When I was a boy, lonely and afraid that my secret would escape my grasp and destroy my world, I made myself into the quintessential loner. I was the typical nerd... my interests were those that you could pursue alone... I read our encyclopedia from cover to cover. I tinkered with old televisions and radios, blowing many fuses along the way and I kept myself busy with all manner of solitary pursuits.
One of those interests was model rocketry. I built and flew many model rockets and eventually it led me to my life-long interest in science and technology and the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. Most people who know me say that I possess an amazing compendium of knowledge on a very wide range of subjects. And over the years, this broad knowledge has helped in many ways including the varied career paths that I've followed.
This morning, I ran across this video and as I watched it, I was immediately transported back in time to those lonely days of fear and worry and wanting not to be different. But I also remembered the joy of many happy days and moments lost in a world of my own making where it didn't matter to me that I was different or afraid.
I still have some of my rockets from those days of old... They're carefully packed and stored away with other trinkets and mementos of my former life lived in fear. They're my salient reminder that "a life lived in fear is a life half-lived..." I think this summer, I'll fly my rockets again and remember my journey from fear to truth, and from the shadows into the light.
"Fear Eats the Soul"
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