I received a letter the other day from a very old and very dear friend. I have known him, man and boy as they say, since I was in grade school. He lived 2 doors up the street from me and for 10 years you never saw one of us without seeing the other nearby. He and I were cavalry scouts on the playground, pirates on the swings, went on safaris in the city parks, fought great naval battles in the swimming pools and sacked many a sand castle on the beaches. His family moved "back east" about the time I started High School. There were times when we lost contact but always managed to reconnect every few years. He has always been one of those very few people with whom you feel completely comfortable and at ease. A person you can tell you deepest secrets too, share your fears with, and confess your sins too --with no fear of being judged or ridiculed. He is a rare and treasured friend.
This letter was part of a kind of on-going discussion he and I have been having lately, looking through the mists of memory and where our paths have brought us and into the fog of the future trying to see where they may be taking us. In it he told me something that gave me pause. I wasn't quite sure what he meant, but after some thought, I think he was probable right on the mark.
He said I have always been a rebel in my soul. He said that a big part of what makes me who I am is that I am always ready question authority, simply because is is "authority". It is a kind of personal oxymoron because I have always been proud of my reputation for playing by the rules -and yet I also enjoy a reputation for throwing out the book and writing the rules as I go along. I am quick to ask what the law says, and yet I am also quick to ask how to get around that law. I will often criticize my country with every breath, then defend it vigorously to my last breath.
He ended by sending me a link to a You Tube clip -It is a song that he had heard for the first time in many years and he said that when he heard it he realized that it could have been my theme song all these years....
