Funny thing life I have decided, how we all live it, and percieve it in different ways.
For example 3 years ago, back in Co Cork, my life was being controleed by the stuff that was going on around me. My brother had died, after a long and what I can only describe as vile illness of leukaemia, with me at 14 15 years of age watching the person I looked up to as my hero dealing with a condition that by its nature strips the sufferer of all dignity, but somehow he managed to make the suffereing itself dignified, at the same time my biological father continued to drink and wreck his body life and total existence, and ruin the last small pieces of humanity left in him.
To look at them both as I did then made me wonder how for two totally different reasons, both of these men were fighting the same thing, one was fighting death to try and stay alive, the other seemed to me to be fighting life to try and die
I remember thinking that this was obviously the way of the world, and how it would all end for me, although neither seemed particularly attractive lol.
I do remember though Si, my brother between treatments when he was at home, insisting on looking the best he could at all times, hed say to me "Rat help me get cleaned up and changed, I cant let this "bug" as he called it determine how I live, even if it will determine how I die". And we as a family were not allowed to tell people, how sick he was. He continued to go to college, and learn, sit exams, for qualifications, he knew he would never use, he would sing and play guitar at college functions to raise money for charities etc. That was his way of dealing with "the Bug".
My way of dealing with it all was simple, I became a first rate 100 carat ass hole, the sort of kid only a mother can love, and I tried that to the limit too. It just all seemed pointless, futile to me, because one way or another, the way I saw it I was doomed. At age 16 I was well on my way to joining my Father in one of Irelands many gutters, I got on well with him at that time because we were that same, thought the same, did the same. I shudder at some of the momories of that short period of time, and wonder if I will ever have the inner strength to confront those memories.
It took a complete stranger to make me realise that there was a choice, but that the hardest thing to do was to decide to make that choice, he taught me that Si was right, the only thing that can take away your dignity is yourself, there are always choices, when you cant see an option, it is because you dont want to, or cant be bothered. This guy walked the streets of Cork and found me, because my mum asked him to, he pulled me out of a shop doorway, i was sharing with my dad, and carried me covered in piss, some mine some donated by passers by, back home, where he stripped me, cleaned me up, and, when I opened my mouth and hurled the normal abuse at my mum, spanked my ass like a 5 year old. I remember his words now "Just becauuse you have no respect for yourself, that doesnt allow you to treat your mother with no respect"
This guy has since that night, in my mind gone from a person I wanted to kill slowly and painfully, to a man I respect, honour and love. How, simply by going about his business, and his life, in a way that demonstrated to me that life isnt a choice of A and B a choice between good and bad, it isnt a pre determined choice of this or that.
It is an open plain, where we can choose any direction, and any path, we can go straight along a path from here to where we want to go, or we can meander along the way, but the main point is irrespective of where we start from, we can end up wherever we want to, only we decide which path we take where we end up and which route we take.
I dont think I will ever forgive him for baring my ass in front of my mum and sister and spanking me like a child,lmao, although i was behaving like one. I do however thank him, for doing it with all my heart,for the direction he has shown me and the life I now have, a great life my own car, a stunningly beautiful sexy, and understanding girlfriend. My life wasnt pre determined, I had choices and fortunately a guy who showed me how to find those choices