I am quite confident in the fact that anyone who comes across this blog will not know me (except of course those I've told to check it out of course). The odds are simply quite magnificent. So I guess the best thing to do is offer up an introduction, a personal history if you will. As you will learn, history is important to me and offers important context with which we can better discern proper courses of action. For you it may be read on, for others to flee running into the hills. Personally I hope its the former, however if it is the latter, when your muscles and bones wary of running I invite you to take in your surroundings and begin to ask 'how did I get here?'
I was born in 1973 in a small town in Ontario Canada. Apparently this was a time of political tension and economic decline, this I don't remember. Interesting fact to throw in, I have the same birthday as Henry Winkler, the Fonz. I was born to working class parents who did the best that they could to offer their children what they never had. An example of this would be the fact that I am the first person in my family to get a university degree. My time growing up was most common I would think. School for ten months of the year and summers spent with friends and family. When I was only eight months old, my maternal grandfather died. He was a veteran of WW2 (he even stormed the beaches of Normandy, Juno in this case for those of you not too familiar with Canadian history) who was denied societal support as there was none to offer. As such he became an alcoholic. Obviously I never knew him, but I am told that he was quite fond of me and I'd like to think that I have become a man he would be proud of because he was a man I am proud of. Sure he was a man of weakness, aren't we all if we are willing to admit it, but he was also a man of great strength who withstood untold horrors on battlefields far away, fighting for something greater than himself. Not everyone can do that.
I grew up attending the Anglican church (Episcopal, I think for our American friends) but didn't go through with my confirmation at age twelve. This I'm sure would have grieved my paternal grandmother muchly as she was a devoutly religious woman. Unfortunately she died when I was nine. She was the only grandparent I ever really knew. I can remember going to her place on Saturday evenings and watching Toronto Maple Leaf games on the CBC's Hockey Night in Canada. I can still remember her face twenty-two years later. My teen years were spent unhappily alone with no real friends. There were people that I hung around with but none I would could truly call a friend. When I was finished high school I was glad. People say that high school is the best time of your life. I think their wrong. I think that people who say that are disappointed with themselves because they have never been able to make something of themselves. To get past the limited world that is high school. Your eighteen when you graduate, to think that it's all down hill from there is ridiculous, its just the beginning. To be honest I haven't spoken to anyone I went to high school with in over twelve years.
After high school, I attended a small college and studied electronic engineering. I didn't like it and when I was done ended up working in a factory in my hometown. I did manage to find a job in my field once, it only lasted six weeks and I was making half of what I was making in the factory. I spent $25,000 to end up making $8 per hour. Where is the sense in that? Anyways after a while the factory closed down so I worked in another factory. Then I left there and began working for the local cable company. Not a bad job and it was during this period that some significant things happened in my life, but I'm glad I'm not doing that today. If your old enough you may have seen a cheesy 70's porn (please note I am not recomending pornography, its just that this bit of the story does fit the template that they were noted for) where a repairman shows up at a woman's home and after some rather atrocious dialogue they are doing it on the stairs. Well I didn't have sex with anyone, but it is how I met my future wife. I installed the cable in her apartment and by the time I was done I had a date with her. As I am sure you have already deduced that was one of the significant things that happened. The other was that my fellow employees had been treated rather poorly by our boss and as such had begun to unionize. I was subsequently fired. The union fought it and won and after a year off of work they were forced to pay me a year's back wages and give me my job back. You might think that this would be like winning the lottery, unfortunately not, it actually screwed up my taxes for years and in the end I was laid off three months later. However it was during all of this mess that I decided to go back to school, get a university degree and become a teacher.
I got married in September of 2001, two days before my classes started. We ended up leaving my hometown and moved to her's where my school was located. Things were good for a bit but unfortunately soured and in the end she stopped talking with me and by June of 2002 she decided to end it. To be honest I didn't take this the best, to be brutally honest I became a blathering idiot for much of the summer but in the end it taught me a tough lesson and allowed me to grow as a person. I know, I know. Your sitting there reading and thinking that I'm lying to myself and you the reader. Perhaps, but sometimes a delusion can be as constructive as reality if channeled properly and if this is truly a delusion it has served me well. I began to engage the world around me more. I'm not too sure why to be honest, but I began thinking things through for myself. It was a little frightening but also great fun. I grew up an unthinking conservative. That is not to say that all conservatives are unthinking but rather that my knee jerk reaction on social-political-economic issues was conservative. No thought required. George W. would have loved me. But I began to be challenged, I began to think critically, I began to use the skills I was learning in school in the real world. Slowly over the months my views began to change and I began to devolop ideas that were mine and not necesarily those of my parents. To illustrate, before the war in Iraq started I remember talking with a friend of mine and clearly stating that there is no way that the U.S. or Britain would invade Iraq if there were no WMDs. There is just no way. They would not abuse their positions of authority and trust that way. A year later I was criticizing those same governments for what I believe to be a senseless war. In the end my early optimism and knee-jerk conservatism were betrayed because it turned out that there were no WMDs and that when none were found the party line was 'we did it to bring democracy to the oppressed' or 'Saddam had to go, he was a threat to world peace and stability'. Where was the cause of democracy at the beginning? If that was the driving force behind their actions why wouldn't the sell the war to the people with a message of hope (democracy - freedom) rather than fear (terrorism - WMDs)?
So now I sit a few years later, I think wiser and smarter. I have learned a great many things these past few years, not only about myself but about the world I live in. One of the things that made this possible is my going to University. I wouldn't give it up for nothing and I would encourage everyone to go if they are able. I am a history major and have been able to study (European) history from 2000BC with the ancient Greeks (my favorite culture so far) to the present. I've learned about the Roman empire, the middle ages, the renaissance, reformation, enlightentment and the modern world. In all of this I have aquired a set of skills that serve me well. Skills which allow me to investigate problems, to think critically about them, ask questions and to develop educated conclusions. My university education has been invaluable to me. I encountered a modern historian by the name of Michael Wallace (no, not the guy from 60 Minutes) who said (and I am paraphrasing) 'history offers us context for our present which enables us to act in the future'. I love that quote. Bob Marley said 'If you know your history Then you would know where you coming from Then you wouldn't have to ask me Who the heck do I think I am'.
After that I guess the only thing left to say is that I am a Christian. I found God when I was twenty after spending two years alone searching for an identity and my place in the world. My walk has been a road of highs and lows, but I'm still walking and striving. I think I've come to a better understanding of God, myself and my place in the world. In the end I have to echo Jesus when He says to 'love your neighbor as yourself'. I truly believe if we all simply did that, regardless of religion or creed, the world would be a better place.
Anything else? Well I have one tattoo and two piercings (my upper left ear and tongue). I'm thinking of getting my right eyebrow done as well as a second tattoo. I can touch my nose with my tongue, even with the stud in. I'm a big Pink Floyd fan and have been blessed by being allowed to see them live. I like to write and read fiction. My favorite genre would be science fiction for both. The last book I bought was 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix'. The last story that I completed was called Hope. I work in a homeless shelter for teenagers. Before this I worked in a homeless shelter for men for a year. Its not for everyone (at first I didn't think I could handle it) but it gives you a perspective of our world, society and fellow man like no other. I play rugby (hooker - prop), golf, baseball and football. I enjoy watching soccer, hockey and rugby. I collect comic books, most notibly X-Men but also Sleeper and Small Gods. I have a couple hundred CD's ranging from rock to country to classical. I have over a hundred movies and nearly two hundred books.I guess that's me, for now. Next time I'll try to be a little more entertaining.
Vespasian
No comments:
Post a Comment