Who is Uncle Roger?

When I retired in 1996 from my work as an editor at the National Institutes of Health, I invented three characters who represent major parts of myself.  One is Uncle Roger (a.k.a. UR), a somewhat exaggerated and humorous amalgam of my father and myself.  A successful writer now retired, UR lives in a nice home with his manservant, Chives—who is able to let UR live virtually free from the ordinary chores of life.  The third character is little Rogerio, UR’s adopted 4-year-old child.  Rogerio clearly represent my own inner child.  My hope is that writing about Rogerio helps my real self to see the world through innocent eyes.

UR Now

“UR absolutely loved planning. Every morning, the first thing he did was to look at his draft plan for the day. On one sheet of paper (yes, he still printed things out, because he liked holding poetry and other meaningful writings in his hand, where they could feel somewhat permanent, as opposed to our digital world—now you see it, now you don’t: now it works great until it doesn’t. Back to the idea of planning. He loved it so much because it was like composing a painting or an interesting melody, maybe more like dance: Choreography for the Day’s Dance. If that sounds a bit like the life of a dandy, you might be right on. Life was all “hunky dory.”

I didn’t have that fear as a child, thinking I’ll just wake up in heaven after faling asleep. My soul, whatever that is, will go up to a wonderful place where I will be forever with Goodness. I want my money to go for Good things, not just my own security and the security of my family. Why can’t some of the multi-millionaire’s money can’t be taxed at a higher rate in order to do more creative things in this world. Interestingly, one of the synonyms for creative isn intelligent. Love is the creative spirit of good will. My writings will be full of this kind of possibly meaningful stuff.”

– Roger Gilkeson