March is full of Douglas Adams and Hitchhiker-related birthdayversaries. March 8 was the anniversary of the first radio broadcast (the birth) of the Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy. In March of 1981 NPR finally broadcast it in the US.
March 11 is the birthdayversary of Douglas Adams. I celebrate along with his many millions of fans all around this mostly harmless planet with a fervent wish that he was still here. In honor of what would have been Adams’s 70th birthday, Save The Rhino has announced this year’s Douglas Adams Memorial Lecture.
Adams died at age 49–my current age.
It is something I think about when I’m writing or editing or producing: What would my life be like if I had done as Douglas did, and held out for a creative career FIRST? How would my life be different if I had become a writer back then, instead of my 20-year stint as a Silicon Valley Corporate Drone?
For one thing, I probably would not have met my husband. And therefore I wouldn’t have the opportunity to write and produce full-time now. Who we ally ourselves with in this lifetime is deeply important. One of my favorite quotes from The Frood is about Douglas Adams and his wife, barrister Jane Belson:
Adams recognised: ‘I’m a man of obsessive enthusiasms, great bursts of energy followed by two days in bed. Jane is totally different, which is why we complement each other so well.’
The Frood, Jem Roberts
I see some of my own enthusiastic tendencies in Adams’s statement. The grounded steadiness he attributed to Jane is something I love about my husband’s nature.
Today I’m sick in bed, with a rotten cold. Unrigorous contact-tracing indicates that I probably contracted the yuck during an exuberant burst of sewing, in close quarters, with some school-age kids. My COVID test was negative but I still feel positively awful. My spouse made me thin cream of wheat to soothe my sore throat. I love him for all the different ways he supports me.
On his birthday, I like to reflect on how glad I am that Douglas Adams created his marvelous world. Today I’m also reflecting on how happy it makes me to know he had Jane to lean on a bit while he did so.
What do you think?