Hero’s

When I was a young man...
I had the body of a very fit and athletic sixteen year old - yet - with my “Lion-niz-um” I had the emotional capacity of that of a eight year old.
Growing up for me... ...was not an easy task.
I grew up far from society - there where no neighborhood chums - there was the family and a huge repository of books. I took to reading at a very early age. I was reading books, novels, and ecycolopedias long before I was ever permitted to kindergarten. Life was hard in those days, never knowing how I fit in, thus, I lived within the countless volumes my father brought to me. Sometimes, my father would bring a special book and tell me “says... ...fiction - but is truth.... ...understand?” Of course I understood - what my father said was LAW...
There was a special book in our house and I was never permitted to touch it. Its title - “The Old Testament & New Testament of our Lord, Jesus Christ, King James Version”... ...it was a very old book and hidden away in a cu-bord underneath the radio/record player that I was also not allowed to touch. This book my father said had been in the family for a very very long time. It was an heir-loom - whatever that meant... My father called it “the book of life” - and for now - I was forbidden to know its secret...
Father was regulated to reading me books. I did not protest. Every Friday I was permitted to choose another book from the library if we had finished the previous book, or if I was growing bored of text books, magazine, history, Beverly Clearly, even the FM 7-8 (Standard Infantrymen Field Manual)... ...One day - I grew bold - I learned to be brave. Instead of picking a book from the library, I chanced to take the incurably large and very old book to my father as say:
“I am ready for hear this story father - I have been as tall as you for long time now... ...can I hear the story of the life?”
My father deliberated for sometime outside my room - but eventually - returned with this book - “The book of life”... ...I was so happy - I felt like I was growing up. I was becoming a man. Slowly. Assuredly.

Thus began my studies as a man of god.
I was probably eighteen - in the first grade of an elementary school of the Four Peaks...
I quickly learned - god is more than a book - he is many books - and just when you think you have the answers - the test changes - and thus - as the book - is life...

...I always questioned the stories - always questioning that of what was put forth - my father nearly always had the answers - but when he didn’t - he would say - “You will have to go to a special school to know that...” ... ... oh how I dreamed that day would come for it seemed to me - as tall as I was - that I should be able to do these things with ease.

I was emotionally twelve (or so) and just about to enter the Junior High when summer came - and I was sent away to Boston, to a military institute. I was overjoyed!

This lasted a short time when I realized that I would have many new teachers, I would have to wear a uniform, and if I misbehaved I would be doing pushups all day...

...I was distressed - and for a short time - sad.
Soon I realized - that many of my schoolmates where just like me. They, where LIONS - just like me. Not all of the forty or so students where lions - but a vast majority was. Soon, friendships where made - and I excelled. I felt accepted, loved, and respected - for a change. I felt aloof... I felt... empowered...
I felt that if I was ever made to go to public school again - surely I would die!

So, as the story goes, the young Chaplin became disillusioned by real war, and changed his mind - to get on the offensive side of the team instead of the defensive side.

...Johnny Cash - Man in Black...
Nuff said...

Sword