A Tattoo to Heal

"I want that one," I said pointing to the perfect image of a Bald Eagle with the full moon behind it. "Where would you like it?" The tattoo artist asked in a bored monotone voice. I could sense the boredom of a man used to new recruits walking in as if they were going to be the next hero a movie would be about. A bunch of kids that barrely had to shave, could not legally go into a bar and order a drinkand have never had the opportunity to vote for the Commander in Cheif that was going to send them to horrors they could not imagine. I was the typical new recruit that left for basic training with the most beautiful girl waiting for my return to have the small wedding in my new uniform. I not only thought I needed to do the ritual tattoo a graduate wanted but I needed some meaning to mine. While I was looking though the abused three ring binder of cookie cutter tattoo's, all I could think about was the letter I received half way though Basic Training. The Letter that made my heart leap and my spirits soar when I saw the beautiful hand writing of my love. "I know this is not easy for you and you are going though a stressful time. I can not imagine how alone you must feel in a place where you know no one. I have been doing a lot of thinking this past month and realize that I want to enjoy my first year of college and not worry about being a wife. I want to see you before you leave the country but I can only see you as a friend. I am sorry." I had full intentions of a tattoo that showed my torment, maybe a heart that was getting torn like a piece of paper, or a boot squashing the life out of a heart. I then saw this Eagle which to me was a symbol of America, a symbol of strenght, power and most of all wisdom. A moon, a huge mass that lost a part at every rotation, the look of damage every time it passed by, but a mass that always regenerated and you could count on seeing whole again. The combination of the two symbols made a symbol that showed my prayers. The prayer I said every night, "Lord, please give me the strength to heal my damaged heart. Give me the wisdom that it will heal. Lord show me that my heart will regenerate like the moon so easily does. Lord let me survive and learn from this pain." "So, where do you want it," the impatient artist asked once again. "Above my heart," I said with the air of confidence I have not felt since I opened that envelope.

Dru the Early Years

After getting a chance to talk to my Elementary School Best friend this weekend my mind started bringing up a lot of memories of my childhood. One of the conversations that we had was about our adventures. We lived in a development of boxes that all looked the same just different colors. I am sure if I was to look at it now from an adult view I would see the robotic view of parents leaving in the morning and parents coming home at night. I am sure that the most interesting thing that my parents ever saw while living in one of those dupicate development houses is the time the house about a mile away blew up and we could see it from the porch. But as a child in that neighbor hood it was adventure after adventure. We were discussing this weekend the long trips into other worlds that we would see without a thought to the rest of the world. It didn't matter if it was sitting in the tree in the back yard or if we followed "Rock Cliff" then passed "Root 2 Path" for hours and ended up in the middle of a forest that to us was a aventureland that know explorers have ever seen before. But looking back now it is hard to believe that this small amount of land that was surrounded by these duplicate houses held so much potential for excitement. Although over 20 years have gone by since the last time I explored that area I can garuntee that me and my child hood friends have seen more in those woods than anyone else has since. I actually can close my eyes and take a tour of this land that was our home. from the "Gateway" across the street to the cliff on the other side. There were 4 of us that traveled that land with nothing more than an imagination and a pair of shoes. but as soon as we would leave JD's backyard and cross though the gateway we were all alone in the world. There were terrifying slips on the rock cliff there were times we just couldn't climb the mud on the step trail. These were the moments that team work was important. We had our own little aspect in the group that would assist each other though the bad times. The Brains that would provide a plan for any situation. The Conscience that would not allow us to do the completely stupid and kept us from getting into trouble. The Brawn that could muscle the team though it all. The Leader, the one that would come up with the great ideas of where to go and we would follow for days if we had to. The four of us had the perfect team, everyone had their part but we all had the one common factor that made the team work, We all loved to explore.

Entertainment for All

I have been told by many friends and family lately that I need to write a book. I have seen a lot and dealt with a lot in my life that I guess is very entertaining to others. I have a hard time understanding why but then I read an article about Briteny Spears getting drug tests on her sons to prove that He Ex is smoking Marijuana around them. I guess since that is headline news for the rest of the country my life could be considered entertaining. I am not confident that I can do this story of Dru any justice at the moment since my writing skill are not that great and I am kind of Biased on most topics about my life. There is one thing though my stories that I would like to emphasis to my readers. My brother calls me lucky but I call it faith. I understand very little about the world we live in and the universe that this world is a part of. I know that having faith that things will work out usually means it will work out. I am not sure if the paths I have choosen in life were those of faith guiding me or just blind luck but for my sanity at this moment I am going to say it all has to do with faith. I will post soon the first story of Dru... Keep a look out.

