Fighting the Next Round

So I receive an award and folks say the recognition was long overdue. I don't know how to respond to this. At times I feel like Joe Louis standing in front of a hotel in Las Vegas shaking hands. I wonder whether it might have been better to be knockdown maybe years ago instead of being left standing without a punch. We should honor writers simply by reading their work. This morning I gave one of my books to a friend heading back to China. She held the book in her two hands and said she would cherish it. She spoke from the heart. Too few do these days. I wanted to hold her hands but I still had my gloves on.