Saturday, February 15^th, 2020

Smart Enough?

The speaker was a friend of Phil’s from the Army named Michael.  He bounced to the podium and hugged Phil. Gripping the podium with his massive hands, he lifted it two feet off the ground, letting it slam back down. He grinned from ear to ear at the sound.

 His name was Michael, but he could have said “Holgar Skullsplitter” and nobody would have been surprised.  I wondered if he’d leave the meeting early to row his Viking longboat down the Ohio River, pillaging as he went.  

“My name is Michael, and I’m a @%(*&$#  alcoholic!” he said.  Michael should have died more times than he could count.  When he got out of the Army he tried to stay numb, but his addictions led to him being shot, hit by a car, and beaten. He’d OD’d several times.

The last time he OD’d “a  *#&^%$#  light went the  *&^#^$  off.”  He didn’t want to die trying to stay numb. Good or bad, he wanted to experience life. At first, life was mostly bad. Because he’d survived, he felt he owed the world something.  Michael worked as an EMT, volunteered at an animal shelter, and sponsored a dozen recovering men. He helped coached grade school wrestling, and I couldn’t help but wonder what new words the kids added to their vocabularies at his practices.

“I’m a stupid &%$#@*,” he said near the end of his talk. “I had to damn near die a boatload of times before I embraced the *&^$ing *&^# out of life. No more numb for me. I hope you guys are smarter than I was.”

Today I hope I’m smart enough to embrace life.

2020 Vision ©2017 by Ken Montrose

2020 Vision is a work of fiction. Any similarity between the characters and anyone you might know is purely coincidental.

Other works by Ken Montrose are available at: www.greenbriartraining.com https://www.pinterest.com/kenmontrose/mt-rose/