Quotes of Marijuana History

This is fun... I really like looking into this it lets you know how some of our misconceptions in the history of the USA. My first Quote, this is probably the most important quote I have seen in my research. 1."Mr. Speaker, what is this bill about?" To which Speaker Rayburn replied, "I don't know. It has something to do with a thing called marihuana. I think it's a narcotic of some kind." "Mr. Speaker, does the American Medical Association support this bill?" "Their Doctor Wentworth came down here. They support this bill 100 percent." The above quotes are the only thing that was said when the bill was brought up on the floor of Congress in 1937. The amazing thing is look at the Doctors name used. Who testified for the American Medical Association? 2. This leads me to go backwards in time. There was one testimony from the American Medical Association before it was passed up to Congress. That was made by Dr. William C. Woodward, both a lawyer and a doctor and at the time was Chief Counsel to the American Medical Association. His Testimony, "The American Medical Association knows of no evidence that marihuana is a dangerous drug." Immediately one of the Congressmen said, "Doctor, if you can't say something good about what we are trying to do, why don't you go home?" The next Congressman said, "Doctor, if you haven't got something better to say than that, we are sick of hearing you." So far we now have what was debated when the bill was sent to Congress and the testimony to get the bill to Congress. I wonder why was the bill Created? Lets go a little farther into the past. 3. I want to take a step a little farther in time to see why the bill was being taken up. in the early 1900's there was a large influx of Mexican Americans coming into the western states. Around the time the Great Depression started there was a large battle between the small farms and the large farms that would hire Mexican Americans at a low cost of labor. The western states needed to decrease the amount of low cost labor for the bigger farms so the smaller farms could compete again. The only difference that could be found was the amount of marijuana use among the mexican workers. "When some beet field peon takes a few traces of this stuff... he thinks he has just been elected president of Mexico, so he starts out to execute all his political enemies." In Texas, a senator said on the floor of the Senate: "All Mexicans are crazy, and this stuff [marijuana] is what makes them crazy." As the proponent of Montana's first marijuana law said, "Give one of these Mexican beet field workers a couple of puffs on a marijuana cigarette and he thinks he is in the bullring at Barcelona." This is how most of the states decided to fight the use of marijuana. 4. As you know the North East has never had a vast majority of Mexican American's. That was not an issue even back in the early 1900's. Therefore there had to be another reason that The north east would jump on the band-wagon for fighting Marijuana. The New York Times in an editorial in 1919 said, "No one here in New York uses this drug marijuana. We have only just heard about it from down in the Southwest, But, we had better prohibit its use before it gets here. Otherwise all the heroin and hard narcotics addicts cut off from their drug by the Harrison Act and all the alcohol drinkers cut off from their drug by 1919 alcohol Prohibition will substitute this new and unknown drug marijuana for the drugs they used to use." So as you can see Racism of the Mexican community has had a large influence on Marijuana Prohibition. If the American Medical Association of the time says things like the AMA, "knows of no evidence that marihuana is a dangerous drug." Why did it become illegal and why haven't the correct studies been completed on Marijuana. Marijuana should be tested and evaluated the same way that all medications are. But then again how many times have I been taken off medication that was approved by the FDA but later found out that it was more damaging than helpful.

Day to Day

I remeber one year when I was younger I got really upset at my father. I was probably 5 or 6 years old. I asked him one Christmas day, "Dad, when is the next Christmas?" of course he replied, "in one year." Well this made me upset because I remember that the year before we had 2 Christmas'. It was horrible, so much happened in the course of one year back then a year was almost eternity to me. My father actually believed I could wait a whole year for Christmas again. I was thinking about this incident earlier today after thinking about how fast a year goes by now. A lot has happened in the past couple of years and it actually seams like the past 2 years have gone by without me sitting down to relax at all. I have gone from enjoying every moment of life doing the things I love and seeing the people I care about as often as possible. Now, I catch myself saying things like, "I don't have time," a lot more these days. I have gone and stopped going to the gym because I need to rush home after work and make dinner or do laundry or study for a promotion... I can't go to my Uncle's this weekend because I need to catch up on my dusting and vacuum the bedrooms. It finally comes down to the point of Stress and depression. I can not remember the last time I went to the Gym for an hour so I can bust a few sets without worrying about where are the kids and when can I see them. I have not set foot on a Lacrosse field in two years because the games interfere with dishes and bathroom cleaning. I haven't gone out for a beer with the guys because I need to learn this new software. I haven't been to college because I need to study for promotion. I haven't gone for a motorcycle ride because I need to read a story to the kids. This week I realized these are all things that have made me happy in the past. These are the things that made me wake up and say, "I LOVE MY LIFE." With all of this in mind what are we all missing out on in our lifes that will make us happy? What can we do to add these to our schedule? I am going to make a plan to get some of these things in the priority I want them back in my life... This is Dru's Blog