I began my journey into words at the beginning. A likely place to start, and the ability to express myself has usually served me adequately. It is the constant learning later on that has slowed my progress.
I was born naturally, with an umbilical cord, so I wasn’t a strange science anomaly. The only problem was that I had been breakdancing in utero, and the cord was wrapped around my neck six times.
Back when medical professionals still used appropriate words, I was instantly labeled as severely retarded.
My mother would have none of it, and my father wouldn’t either. They both chose different paths. Him, drink and distance. Her, defiance.
Me, letters on the ceiling above my crib by Mom. They were probably her earliest and best works of art.
As it turned out, I wasn’t retarded, I was just a gifted, casual asshat, and my reprimands for bad behavior or grades ran the full gamut. For me, the worst was forced yard work. Sure, it toughened up my hands and built some muscle, but when a guy is getting that first surge of hormones he has more important things to do…computer games.
One game I spent days on was Ultima IV. Your basic swords and magic stuff.
I got it for Christmas, but I secretly started playing it (when I was supposed to be out raking leaves as punishment for something-or-other) early that November. If I had been smarter, I would have realized that I could have kept the floppy discs at my computer without discovery, but after each play session I packaged the box back up and perfected the gift wrap, stuck it back in the pile.
Other than a pleasurably wasted hundred hours and a great sense of ‘getting away with it,’ I got something special from that game.
At the end of the final dungeon after the big badguy fight, there was a code word required to win the game. It was based on moral principles discovered while playing through the adventure. This was before the current Net, so there were no cheesy insta-cheats.
The word was VerAmoCor. Truth, Love, Courage.
I remember those words of wisdom decades later.
What are your three words?
I was born naturally, with an umbilical cord, so I wasn’t a strange science anomaly. The only problem was that I had been breakdancing in utero, and the cord was wrapped around my neck six times.
Back when medical professionals still used appropriate words, I was instantly labeled as severely retarded.
My mother would have none of it, and my father wouldn’t either. They both chose different paths. Him, drink and distance. Her, defiance.
Me, letters on the ceiling above my crib by Mom. They were probably her earliest and best works of art.
As it turned out, I wasn’t retarded, I was just a gifted, casual asshat, and my reprimands for bad behavior or grades ran the full gamut. For me, the worst was forced yard work. Sure, it toughened up my hands and built some muscle, but when a guy is getting that first surge of hormones he has more important things to do…computer games.
One game I spent days on was Ultima IV. Your basic swords and magic stuff.
I got it for Christmas, but I secretly started playing it (when I was supposed to be out raking leaves as punishment for something-or-other) early that November. If I had been smarter, I would have realized that I could have kept the floppy discs at my computer without discovery, but after each play session I packaged the box back up and perfected the gift wrap, stuck it back in the pile.
Other than a pleasurably wasted hundred hours and a great sense of ‘getting away with it,’ I got something special from that game.
At the end of the final dungeon after the big badguy fight, there was a code word required to win the game. It was based on moral principles discovered while playing through the adventure. This was before the current Net, so there were no cheesy insta-cheats.
The word was VerAmoCor. Truth, Love, Courage.
I remember those words of wisdom decades later.
What are your three words?
