaker 1: stuffs his hearing aids into his ears, and gathers the 48 00:03:57,360 --> 00:04:01,400 Speaker 1: things he'll need for the morning while it cash clip keys. 49 00:04:03,080 --> 00:04:07,120 Speaker 1: After eating the oatmeal, he tidies up, brushes his teeth, 50 00:04:07,160 --> 00:04:11,600 Speaker 1: and prepares to go. His wife left him years ago 51 00:04:12,080 --> 00:04:17,080 Speaker 1: because of his unrelenting obsession with Whitman, so he has 52 00:04:17,120 --> 00:04:19,640 Speaker 1: no one to say goodbye to as he leaves the house, 53 00:04:19,960 --> 00:04:24,120 Speaker 1: not even a dog or a cat or a goldfish. 54 00:04:24,360 --> 00:04:27,720 Speaker 1: The walk to his office takes ten minutes. When he 55 00:04:27,760 --> 00:04:30,880 Speaker 1: gets to his small office on the third floor of 56 00:04:30,920 --> 00:04:33,640 Speaker 1: the Liberal Arts building, he makes a cup of tea, 57 00:04:33,880 --> 00:04:36,760 Speaker 1: and while the tea brews, he lies on the rug 58 00:04:36,880 --> 00:04:40,480 Speaker 1: in front of his desk and does his core exercises. 59 00:04:41,320 --> 00:04:45,120 Speaker 1: He does some stabilization work, some crunches and planks, a 60 00:04:45,160 --> 00:04:48,920 Speaker 1: few bird dogs. Then he puts a tiny spoonful of 61 00:04:48,960 --> 00:04:51,640 Speaker 1: honey and a dollop of milk in his tea and 62 00:04:51,839 --> 00:04:57,960 Speaker 1: settles in at his desk. James is a tenured professor 63 00:04:58,040 --> 00:05:01,599 Speaker 1: at the college, has been for a goodly number of 64 00:05:01,720 --> 00:05:06,760 Speaker 1: years decades now. Every so often a wee kernel of 65 00:05:06,880 --> 00:05:10,840 Speaker 1: doubt creeps into his thoughts and he thinks, maybe tenure 66 00:05:11,240 --> 00:05:15,159 Speaker 1: wasn't such a great gift. Maybe in fact, it was 67 00:05:15,240 --> 00:05:19,760 Speaker 1: the worst thing ever, worse than a trust fund. A 68 00:05:19,760 --> 00:05:24,839 Speaker 1: gazillion years ago, before tenure, James wrote a novel that 69 00:05:25,040 --> 00:05:29,520 Speaker 1: was both a smashing commercial success and a grand triumph 70 00:05:29,680 --> 00:05:33,760 Speaker 1: with the critics, earning him a Best First Novel of 71 00:05:33,800 --> 00:05:40,679 Speaker 1: the Year award and a National Book Award nomination. Reviewers raved, 72 00:05:40,880 --> 00:05:44,680 Speaker 1: and readers bought hundreds of thousands of hardcover copies and 73 00:05:44,760 --> 00:05:49,039 Speaker 1: millions of soft covers. It still sells, though not like 74 00:05:49,120 --> 00:05:52,159 Speaker 1: it used to. It was even made into a movie, 75 00:05:52,240 --> 00:05:58,560 Speaker 1: storing a still youthful al Pacino. And now for the 76 00:05:58,640 --> 00:06:02,240 Speaker 1: past twenty seven seven years he has been working on 77 00:06:02,360 --> 00:06:06,919 Speaker 1: his second novel, no one asks him about it anymore. 78 00:06:07,160 --> 00:06:12,960 Speaker 1: No one ever, although remarkably he still has a valid contract, 79 00:06:13,520 --> 00:06:17,320 Speaker 1: despite the fact that over these three decades, the publishing 80 00:06:17,360 --> 00:06:22,080 Speaker 1: house holding his contract has been bought and sold three times, 81 00:06:22,279 --> 00:06:27,039 Speaker 1: and six different editors have been assigned to oversee the novel, 82 00:06:27,680 --> 00:06:33,120 Speaker 1: which bears the working title Whitman. Though James recently decided 83 00:06:33,200 --> 00:06:39,039 Speaker 1: he prefers Witman. It would be folly for us to 84 00:06:39,160 --> 00:06:45,839 Speaker 1: attempt to describe Witman Witman in this space, constrained as 85 00:06:45,880 --> 00:06:49,680 Speaker 1: we are by the author's ten minutes or less to 86 00:06:49,880 --> 00:06:55,760 Speaker 1: read dictum, So let us just briefly say Witman Witman 87 00:06:56,720 --> 00:07:00,599 Speaker 1: tells the tale in something approaching a cour order of 88 00:07:00,640 --> 00:07:06,359 Speaker 1: a million words of a Walt whitmanesque character with a 89 00:07:06,520 --> 00:07:13,720 Speaker 