I was a typical nerd growing up. By middle school, I had given up on basketball because the other guys had caught up to my height advantage. I had abandoned football because of my Fall allergies. I despised baseball ever since my dad showed up drunk to my peewee league practice. The other guys thought he was funny, but I was thoroughly embarrassed. Needless to say, I was not going to become an athlete. I did excel in school, though.
My ninth-grade science teacher gave me a two-volume set of books on the "Rise of the New Physics." They really kicked off my love of theoretical physics. My ninth-grade math teacher gave me a copy of Descartes' "Discourse on Method and Meditations." That along with a yoga book that introduced me to the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita became the foundation of all my future philosophical thinking.
The high points of my middle school years were science fairs and church camp. Church camp is where I first kissed a girlfriend. She and I also shared a beautiful outdoor communion. Couples would hike up a small hill together to a communion table in a perfectly idyllic setting. There we partook of the rite. I can't decide if I felt closer to God during the kiss or the communion. They were both beautiful experiences.
These were my formative years. Nothing miraculous or spiritual happened during this period. My first year at Georgia Tech, I did have an out of body experience during a yoga meditation. It freaked me out so much that I immediately fell back into my body and never tried it again. I attributed the experience to my mind playing tricks and never told anyone about it. As I mentioned in part one, I did have several more out of body experiences corresponding to the near-death experiences of my stroke and the car wreck that killed my best friend. The latter being the one-time God spoke to me directly. Again, probably my mind playing tricks. But as I pointed out in that chapter my friend's girlfriend latter confirmed some of what I thought God had talked to me about.
Looking back after more than half a century of life, I must confess that it might just be that I have a brain that is just prone to weirdness. If you want to know more about me, you can read my biography "Stories from under a Bootheel."
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Pretty Sure I'm Dead
General FictionWhere in the secret to life the universe and everything is revealed. Who says entertaining writing has to have a story, or a plot? Why can't it be just a stream of consciousness, some interesting episodes from one's life, some regrets revisited, s...
