I wrote “An Old Man Decides to Write” in 2022, when I decided to write my memoir. It was my first essay on Medium.
In 2023 I wrote, “An Old Man Wrote,” my fourth essay there.
Two days ago I finally had my big book reveal:
Writing the book was a lengthy and often frustrating process. Many times I said to myself, “Nobody will want to read this.” And maybe that’s true. In fact, I’m pretty sure it is. Memoirs by unfamous people don’t fill many bookshelves.
But I’ve done a lot of interesting things. I’ve been a helicopter pilot in combat, I’ve won prestigious US awards, I won a foreign civilian Medal of Honor. I co-founded a charity. I was good friends with the head of the Georgian KGB. That’s interesting stuff, isn’t it?
I also disgraced myself through alcoholism along the way, and finally sobered up thirty-six years ago. There are lessons to be learned.
Though I’m not a lawyer, I wrote, unassisted, and parliament passed and President Eduard Shevardnadze signed into law, a package of laws that reformed a major part of Georgian tax administration.
I worked directly for the man who became the third president of post-communist Georgia. It’s rumored that my late KGB friend murdered the first one. I don’t know and I never asked him.
I’m not educated or experienced in helping the poor, but my late wife and I founded a charity to help orphans in a remote part of Georgia, the Tbilisi Georgia, not the Atlanta Georgia. We did this while I was working as a consultant to the government on tax reform.
That’s interesting, right? Not everyday stuff?
I decided to write my book while I was recovering from surgery for the brain disease NPH, or normal pressure hydrocephalus, formerly “water on the brain.” It’s a permanent condition, so technically I’m still recovering and will be until I die. But, as they say, I can live with it. I’m alive.
You read this far? Thank you very much. You might like my book.
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