1: long graybeard who pens lengthy narrative poems. Though the protagonist 90 00:07:13,720 --> 00:07:18,960 Speaker 1: does not necessarily live during the mid nineteenth century, he 91 00:07:19,080 --> 00:07:23,560 Speaker 1: is timeless and possesses more knowledge and wisdom than God, 92 00:07:24,200 --> 00:07:28,760 Speaker 1: and fears not only for humanity but also for our 93 00:07:28,960 --> 00:07:33,400 Speaker 1: lovely little planet, spinning away as it does in some 94 00:07:33,640 --> 00:07:40,320 Speaker 1: forlorn corner of a forgotten galaxy. Apart from a twice 95 00:07:40,480 --> 00:07:45,640 Speaker 1: weekly evening class limited to just eight students. James no 96 00:07:45,680 --> 00:07:51,760 Speaker 1: longer teaches. He is novelist in residence, and because of 97 00:07:51,800 --> 00:07:57,200 Speaker 1: his one hit wonder, no one dares ask, so exactly 98 00:07:57,320 --> 00:07:59,920 Speaker 1: what up with that? Dude? I mean, really, what's he 99 00:08:00,200 --> 00:08:07,440 Speaker 1: up to? Well? James spends the morning revising the paragraph 100 00:08:07,560 --> 00:08:12,360 Speaker 1: he wrote yesterday afternoon. By the time he's done, nothing 101 00:08:12,400 --> 00:08:16,360 Speaker 1: of the original material remains, and not much of the 102 00:08:16,400 --> 00:08:22,720 Speaker 1: revision either. No matter, no matter, James's path is clear. 103 00:08:23,320 --> 00:08:27,840 Speaker 1: He lives without doubt, without circumspection. Though he might not 104 00:08:28,040 --> 00:08:32,280 Speaker 1: admit this, he believes, and has believed for years, for 105 00:08:32,360 --> 00:08:36,360 Speaker 1: decades forever, that he is in the hands of God, 106 00:08:37,080 --> 00:08:39,880 Speaker 1: or if not God, then in the loving arms of 107 00:08:39,920 --> 00:08:43,559 Speaker 1: a creator who brought him here to do precisely this 108 00:08:43,679 --> 00:08:47,880 Speaker 1: work at this time. This is what he is meant 109 00:08:47,920 --> 00:08:52,080 Speaker 1: to do, and nothing, nothing will change that. It is 110 00:08:52,120 --> 00:08:56,240 Speaker 1: written in stone, it is providence, it is destiny. He 111 00:08:56,360 --> 00:08:59,800 Speaker 1: is one hundred percent certain he will complete his task 112 00:09:00,240 --> 00:09:04,560 Speaker 1: before he falls feeble or is buried inside the earth. 113 00:09:05,360 --> 00:09:09,120 Speaker 1: And so he writes on and on and on and on. 114 00:09:11,440 --> 00:09:15,200 Speaker 1: At noon, he walks home for lunch. A can of 115 00:09:15,400 --> 00:09:19,160 Speaker 1: bumblebee tune, a solid weight with a wee spoonful of 116 00:09:19,200 --> 00:09:22,560 Speaker 1: Helmans and a few shakes of black pepper on two 117 00:09:22,600 --> 00:09:26,679 Speaker 1: pieces of multi grain toast, a glass of water, a 118 00:09:26,720 --> 00:09:32,360 Speaker 1: handful of pretzels, a dozen unsalted pistachios, and then another 119 00:09:32,720 --> 00:09:37,960 Speaker 1: ten minute walk back to the office. It may be destiny, 120 00:09:38,280 --> 00:09:41,760 Speaker 1: who knows who's to say. It may be God's will 121 00:09:41,920 --> 00:09:45,960 Speaker 1: for him to spend thirty, forty, even fifty years writing 122 00:09:46,040 --> 00:09:50,240 Speaker 1: his master work, his magnum opus. It may even be 123 00:09:50,320 --> 00:09:53,160 Speaker 1: true that God's going to keep a close eye on 124 00:09:53,400 --> 00:09:57,520 Speaker 1: him until he gets the damn fool thing finished. But 125 00:09:57,679 --> 00:10:03,520 Speaker 1: still James takes no chances. He watches his diet, he 126 00:10:03,640 --> 00:10:07,600 Speaker 1: keeps his weight down, takes his meds, gets plenty of sleep, 127 00:10:07,880 --> 00:10:11,040 Speaker 1: walks at least five miles a day, ten thousand steps. 128 00:10:12,040 --> 00:10:15,880 Speaker 1: You can never be too careful, he tells the few 129 00:10:15,920 --> 00:10:21,040 Speaker 1: people who will still engage him in conversation. In the 130 00:10:21,040 --> 00:10:26,280 Speaker 1: middle of the afternoon, Bent over his exhausted pages, his 131 00:10:26,440 --> 00:10:29,880 Speaker 1: eyes droop and he begins to feel a little drowsy. 