I remember the first time I ever heard the word "boring" in a sentence. Our family was visiting another family and all of us kids were outside playing baseball in the yard. There was a neighbor girl there playing too.
I do not remember how old I was, certainly not a teenager. My brother may have been a teenager. It seems like the neighbor girl was about his age, but I have no way of knowing.
Anyway, she was on second base when all of a sudden she said, "This is boring" and walked off second base, out of the yard and to her house. I stood there with my mouth open, wondering what in the world was happening. I could put her words and actions together to form a context of what "boring" meant, but I could not believe it.
How could baseball be boring? How could playing with friends be boring? How could being outside on a beautiful day be boring? How could life be boring?
I thought about her statement long and hard that day and 45+ years later, it has never left me. How in the world can a person be bored when life has so many avenues to explore?
All my life, every new day has been an adventure. There are so many things to discover, so many things to read, so many things to know, so many people to meet, so many sights to see. How in the world can a person be bored?
When I was a kid it was climbing trees, riding bikes, walking in the woods, playing in piles of leaves, playing baseball, walking the roads and picking up aluminum cans. It was family meals, church, school, reading books, thumbing through encyclopedias and on and on and on.
It sure seems like we worked a lot. We worked in the garden, worked in the yard, worked cutting and stacking wood, worked on the barn and worked on Dad's electrical jobs. I know I would have rather been playing during some of those times, but it was not boring. There was always something to see, something to learn.
I remember how amazed I was as an adult, that I knew so much about electrical work from just being around it. I always say I picked it up through osmosis. The skills that I learned on those days that I could have been "bored" have put a lot of food on our table through the years.
At nine years old in Weeblo's I discovered road maps studying for a badge and that opened up a whole new world to me. I discovered Mile Markers and began memorizing the Mile Markers of the truck stops, restaurants and cities.
I traced roads with my finger all over the USA, found cities and special places and then looked them up in the encyclopedia. IF the internet had been in existence, I would have blown up my brain with information.
My brother Steve and I rode our bikes everywhere. I never got tired of trying new roads and finding out where they intersected with a road I knew about. Steve bought a moped as a teenager and then passed it onto me when he graduated to a car. Wow! The world was open!
AND the world has been open ever since. Life with Kelly Jo and Odie has been full of one adventure after another. It has been a joy and I have not been bored one single moment, not one!
God has given us all an amazing world to live in. There is something new around every corner. I sure would hate to wake up one morning bored and then die.
To be continued:
Thank you for joining us.
Davy
