Word count 299
“When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.”
Only the first part is true for me. As a child I certainly did childish things. I did well in school, played softball or baseball at school and in league or pickup games during the summer. I wore grubby jeans, ugly shirts, and sneakers all frequently dirty and torn. Because I was lazy and disinterested I didn’t learn another language or how to play a musical instrument. I knew very few life skills because someone else did things for me.
When I left home around age twenty I made very simple salads and burgers when I didn’t eat out. My diet was mostly beer, burgers, and pizza. My clothes and bedding had little maintenance. Sometimes someone bought clothes for me. Looking back I’m not sure how I survived.
My first girlfriend dumped me when I suggested that she casually date other guys because I was busy with college. We never went out on proper dates. The second cut me off because I didn’t have the maturity to deal with her past trauma.
Sounds like a recipe for disaster. I got by financially because I was gifted in mathematics and little else was required from me as an actuary. Everything else fell into place when I met the woman who has looked after me for fifty three years.
There’s a lot to be said for growing up, but some of my childhood pursuits still appeal. I’m the worst softball player on an over fifty-five league. I’ve returned to the Oz books that my father read to me. Burgers and beer are fine in moderation.
This variation on the Biblical injunction appears in Written Tales. Buy Chapbook with story https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C2SM685K.
Doug Hawley 