I absolutely loved growning up… the sledding, ice skating, swimming, whipping the boy’s in basketball, investigating everywhere (especially where Mom said not to go). It was the best time ever ’cause we had no worries and no responsibilites.

As an adult, fear for me seems to come from any remote possiblity of being rejected. Not just sure where that comes from, but I don’t like to have it happen to me. Dating for me has been full of rejection and it feels like crap. Then I would take a break from it all, then jump right back in.

Being a kid sometimes keeps us from being grumpy old people. Ride a bike, make a sandcastle, fly a kite, skip stones across the lake, pick the legs off a fly. Whatever makes you feel like a kid again, (assuming you didn’t spend most of your formative years in Juvee Jail), re-live it once-in-a-while; it’s all good. It’s also fun to sit around with good friends and talk about the crazy things you did as a kid. Listening to their stories can bring back good memories of your own. We’ve been doing a lot of that this winter (it’s cold and hurty around here) and the laughter has been good medicine.

I love reading Spiderman or Superman or even Batman from time to time at my local bookstore. It’s a joy to revisit some of these superheroes.

The great thing about superheroes is that they can never really die. They’ll always be in your heart.

And as far as excuses…. there is no excuses. Life rewards action

I love European movies! I love good stories. And mine is a gold mine, I just have to think about how I want to tell it. And I have to trust myself enough to say it.

All in good time.

David, I’ve got a date for Saturday with a woman I met in a bookstore where I used one of your ideas to get a conversation started. Should be fun! Now, if I can just focus on the moment and not scream and run the first time I get a hint of being screened for “relationship material” I’ll be fine.

Mike

Mike – I used to be afraid of flying – until I learned all kinds of disgusting statistics about aborted take-offs and landings, pilot error, and other flight safety issues and instead of freaking me out, it actually relieved me of all flight stress. Geez, who knew? The only thing I was afraid of after 9/11 was the nuts in the airports trying to “test” the TSA guys like it was their job.

Feeling like a kid? I loved to climb trees and it made my parents crazy but at least they knew where I was because the family dog was always parked at the foot of the tree, patiently waiting. Dogs make me think of that – especially the big slobbery variety. Maybe a Scooby-Doo? Or stepping out into the actual vista of Machu Picchu and the view just exploded in front of me – breathtaking, no matter how many times I had seen it in photos and movies and documentaries. Nothing can prepare you for that first look in person – and I do not exactly come from a family of adventurers…far from it. But my curiosity overwhelmed my fear. Every day should be like that.