The Story of a Contemporary Dead Head
He was born and raised a Catholic near a German farming community in rural Canada. He grew up working harder than he should have, always learning but not what was taught in school. Much to his parents disapproval and then after several disownments, he becomes a self-proclaimed first term Christmas Break graduate from the College of Engineering. He went welding; drugs and alcohol now ruled, since money was no object. One of his friends commits suicide. The years went by and the young man had a change of insanity. He quit smoking, drugs and alcohol.
Unknowingly he jumps from the proverbial frying pan into the fire. He got tangled up at twenty-eight, married to a delusional woman with an unstable imagination. Now returning to college, thinking he wanted to teach high school, when two children he didn't plan for came along. Ten years of night classes, running a business by day and family! Life went from fast to faster than fast. The "rat race" and responsibility lay like a bad dream in his bones. He worked harder and harder, he kept everything together for years: tired and worn. It seemed to everyone it would never crack before his early retirement at forty. He is soon crossed with moments of bad legal advice that created his finical ruin. The omens grew dark, the vibes bad and the prognosis grim. Twenty some years of hard work gone and an early retirement, vanished. The lawyer was wrong; the not so young man paid the price, the lawyer didn’t care.
Ten years later, still in another country is a somewhat un-reconstructed hippie with a bad case of the mid-life blues, overworked and under-stimulated, he needs a vacation big time. He’s an aging middle-class man, still searching for lost youth, love, money, and Rock and Roll. Brains, charm and plain old dumb luck will eventually land him safely home, where ever that is, into the arms of a new true love. Maybe middle-age isn't so bad after all.
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