FORT FOREVER

fort forever

image courtesy of photobucket.com

Boredom was one of the key ingredients that fueled my desire to design, create, and build things. My brothers talked me into trading my bicycle for a motorcycle. The only problem was the old faded yellow Honda didn’t work…

I’m sure my brothers had good intentions to fix it, they just never got around to it. At nine or ten years of age, my mechanical skills were lacking or more appropriately non-existent.

When I saw the gas line on my motorcycle cut one day, I knew a couple of things. One of my brothers were broke and needed gas for his motorcycle. I also knew that day my motorcycle that I’d traded a perfectly good ten-speed for, would never be ridden by me…

I’ll save that specific ending to that story and throwing my big brothers under the proverbial bus for another time.

There were two other kids who lived fairly close in our rural neighborhood both named Bobby. Bobby Goin didn’t have a bike either and if Bobby Kopus was going to hang out with us and build forts, his bike wouldn’t be necessary.

We’d pack scrap lumber from miles around where they were building new houses back to a wash strategically located in the middle of our respective homes. I’d built forts before, but this was the creme de la creme, the Taj Mahal of kid’s forts.

Our fort evolved into a three story fort, a floor for each of us and it included a conference room on the first floor, it also had a waterless moat on one side. If you weren’t young or a billy goat it was almost impossible to get to.

The only mental focus I possessed at that time in my life was when I was playing. Turns out designing and building was playing for me. Interestingly enough it still is…

That is what I do as an adult to make a living and take care of my family. Even though the people across my lifetime kept telling me to “grow up,” I never got around to it.

I read a post by Jake at  http://verymuchlater.com/ last week that reminded me of the fact that most things in life, as well as writing, have similarities to building things. Even dreams and desires we all have in our mind for our lives or our children’s lives start with the vision, dream, or desire.

Common sense dictates in order to fulfill that desire or dream we must put in place a plan, map, or design a way to get us there.

I’ve met some very interesting people in my life that are quick to point out the fact that they aren’t artistic or creative. Many of whom have designed, built, and have painted a magnificent life.

A few years back after rediscovering writing, I told my wife with the excitement of a kid, “Writing or creating stories is just like designing a home”! Since that time, it’s become even more evident that all of us are designers and builders.

We don’t all use sticks and bricks to build things, but we all use common ingredients to build the dreams of our lives. I’ve also come to believe the most precious asset we have isn’t boredom like it was when I was a kid. I’m thankful for that ingredient of boredom that forced me to be able to use and find this key asset of the imagination.

It took a long time and a lot of work as kids to build that fort. When we were finished all of us realized that the best part of that fort was the dream, the work, and the gratification from the entire process.

I’ve loved that process ever since I was a kid.

I believe it is a gift from God. A fort forever…

I believe we all have the gift to be builders. So the question becomes…

What does your blue print look like?