“There is never any ending to Paris and the memory of each person who has lived in it differs from that of any other. We always returned to it no matter who we were or how it was changed or with what difficulties, or ease, it could be reached. Paris was always worth it and you received return for whatever you brought to it”
Ernest Hemingway would be 123 years old today. Born in Oak Park, Illinois to a physician father and musician mother. The second of four children the young Ernest would spend summers in Michigan camping, hunting, and fishing. His father taught him how to fire a rifle at the age of 2 1/2; the kickback tossed him to the ground but instilled the love of shooting at a very young age that would sadly follow to his death.
In 1918, he would take his first trip to Paris, passing through on his way to Italy as an ambulance driver during World War I. At 18, wounded by mortar fire and both his legs were struck with shrapnel that would land him in a Milan hospital. While laid up in the hospital he would fall in love with his nurse, Agnes von Kurowski. The two planned to marry, but Hem would come back to the US in 1919 and three months later she would send him a letter that she was going to marry someone else.
Some say that Ernest never got over this, and it would follow his future marriages. His first three marriages would end with him leaving his wife, perhaps before they could leave him. His relationship with his mother was rocky at best, he has written many times about his strong dislike for her and his father would kill himself in 1928.
All these events shape our lives and even those that are bigger than life. Hemingway is painted at times as an uncaring callous man that went through women and friends quickly. However, in his collection of writing are letters he wrote to friends and children that were going through a hard time. In those letters are a kind man that wanted nothing more than to brighten the spirits of a young lad going through a medical crisis.
We build up people to be larger than life and most of the time they can never live up to that and it becomes a burden and can end in the worst way possible.
