All the best to P G Warner
P G Warner used to comment here a lot, and then, when he joined the conclave — their word — of writers at The Constitution Club, cut back somewhat. (Comments from Mr Warner also appeared under the nom de guerre pg: your humble messenger.) It’s also true that, though Mr Warner and I agreed on most things, we did have a few differences, and I might have — annoyed — him a time or two.
I’m uncertain just how much Mr Warner has revealed in public about his personal life; I know perhaps more of the details than some, because Mr Warner and I had a private e-mail exchange. I’d guess that5 he might have told his readers on the Constitution Club more than he did here.
Well, suffice it to say that Mr Warner is rather seriously physically handicapped, as the result of an automobile accident. Simply wrting — as in the physical aspect of typing — has been a challenge for him, and one which has led to increasing physical pain.
Mr Warner is bidding the Constitution Club a fond adieu:
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Happy trails…
Fellow ConClub members, and any reader(s) I may have. It is time I say good bye here. At least from any type of substantive contribution, certainly as a contributing member.
I tried very hard to make things work from a physical standpoint. I tried for a long time to gut it out. But after an initial phase I have been unable to make headway against the pain from typing. In fact it is getting worse, just limited typing hurts far too much. Cheating by saying little, to save on typing, and cutting-and-pasting a great deal is no solution either.
Having my wife and son help is no solution. Usually I just get them to do it when I have gotten ticked off by a comment, and I badger them to help. This makes me look even more reactionary, sorry. 
It is not fair to them either. They both spend way too much of their life taking care of me. I fell again this morning and am reduced to limited activity again, so they have this to deal just now too.
I also think my original poor mental skills are getting worse. After initial progress I seem to be regressing mentally. I am having more and more trouble with tense, aphasia and just plain old coherence.
I therefore do not think it fair to occupy a slot that might be filled by a person better equipped to contribute more. Do not think that I do not like and appreciate all of you. I most certainly do. I reserve the right to make a comment here and there. I will keep reading as able, so keep up the good work.
When we think of courage, we think of people like John McCain, who resisted 5½ years of brutality and torture in a North Vietnamese prison camp. But there is another kind of courage, the kind that people like Mr Warner show, the courage to get up and face another day of hardship, and do as much as they can to be good husbands and fathers. Mr McCain at least had a reasonable hope that he’d be freed eventually, if only he could hang on and bear the next day and the next day and the next. For others, including Mr Warner, there is far less hope that they can ever get better, far less hope for recovery and what those of us who are fortunate enough not to have suffered such an injury would call a normal life.
We rarely hear about such people; they are all-too-invisible in our society. But theirs is a courage we should all admire.
All my respect to Mr Warner, a man I have never met, but still the bravest man I know.
Yorkshire:
My hat’s off to PG.
9 June 2008, 6:22 pmSharon:
I’ll miss P.G.’s insightful comments here and elsewhere. Best of luck to you.
10 June 2008, 1:25 ampgwarner:
Thank you all. I don’t know what to say. I truly am very touched. Such kind words Dana, thank you.
10 June 2008, 6:31 pm