| | The web moniker I have adopted for myself is BraveLad. I confess that I found this poem while indulging in the possibly minor vanity of Googling my online nom-de-keyboard.
What do I mean by calling myself this? Am I bragging? Do I mean physical courage? civil?
My wife asked me if it was a pun on the fact that I have some Native American blood, but alas I was not that clever. Sometimes I have wondered at whether I should call myself "FoolishLad" indeed!
While on a quixotic quest to find an answer to the challenge of finding a rhyme for 'orange,' I encountered a little questionaire that purported to find out your 'Gusto Index,' which was another way of asking whether one had spent not just a year, but a lifetime of living dangerously.
I took it and discovered that I had better seriously consider increasing my insurance. Yes, I have started my own business, run for office, faced a mob of raging Muslims while holding aloft a flag with a Star of David on it, engaged in considerable public speaking, founded and headed a number of organizations, collected 4000 signatures in support of the Vietnam War from fellow Berkeley students with three other students, put out fires, stood up to teachers and superior officers, taken flying lessons, resisted my peers in groups, stated my opinions on the web and taken a good deal of flak for it, etc.
When I find myself in dangerous company, I have an involuntary reaction. I brighten up. I have almost a feeling of happiness, sometimes accompanied by a little fear. I don't seek out such situations, but that is my actual reaction. When I find myself among law enforcement officers (men with guns who don't brook opposition or disrespect), I treat them with good humor and familiarity to the point that I suspect they wonder if I am in the legal, judicial or law enforcement business myself.
While at Berkeley studying Physics, Mathematics and Philosophy (got a BA in Math)
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