Travis

This is what I am leaving paradise for. I was going to write a goodbye to paradise blog, but perhaps tomorrow. Today I am busy packing and feeling sorry for myself.

When I was a young man just starting out in the Post Office, I was fair game for ribbing from the older guys. They were just having fun and it helped me to develop a hard skin which has served me well over the years and continues to do so. Sure, some comments kind of hurt but you need to be able to look into someone's eyes to find out if they really mean it or not.

More often than not, they are just making a joke and unfortunately for them they have little or no sense of humour. Normally, this doesn't matter because people like this tend to surround each other with others of a like mind. I wonder if there is a name for people like this? There are gaggles of geese, a pride of lions, a herd of cattle, a charm of finches, a troubling of goldfish, a prickle of porcupines or a zeal of zebras. I guess it wold be a “german” of dullards.

I remember one old fellow came up to me after I had shot off my mouth, looked me in the eyes and said “You should show some respect young fellow! We were in uniform while you were still in liquid form.” We all had a good laugh and I continued to disrespect my elders while they treated me like I was a retarded child that had somehow wandered into the Post Office one day and just started to work. I suppose that it is just the way of the world that the young age over the years and replace the grizzled old farts they had made fun of twenty years before. Today I used the liquid form joke on a kid that I am working with. In a lot of ways he reminds me of myself. Well, if I had had some drive and direction to my life.

Kids like Travis give you hope for the human race. He isn't anything terribly special, other than he has a goal in mind for his life and a desirable work ethic. He knows how to take a joke and gives back as good as he gets. Just a nice kid. He is in training to be an EMT. When he told me this I looked him in the eye and said that under no circumstances was he to give me the kiss of life, but he should pick one of the good looking women to do it. He told me that they no longer give the kiss of life because the chest compressions are enough to keep air pumping into your lungs. I said “I know that, and you know that, but I'm betting some of these women don't know that. Just do what I say!”

I have been very lucky with my children in that they have turned into adults that I can be proud of. I don't think everyone is able to say that, judging by the vast number of assholes that are on the planet. I guess that at the end of ones life if he could say “I have tried to treat everyone with the respect that they deserve and the people I have touched over the years have been the better for it.”

There is a good chance that whoever is the final judge will say “I know you think that, but you are wrong! You have to go back and do it again, but this time try to pay attention and don't spend so much time doodling and looking out the window.”