[charloft] (WED) Achievements
Can you see it? Don't worry if you can't...it's not the most noticeable thing in the world. It's not meant to be, a lot of the greatest things you'll ever do are small. They're not obvious, they're obscured by bigger, badder problems and greater feats accomplished by men and women that aren't you.
It's not the picture and it's not the look...Channing took it for me backstage at rehearsal yesterday so I could put it up here. There's nothing special there. I mean, sure, maybe taking a topless pic's a pretty huge feat for a guy like me, but not when you compare it to the real subject of the photo. It's a small thing, a thing we all overlook every day of our lives when we really shouldn't. Hell, even I did once upon a time.
Give up? Lemme help ya out...
I was fourteen years old and out with friends when I collapsed with abdominal pain. My buddies got me to the hospital in time, but there was still an element of uncertainty when they removed my appendix. It was a brush with death I didn't know I was having, one I'll never forget. Even with the medical advances out there, I still could've died if it was worse. When you're older, too, the procedure's harder to recover from.
I still remember what it was like to waste away in that hospital bed eighty three years ago, to realize my time was up and that I was leaving again. Saying goodbye to Bess was the most painful thing I've ever done, not something I wanna go through a second time.
The scar is as small as the greatest achievement of my life, the one we all overlook.
For better or for worse, for my friends and my family, for the whole human race...I'm alive.