132 00:10:30,800 --> 00:10:33,760 Speaker 1: No problem, he knows what to do. He stands up, 133 00:10:33,960 --> 00:10:37,719 Speaker 1: and he takes a little walk around campus. Stretch the 134 00:10:37,800 --> 00:10:41,959 Speaker 1: legs and fill those lungs with air. Out he goes. 135 00:10:42,600 --> 00:10:46,320 Speaker 1: The wind is up at lunchtime. The air was as 136 00:10:46,360 --> 00:10:50,520 Speaker 1: still as the pea green pond on his Vermont farm 137 00:10:50,760 --> 00:10:56,520 Speaker 1: on a sultry August afternoon. But now suddenly the trees 138 00:10:56,559 --> 00:11:01,880 Speaker 1: are alive, Branches swoosh back and forth, last year's leaves, 139 00:11:01,920 --> 00:11:05,320 Speaker 1: and balls of litter blow across the Liberal Arts squad. 140 00:11:06,640 --> 00:11:10,800 Speaker 1: His hearing age chirp, an alert that the batteries will 141 00:11:10,840 --> 00:11:15,360 Speaker 1: soon go dead. He only faintly hears the chirp. So 142 00:11:15,600 --> 00:11:19,040 Speaker 1: noisy is the wind blowing through the gaps in the 143 00:11:19,080 --> 00:11:24,880 Speaker 1: ivy covered buildings. Still, he walks on marches, head down, 144 00:11:25,280 --> 00:11:28,200 Speaker 1: deep in thought, and suddenly it occurs to him that 145 00:11:28,320 --> 00:11:34,840 Speaker 1: Whitman Witman might in fact not be his protagonist at all. 146 00:11:35,760 --> 00:11:41,760 Speaker 1: Witman Witman might well be the novelists antagonist, and sweet 147 00:11:41,880 --> 00:11:49,240 Speaker 1: Evangeline Whitman's Witman's long suffering bride, the true heroine of 148 00:11:49,280 --> 00:11:54,719 Speaker 1: the novel. My God, this, he knows, could be the 149 00:11:54,840 --> 00:11:58,360 Speaker 1: breakthrough he's been hoping for, waiting for the key to 150 00:11:58,640 --> 00:12:03,520 Speaker 1: Act three. Now, overhead, in one of the towering and 151 00:12:03,679 --> 00:12:08,200 Speaker 1: ancient elms that line the campus, a thick and mighty 152 00:12:08,280 --> 00:12:12,600 Speaker 1: limb cracks and splits and begins its earth bound journey. 153 00:12:13,120 --> 00:12:17,040 Speaker 1: It crashes through other mighty limbs and lesser branches as 154 00:12:17,080 --> 00:12:21,920 Speaker 1: it picks up speed and power. The tenured Professor is 155 00:12:22,080 --> 00:12:27,440 Speaker 1: lost in thought, practically giddy with the discovery of Evangeline's 156 00:12:27,600 --> 00:12:33,800 Speaker 1: true calling. His hearing aid batteries go entirely dead. He 157 00:12:33,840 --> 00:12:39,679 Speaker 1: doesn't hear a damn thing going on outside his brain, nothing, nada, 158 00:12:39,800 --> 00:12:43,320 Speaker 1: and so it's quite a shock when that three hundred 159 00:12:43,400 --> 00:12:47,480 Speaker 1: pound limb slams into the top of his head, drives 160 00:12:47,559 --> 00:12:50,559 Speaker 1: him into the earth, and just like that snuffs out 161 00:12:50,800 --> 00:12:54,800 Speaker 1: in a heartbeat, his life and his story both as 162 00:12:54,880 --> 00:13:06,720 Speaker 1: yet he thought unfinished. Thanks for listening to this original 163 00:13:06,760 --> 00:13:11,840 Speaker 1: audio presentation of Tenure, narrated of course by the author. 164 00:13:13,679 --> 00:13:16,800 Speaker 1: If you enjoy today's story, please take a few seconds 165 00:13:16,840 --> 00:13:21,959 Speaker 1: to rate, review, and subscribe to this podcast, and then 166 00:13:22,040 --> 00:13:27,640 Speaker 1: go to Thomas William Simpson dot com for additional information 167 00:13:27,760 --> 00:13:32,720 Speaker 1: about the author and to view his extensive canon. The 168 00:13:32,760 --> 00:13:37,199 Speaker 1: Ten Minute Storyteller is produced by Andrew Pleiglici and Josh 169 00:13:37,280 --> 00:13:41,760 Speaker 1: Colotney and as part of the Elvis Duran Podcast Network 170 00:13:41,800 --> 00:13:47,320 Speaker 1: in partnership with iHeart Productions. Until next time, this is 171 00:13:47,559 --> 00:13:50,800 Speaker 1: Bill Simpson, your ten Minute Storyteller.