.........."The Rest of The Story"......Well...Some more of It!
GOOOOOD MORNING AVID READERS!
Actually I feel great today and would like to begin by sharing a few things before I get on with "The Rest Of The Story"...
....Thought for the Day:
...............Every Day Is A Gift...Not A Problem To Be Solved!
...If you haven't figured it out yet?...I am a movie buff. I love to watch "GOOD MOVIES!"
As a matter of fact, I probably spend way too much time watching movies, but hey...It's way better than sitting on a bar stool, crying in my beer.
You might want to check out the movie "JUNO"?
....This is not a movie for small children, but if you are willing to be honest and admit that we live in the real world and are not totally offended by a few smatterings of profanity....Then I would highly recommend that you give this one a viewing. 3 1/2 Stars***.5
After checking it out, then you can decide whether or not to watch it with your teenagers. Personally If I still had any teenagers at home, I would sit them down and watch it together and then hopefully use it as a jumping off point to initiate dialogue about such sensitive subjects like; Teenage/Pre-Marital Sex and Babies having Babies, and the impact that those lifestyle choices could have on their lives.
That is what the Movie is about... A young lady in High School that wasn't really Promiscuous, but did have Casual Sex one time with her Nerdy boyfriend, and as a result, became pregnant. It's a great story if you're Pro-Life and even if you are not. The main Characters in the story do a great job acting, and the storyline is very relevant to the types of realities that our Pubescent children are faced with on a daily basis. Just check it out and I think you will agree with me that its definitely worth the price of a rental or a purchase for your collection, and it may wind up being a great icebreaker if you watch it with your young sons or daughters to help you talk about some very important real life issues that they will inevitably be confronted with.
....Trust me when I tell you that you "DO NOT" want your children to be educated in the same fashion that I was....Just check it out.
Lets see if I can pick up where I left off last time....
....It was the summer between the 7th and 8th grade, Junior High.
I was snooping around in my parents bedroom and came across their small stash of Pot and some smoking paraphernalia.
....You are just kidding yourself if you think there are things in your life that you don't want your children to know about, and you believe they are not aware or won't find out about your secret or questionable behavior. Trust me they know, or they will know.
....Anyways, I busted them out for smoking dope and they made a decision to include me...and also allow me to get high with them. I smoked my first joint with my Mom and my Step-Dad...I was 13 or 14 years young.
...As it turned out, I was Johnny come lately, because they had already been smoking with some kids my age that I was going to School with.
Kirk Trainer, An extremely popular and street tough kid that I went to school with, soon after this monumental and what I thought was an extremely cooooooooool situation became one of my best friends.
.... Growing up in the 60's was all about being Cool and Hip. We wanted everything to be "Grooooooooovy."
I didn't realize it then,... but as I look back...these were extremely confusing times in my life,... and at the time, I thought, I all of a sudden had the coolest Parents in the world.
...If I can digress for just a moment, I've got a couple of quick stories about Kirk Trainer that I want to tell you about.
Kirk was a real tough guy at school...You know the type, He was the Fonz from the Sitcom "Happy Days". That's the kind of guy he was. Very popular, very streetwise, the quintessential James Dean, Rebel without a cause kind of guy.
Prior to my discovery of my Parents Marijuana lifestyle....I'm pretty sure I was in the 6th grade. Right before I graduated from Elementary to Junior High, I remember My Mom And Step-Dad had the drug talk with me...It went something like this...
...Now son, you know that you can come to us and talk to us about anything going on in your life...
...You see I don't want you all to totally get the wrong Idea about my parents back then.
There was plenty of normal, typical family experiences and dynamics along the way. In spite of some really bad choices and behaviors on their part...I know in my heart of hearts, they loved me, and wanted to do the right things, so before everyone judges them too harshly, you never know where people have been in their lives, and where they came from?
...Living our lives and parenting is an ongoing learning process. And if you never had good role models or a solid family to instill in you good moral character and high standards , proper and appropriate codes of conduct, strong family values...often times people wind up continuing the destructive behaviors and patterns that they grew up with....
....It's a vicious, & Oftentimes destructive,dysfunctional repetitive cycle...
....Oh yeah! ....Where was I?.....Come on now, Y'all have to realize that your reading a guy with some seriously toasted Brain cells here. Remember LSD 25? Windowpane, Sugar Cube, & Blotter Acid??? There are times when I just wander off...Take a Trip....and never leave the Farm.................?
Anyways, Kirk Trainer, 6th Grade, The Parent vs Child Drug Talk....
...."Now Son, you know that you can come to us and talk to us about anything, OK? And, if any body should approach you and try to get you to try drugs?" "You can come to us and tell us....OK?"
