Paperclips and rubber bands...

Ummm...a true story...I was seven years old at the time...
This was one of those life changing moments that caused me to reflect on my place in the world and how it was...deciding...that led me into that moment...

Before you ask...yes...I contemplated things of this nature at that age...





Almost




What is this need, this careless disregard, this destructive factor that we carry deep within?
What causes us to step on spiders and pull the wings from flies?

Paperclips and rubber bands, a touch of dark mischief, a pond in spring. These, the ingredient’s of a day in my youth.
A boy, with haunting in his smile.

I remember it so clearly.
Almost, I can breathe again the scent of life, relived.
There I was, filled with youth, the eagerness of my mission laying hot upon me, a genetic fever.

We stalked…in our hearts we were warriors, hard on the side of justice.
Silent as growth we crept closer to our destination.
All too soon there it was.
The pond.
It lay before us.
Calm.
Black.
The secret base of our sworn foe.

We held our breaths.
With nervous fingers brought our weapons to bear.
With exultation's heady cry…let loose those childhood missiles.

Our enemy lay twisting.
Thrashing.
Dying.

The bright clarity of the moment was shattered.
Dread moved heavy in me.
My vision blurred.

I raised my hand to brush at my eyes.
A wetness.
Privately within…I cried.

There coiled about my fingers like a serpent.
My band of rubber…a paperclip missile dangling seductive from it’s elastic length.

In horror I shook my hand to free it of it’s weapon and glanced down.
There…lying dead in the water.
The pierced bodies of frogs.




YouSir

Well done! Poor little froggies.

a reply to: Night Star


Ummm...thank you Night Star...I learned another lesson that day as we took the frogs back home and cooked their legs over an open fire in the basement fireplace...

That lesson was to honor the spirit of the frog by taking it into my body and making it forever a part of me...




YouSir

a reply to: YouSir

Good thinking, like the Native Americans who gave thanks to the spirit of the animal for giving them nourishment, clothing etc.

I very much respect where that story led.

Well done.

a reply to: incoserv


Ummm...thank you Incoserv...In all honesty...that story led to this moment...

The lessons I learned that day have helped to shape the dominant personality aspect of my character...I think that it also helped breed a desire to record my thoughts and experiences...

Perhaps adversely...it also caused me to reflect on other issues from childhood and finally learn to accept trauma for what it is...
I realize now that trauma isn't the mold...the shape of what comes after...rather...it's merely a cocoon...a transitioning defense mechanism that can also transform one into something greater than the sum of happenstance...

In order for such a transition to be realized...one has to be willing to fully explore the essence of cause and effect and not fall prey to an insular...singular...perspective...

I call this Wholeism...





YouSir

a reply to: YouSir

Well Penned. Wholeism indeed!!! Syx.

a reply to: SyxPak

Ummm...thank you Syx...I personally think that there should be a new word per day added to the lexicon...
as long as the wordwright provided the definition of course...
Just think what it would mean for the writer...365 new words per year to play with......too cool...

Well...at least for those of us that read the dictionary...cover to cover...(guilty)
But that was when I was six years old....I was fascinated by words and wanted to know what they all meant...After that I read all of the encyclopedia's...(my parents had a complete set)...I was in heaven...
Yep...you guessed it...I was a bookworm...





YouSir