Blog

I sit this morning and wonder.  I wonder how I got to where I am, and where this bumpy old road will take me.  I once was a child roaming the woods of Marshall County West Virginia.  Never thinking about my Mortgage, the cost of transportation, improving people skills, professional goals, or anything of the sort.  I just wandered endlessly and dreamed of being a hero, like most kids.  Then before I knew it I was more interested in girls, and trying to impress my friends daily;  Finding ways to act out so I would be the hero of the school day.  Cool bike tricks and flips off the diving board were far more important than politics or religion.  Farts held a higher value than real money.  The laugh was always the most important thing for me.  It meant that I was the center of attention and nothing else mattered.  Then came cars, and danger.  The laugh became less important and the story became the goal.  Drive fast and do something stupid, or the night was boring.  Entertainment at school on Monday was dependent on the crazy story from the weekend, as you sit back and pretend to be humble while someone tells of your heroics.  Long nights of video games, and movies while annihilating chips and pop with your boys was the regular.  Sports were usually the topic for us.  Idolizing athletes as gods, and arguing aimlessly about the games and fights of the day.  Usually we could be found sitting on Grandma Jean’s front porch, watching people, and laughing the days away.  Wishing those days would pass so we could hasten on to adulthood  was the usual dream, and before we knew it, it had become reality.  Everyone goes their own way, and we all find lives for ourselves opposite of the ones that we were given geographically or socially through our parents.  When adult life gets hard, I always think back to those days and their simplicity, and try to think of ways to live that way, but with the freedoms of an adult.  It may not be totally possible, but every now and then if you look at the world like you did when you were eight, and don’t take things too seriously, then you may find that being a hero is easy as an adult with an open mind.  You can achieve that feeling by helping people who need it, and being there for friends.  Don’t let the real world make your life paramount, because when we shut down our imagination, and our inner child goes away, then we become someone that we never were supposed to be.  The transitions of life happen so fast and nothing will ever be the way it was, but as long as you keep a piece of yourself from every stage in your life, then you will be the all-knowing, all-powerful, fun-loving, dreamer that you always were, and at the end of everyday, you can rest easy knowing that the small child that shared your name, has now become the hero that they always wished that they could be.  Have a good day.