... It wasn't very long after that...when Kirk was showing off a couple of joints he had rolled up and in his cigarette pack at school....That was my first experience with that stuff ever. It shook me up and just like they asked me too, I told my Mom & Dad about it. I really don't remember anything ever happening to anybody over my telling them about what happened, and it was soon forgotten where I was concerned...At that Point I didn't run in the same Circles as Kirk...It was 6th grade & I was 12 years old. It was almost 2 years after that before I found that Pot in my Parents Bedroom.
The other story I wanted to share with you is also about Kirk Trainer...We didn't start out as friends. As a matter of fact, quite the opposite. Kirk and I were the same age, and in the same grade at school, but like I said earlier, we didn't run in the same circles, or hang out together...His house was actually about a half of a mile from where I lived a little further East Towards NorthEastern Junior High School on Fenimore Street. I lived On Phelps Ave.
...How Kirk and I became friends might be a fairly typical story. We were in the same Gym class together and one day we were playing intramural soccer. He was on the opposite side...What happened was, I was playing the goalie position and ha was bringing the Ball up to make a score and I blocked his attempt.
...Like I said earlier Kirk was a tough kid, even somewhat of a bully...Anyways he got real pissed because I blocked his shot and he threatened me at that point and told me that he was going to be looking for me after school and that he had better not catch me on the streets or he was going to kick my ass.
..If you remember from my previous writing, I quit being a punk and the victim shortly after my Mother and My Step-Father Started seeing each other, so when Kirk called me out...My response was bring it on. I really thought He was just blowing smoke and posing in front of our class. I didn't think too much more about it, until about 3 days later on the way home from School...we walked in those days...
...Kirk was on the opposite side of the street and I didn't even know He was there, until he started yelling at me and hollering across the street at me that I better start running because He had promised me an ass whoopin and I was fixing to get it. To Make a long story a little bit shorter....what wound up happening was that I got he best of him, but I will admit that he got some pretty good licks on me as well.
...The funny part of the story is...2 days later we run into each other again on the street on the weekend up by the corner market and Kurtie as his friends always called him came running over to me laughing hooting and a hollering slapping me five gave me a big hug and we laughed like crazy over all of our scrapes and bruises that we were carrying from the fight we had a few days earlier. From that day forward we became the best of friends, and it was a friendship that lasted well into adulthood and we would still be friends today except for the fact That Kirk Trainer my life long childhood buddy...for the good or bad Was Killed in a car wreck after spending most of the evening at Gull Rd. Tavern Drinking and shooting pool.
... It was said the high speed of his vehicle and alcohol consumption were contributing factors behind him not making the curve on Nazareth Rd. and running into a huge oak tree head on. He was 33 years old, had a good wife, 3 kids, and a great Job at the Upjohn Pharmaceutical company.
... In our adult years I stayed in contact with him, and occasionally we still went fishing and hunting together just like we used to do as teenagers and young Men.
Kirk Trainer was one of my very best friends in the whole world, Bosom Buddies...We grew up together, Just like the guys in the movie the Lords of Flatbush, and Saturday Night Fever...We even grew up in that same era, that generation, we were freaks and hippies getting high, dealing dope, partying, drinking , bar fights together watching each others backs,...We went camping up to Lake Michigan together, fishing, hunting, going on trips to Amusement Parks with our other friends, double dates with our girls who eventually became our wives and even though our life styles dramatically changed as we both became adults, We both grew out of most of our destructive behaviors and became responsible family men, ...
...It pains me to the point of almost being unbearable, over his needless
Death!!!!
...It still hurts to this day...I miss him and I can't say for sure where he's spending eternity even though I shared the Gospel with Him several times. I feel like his blood is on My hands sometimes because I didn't put as much energy into winning his soul to Christ as I did the much more destructive behaviors that we shared as youths growing up together.
We never Know what takes place between a Person and their creator at those brief moments before Death carries us away forever into eternity, And I do Know That Kirk Believed In God Because we talked about many times, So I'll never stand in judgement of his eternal destination!
... That's God's Business!
... But I do know that I would feel so much better...and the pain would not be so severe, if I could say with the utmost confidence that I knew for a certainty That Kirk was in heaven this very moment because I won him to Jesus or that He had made that good confession in front of many witnesses.
....Trust me when I tell you That Life is too uncertain to let things go unsaid or undone with a friend or loved one...
... You don't want to live out the rest of your days after experiencing this kind of hurt and pain over the loss of someone so near and dear to your life...
.....ETERNITY....HEAVEN AND HELL .....IS FOREVER...AND LIVING YOUR LIFE WITH THE REGRET THAT I FEEL....AND THE UNCERTAINTY IN MY HEART???
...THAT KIND OF PAIN IS NOT THE KIND OF PAIN THAT YOU WANT TO CARRY WITH YOU TO YOUR GRAVE...THE SALVATION OF SOMEONES SOUL IS TOO IMPORTANT TO NOT KNOW!!!!
...."God is not willing that any should perish, but that all would come to repentance, and the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ Our Lord!"...
Love
Michael
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