One year ago, I wrote about a defining moment in my life. At the time, I noted that I'd write about other defining moments another day. Today is as good as any. The moment I wrote about a year ago was Ironman Chattanooga in 2014, where I achieved my best Ironman time ever, and my best age group placement ever at the time. I've subsequently had better placements in my age group, but I've never gone faster. Rereading my race report reminds me of what that day felt like and sets its own bar for defining moments. The past 7 months has been a defining moment kaleidoscope. though I think I'll keep these months out of my reflections until I get through my first six decades on this earth. Today, I'll start with my first decade of life.
I've always had a good memory, especially visual ones. My first recollection of life comes from around the time that I was 3 or 4 years old. We were camping and it was raining. I remember eating hot dogs. Since It's my first recollection of life as a human being, I'll consider it to be a defining moment. Going forward, I'll try to hone in on moments that have stayed with me my whole life and serve to define me. I have a feeling that the concept may evolve as I write about it, but that's what this blog is for!
When I was around five years old, one of my neighbors, Ray Lippert, ran into me with his bicycle. I'll always remember the scab on my chest. Ray wasn't the nicest kid, and years later my wife would actually be his middle school classmate. Apparently he committed suicide in college. Odd how the currents of our lives pass.
When I was in the third grade, my teacher Mrs. Kantor, told my parents that I was preoccupied with the war in Vietnam. While that preoccupation was clearly influenced by my father, I definitely had a predilection for both worrying about world events and wanting to make a difference in the world. In 1968, at the age of nine, I wrote a letter to President Johnson, asking him to end the war. I am definitely my father's son. As I look at the rest of my life, I've written letters to Jimmy Carter, Menachem Begin, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. I've written other letters to advocate for something that I believed in. I've written Letters to the Editor. It all seems to have begun in the third grade. I'm not sure that my first decade was spent like other kids, but I've rarely followed the path of others.
I was also enthralled by the space program. I actually took a polaroid of Neil Armstrong's first step on the moon. I'd wake up early in the morning to watch the blast off of the Apollo rockets. I'd exaggerate a stomach ache in order to stay home from school to watch the World Series between the Tigers and the Cardinals. Those exaggerated stomach aches got me a trip to the hospital for a barium enema. Now, that was a defining moment! I'll never forget going to the bathroom after the procedure. It seemed like the barium would never stop coming out! I think my stomach aches were cured as well.
I believe that I read Martin Eden for the first time in the fourth grade. As was to become standard for my whole life, I'm not sure how much I really understood, but I always set the bar high. I would always reach to do things that were beyond my capabilities...until they weren't. Over the years, each time I would read Martin Eden, I'd gain a new understanding.
June 19, 1969 would be the end of my first decade of life. My Side of the Mountain was one of the most viewed movies that year. I loved that movie! A thirteen year old runs away to live in the mountains. I connected with something. Perhaps it was the need to be different from everyone else. Perhaps it was the need to be an individual. In some ways that movie was emblematic of my first decade.
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