Mark Twain is best remembered for writing Tom Sawyer and his other famous book, Huckleberry Finn.
Born in Florida, Missouri on November 30, 1835 as Samuel Longhorn Clemens, he lived until April 21, 1910, Samuel became a river pilot in 1858 and began a very short career when river travel was interrupted by the Civil War.
When he began his life as a writer in 1865, he chose a pen name from his riverboat days. Mark Twain was a term that meant two fathoms (12 feet) that indicated it was safe for travel because the water was plenty deep for the boat.
Let's consider, however, some things you may not know about Mark Twain. His father died when he was 12. He dropped out of school and began working as a printer's apprentice at age 13. At age 17 he left home by himself to work as a printer in St. Louis. Then he became a river boat pilot apprentice. He and his wife, Olivia, had four children. Three of the children and his wife died during his lifetime. (continued below)
His surviving daughter had no children. In other words, there are NO direct descendents of Samuel Clemens living today. For most men, this would be tragic: no one to carry on the family name.
Most of you who read this share something in common with me. Our lives have been changed because of brain injury. Whatever caused the injury robbed us of something. The "thing" lost may be memory-related, or it may be a cognitive difficulty, and very probably there are behavioral issues associated with that loss. There may be physical problems as well. Or, in my case, brain injury took the wife I knew and gave me a new one with a different personality and a host of difficulties, the likes of which I had never considered.
I cannot help but think of the tragedies Mark Twain witnessed in his life: his father dying when he was only 12, dropping out of school to go to work at age 13, moving out on his own at age 17. Worse, however, was watching his wife and three children die.
Yet, in spite of all those events in his life, we do not think of the tragedies in Mark Twain's life. We know him for his accomplishments. We know him for things he accomplished during the tragedies that befell him. You and I do not see a man who gave up because things went wrong. We see and remember a man who stared adversity in the eye and moved on.
Certainly his heart was broken as he moved forward in life. But he did continue to move. He didn't give up. Perhaps the most important thing Mark Twain can teach us does not come from his writing but by the way he lived. He never gave up.
