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Sunday, May 30, 2010

Yin and Yang of Life

Yesterday we (me 'n the wife) took our young Korean friend on a modest excursion to Long Beach in the southern portion of our county, then to Astoria, Oregon, across the Columbia River. She got to see the sights and we got in some needed grocery shopping.

At some point during the drive, we talked a bit about some of the rather unique things each of us has done in life as well as the variety of things we have never experienced. Since that portion of our conversation, I have thought about the topic a lot. So, here's some of what I came up with.

Some Things I've Never Experienced
  • I've never been scuba diving or skydiving;
  • I've never ridden on a horse or a motorcycle;
  • I've never been intoxicated nor have I ever tried pot or any other illegal drug;
  • I've never traveled to another continent nor really wanted to;
  • I've never earned more than $18,500 in any one year;
  • I've never been to the Empire State Building, Broadway, Wall St., Yankee Stadium nor the Statue of Liberty even though I spent nearly one week in metro New York City;
  • I've never eaten an oyster or a clam;
  • I've never consumed as little as one can of beer or one bottle of soda pop;
  • I've never been part of the "in" crowd.
Some Things I Have Experienced That the Average Person Probably Hasn't
  • I ran for Governor of Oregon (as a Socialist) in 1998;
  • I worked for one year as a firefighter with the US Forest Service;
  • I've spent many, many hours face-to-face with a convicted killer -- he murdered a police officer -- serving a life sentence;
  • I've hiked all over North, West and Hot Springs Mountain in Arkansas...almost always alone;
  • I've driven cross country (Arkansas to Oregon) by myself twice;
  • I represented myself for an an extradition hearing in superior court (material witness warrant) and won my case;
  • I bet I'm one of the few people in this world who has ALL of the following conditions: Klinefelter's Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, Schizotypal Personality Disorder, Asperger's Syndrome, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Social Anxiety Disorder, a congenitally dissolving left hip, an abnormally formed sinus cavity, an extra lumbar vertebrae AND a completely torn ligament/curved bone in my right shoulder;
  • As a teenager, I urinated on Jesse James' grave.
Of course, neither of these lists is exhaustive and most of the bullet points above contain a story to be told! Maybe, one day, I'll tell a few of them.

What about you? What are some of the rather unique things that differentiate your life from the norm?

4 comments:

  1. Hmmmm... interesting query. Let's see:

    I ran for Governor of Alaska (as a Green).

    I've ridden horseback alone through the Absoraka Wilderness for weeks at a time.

    I took the jacket cover portrait of James Michener for his book "Alaska."

    I shot the first video of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989 and produced a documentary of the effects of the spill for the United Nations.

    I drank beer with the original Mercury Seven astronauts in my back yard.

    I slept on the land in Lynn, Massachusetts that was my 11th Great Grandfather's farm in 1639.

    I stood on the shore of Alaska and really did see Russia on the horizon.

    I discovered oil leaking into the Colorado River from this country's first successful oil shale retorting facility in Rifle, Colorado.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I spent a summer driving 32,000 miles across NA getting to every US state and most of Canada. By chance I flew to Hawaii the following year.

    In NY city I asked a stranger for directions and ran into the same person several hours later across town.

    I have driven to Deadhorse, AK (different trip) from CA.

    I live in a wee burg (pop 40+/-) 30 miles from anywhere and am considering running for mayor this fall.

    I am self-employed.

    I have walked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and to the top of White Mtn. CA in the same week.

    Doctors consider me boring because I answer 'no' to all their general questions.
    ------

    I too have not been scuba diving or skydiving.

    I have not traveled off the NA continent except to Hawaii.

    I have never been to an opera.

    I do not have, nor expect to have, a tatto.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Strange Person6/02/2010 07:57:00 PM

    What's the 'in' crowd?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Strange Person,
    I don't rightly know since I've never been "in" that crowd. :)

    ReplyDelete

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