What differentiates you from most others?
In my case, it is probably the fact that I am a Traumatic Brain Injury survivor. Back in March of 1981, I was hit by an automobile and in a coma for 53 days. I have been fortunate to recover and adapt to most situations. I suppose there are still some limitations to my not being able to judge everything as to the appropriateness at all times, but I continue to work at it.
I have a nice job. I have a wonderful wife. My parents are still alive and they are happy. I won't have children, and I am happy with that fact. A dual income no kids (DINK) situation provides us with opportunities to contribute toward retirement accounts and to travel.
In our nine and a half years of marriage, we have taken probably 5 cruises, and we have gone to Sturgis, SD; Houston, Tx; Acadia National Park in Maine, have seen the Bay of Fundy at low and high tides.
My life is a happy one, I have overcome many obstacles placed in my way. I have had a lot of help along the way. I am appreciative that people have been there to help me.
So, what sets you apart from other people?
-Marty S.
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Comments: 7
I think it is nice to have an optimistic point of view. Life is far more pleasant when looking for rainbows than seeking out dark skies.
Primarily, I have been well-loved. By a parent. many teachers and friends. Many lovers, (serially monogamous).
That love encouraged me to be curious, like you Kathleen, and to explore without trepidation (mostly).
I grew up in a time when kids were not mugged or kidnapped and traveled twenty or more miles from my home on my bicycle often. I wanted to see what was out there. When I cut hi school in bad weather, I went to the Chicago Art Institute, great art and a great cafeteria, where I discovered quiche. In good weather, from feb thru nov., I had the miles-long beaches of Lake Michigan to walk barefoot, often bringing a girlfriend to share a sleeping bag in the dunes, watching the stars rise out of the lake... In those days one could ride a motorcycle down the hard-packed sand at the water's edge, with a girl on the back.
I must admit a talent for reading. I was lucky books were always available.
I have read so much that I can't even list them all without fatiguing the mind.
All the major authors, poets, philosophers, playwrights, psychologists, many ecologists and farseeing writers, male and female-- I have read entire encyclopedias just for fun in my spare time, and often when I should have been doing homework.
Because I read well, I did well on IQ tests-- which saved me in seventh grade because I flunked everything and yet had the highest IQ score in the school. They felt they had failed me and passed me on to eighth grade even though I flunked everything.
I've had extraordinary freedom, too. My first four years were lived in a Lutheran home, then my mother re-married a Jewish man, and at ten I started Jewish Sunday School, and was Bar Mitzvahed at thirteen, and studied ancient wisdom with the rabbi until I discovered Spinoza at fourteen-- Spinoza was excommunicated for trying to prove God's existence. My Gosh, I thought, Catholics do that-- surely not Jews! I had a long talk with the wise old rabbi, and now many years later, I concede that he was absolutely correct-- God must be above the Universe and the existence of even an infinite universe does not prove the existence of God, but actually this doctrine is Pantheism, or God in Nature-- but then I was filled with righteous indignation and disappointment. I was quite active intellectually those pubescent years. I discovered Zen and Haiku, Miles Davis and John Coltrane. I was actually able to see them live each weekend when they played at the Birdhouse, a club that was roped off for minors due to alcohol laws. I would put on a sportcoat and tie at age fourteen and ride the bus 90 minutes from my suburban home to the inner city of Chicago-- Clark and Dearborn, and sit through matinees and evenings listening to Miles and all the other jazz greats of that era, and reading Haiku and
drinking tea.
When I got older, I discovered one could be declared an emancipated minor and moved out of my parents' house at seventeen.
I've worked as:
I'll not include everything)
In rough order of chronology,
Bus Boy at Oakton Manor, Wisconsin
Social Director at Oakton Manor
Social Worker, Groupworker, Streetworker, south side of Chicago.
Bindery Employee, Main Branch Public Library, Chicago
Shoe salesman the day Kennedy was shot, Evanston
Retail Sales, Old Town, Chicago
musician, San Francisco, 1965-68
Stone Mason Colorado, Sous Chef, Colorado, Carpenter, Colorado
Veterinary ass't., Colorado
Cadastral surveyor, Los Padres Nat'l. Forest, California
Hospital Custodian, Oregon
Retail sales, Manhattan, NY
Cab Driver and musician, Chicago
Commodities desk supervisor, Mercantile exchange, Chicago
Trading Pit Deckholder Board of Trade, Financial instruments, Chicago
Custom Shop Mgr. trainee, Michigan Ave., Chicago
Logger and Green Chain and tree planter, oregon
(all this time working as a musician nights)
Studio and Union musician, Chicago
Technical Director, Oregon
Technical Director, Oak Park Festival Theatre, Illinois
Stage Carpenter, TV, Opera and Industrial shows, Chicago
Heavy Equipment operator, MO
substitute teacher, MO
Over The Road Truck Driver, 48 states and Canada
I've lived in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica with the Rasta, fortunately, I had just finished reading the "Old Testament" four and a half times and so was quite prepared to discuss "JA" with them in rooms of abandoned victorian mansions so dark that, except for the pinpoint ember of a huge spliff being passed around, all I could see was eyes and teeth.
I've lived in Paris, France
I play guitar, flute, and my main instrument, trumpet
I paint oil portraits
I helped build an eighty-ton sculpture on Pratt Beach, Chicago, and was as far as I know the last person to be given a permit to live on the beach in a tent by the Chicago Police during construction.
I've flown a lot of motorcycles
(I've canoed all the major and most minor rivers in the midwest, including canoeing solo twice from Chicago to Cape Girardeau, MO)
And I still have four dogs, three cats and a cockatiel and a wife who puts up with me, thank God for her.
So I guess that pretty much sets me apart...
TTFN
marty
I'm also able to laugh at my own character defects (most of the time). I make a concerted effort not to take myself too seriously, and frequently remind myself that I'm not the hall monitor of the universe.
There was also a splendid moment several years ago when I became grateful to be aware of God's love. Not simply grateful for love. Awareness. It's the primary blessing.
on the one hand i always wanted to have dogs and cats and never marry and have children, on the other hand-i married and had children.
On the one hand i always sought fidelity and thought i would stand by my man no matter what, on the other hand i have chosen to leave that hell also for my children's sake..
on the one hand i am very spiritual and dream, on the other hand i love to shop and purchase things for my kids and dog and rabbits-toys..
on the one hand i take life seriously , on the other hand i don't at all and think most people are full of themselves..i try to laugh it all away every now and then.
On the one hand i am a jew on the other i am a universal soldier, fighting for tolerance and john Lennon is my spokesman even now..
how do i resolve my contradictions? i write..
about the children part-very hard work but at the end of life i wait the moment when they will be by my side holding my hand as i die..sad but true..if it is not too late perhaps adopt or find a younger person who needs a guiding hand and guide..what else matters in life?