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- Story Listed as: True Life For Adults
- Theme: Inspirational
- Subject: Faith / Hope
- Published: 06/09/2013
Amidst The Sea
Born 1985, M, from Linden, PA, United StatesAmidst the sea.
Most stories start out in the beginning, but this one is different...in order to understand the beginning we must understand the end but in order to understand the end, we must understand the middle.
Sitting on a soon to be deceased recliner a young writer (26-28 I would guess), was having a trouble he had never had before, trouble telling a story. You see, he was always a good story teller, had a way with words that most people did not, and he chose to waste this ability, to pursue a career in the kitchen (I must add I have had his creations...amazing!), he did love his career though, he was in the height of his game when his body decided to come unglued and could no longer function as a chef...either way this is off topic and I am getting to the end before the beginning which would make no sense at all!.
So back to this young writer, he sat there thinking until he could not focus enough on thought to continue his own thinking, when he had an epiphany. This sudden thought came to mind “If I am to write a story that I want people to enjoy reading, why don’t I write it about my life...the life I have enjoyed writing along the way!”. He did not want this to be a typical A&E life story, nor did he want the “Behind The Music: Motley Crue” version either. So he started out with this!
“Confessions of an adult man with nothing better to do!”
His first confession is that he has a secret love for composition, music composition that is, he loves classical music but only the piano...the rest is background noise trying to highlight the beautiful sound of a gloss black Steinway, with the pianist sitting on his bench with a black tuxedo (2 tails of course)...getting ready to use his fingers to express what his heart feels. That in this young writers eyes is music, beauty, feeling...perfection! Most people have heard of “air guitar”, you know when a song comes on the radio with a pretty cool riff and you start strumming your belt “strings” with an invisible pick, while fingering out some crazy chords on your other hand “fretboard” (his air guitar was in fact a beautiful Gibson Custom Les Paul...so shiny it was invisible). We are off topic again, very easily sidetracked, nonetheless when this young man would hear Grande Polonaise Brilliante - Chopin, he would would play the most beautiful “air Steinway” on his legs, he was a weird one I tell ya!
His second confession is that he does not always want people to know his feelings so he has become very accustomed to being a listener as opposed to a teller! For instance, he may be sick and people may have the inkling that he is but rather than telling them he will just say “And how are you today?” in hopes of keeping it hidden. I know this young man personally and I must say, he is an idiot when it comes to expression through vocalization, he LOVES the taste of his foot in his mouth, for he tastes it often. Back to the topic, it is not that he does not feel that people would listen...in fact I assume that is the fear he has is that people in fact WOULD listen and then he would get the third degree on why he should not feel how he does. I can vouch for him on this though, if you ever need a good listener this young man has some big ears!
Third confession (I will stop numbering after 5, I am only doing this strictly for annoyance to the reader!). This is a long one so be prepared...He loves the life he has but he hates what is entails, by that I mean he has a rather great life with one downfall! This young man has two beautiful children, and a loving fiancé, a beautiful home to share with them and most of the material things a man could want. I will start with his children, one if five years old and the younger of the pair is two. People say they use this program called “Insanity”, for a work out and they are on the floor after 30 minutes...I bet this young man’s children could do it to them in 10 minutes or less. His children are the most witty, intelligent, rambunctious, adorable, perfect little men (they take after him I believe). Now on to his fiancé, they are in love but I do believe that you can see his insecurities come out when he thinks of the possibility that it is within her power to walk away from him at anytime. Now don’t get me wrong, he does not think of this possibility often, for the simple fact that when a person worries about their lover walking out on them all the time and throwing false accusations of events that never happened, he believes is worse than money causing a divorce. Since we are now acquainted with his family we will go on to his personal problems that may effect his abilities to remain a strong loving father and lover. This young man was diagnosed with a relatively rare genetic disorder known as Type 4 Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, it is a collagen deficiency which has a negative impact on every part of your body, minus your bones. Collagen is a binding agent within your body, it makes up your muscles and cartilage, so without this...you basically come unglued.
When a person has a disorder like this, they may find it hard to believe that a wonderful woman such as his fiancé would even want to be with them. They almost feel as though some other form of life is controlling every movement they make and you just wait for them to make the wrong move. There is a film called “District 9”, it takes place in Johannesburg, South Africa and it is the story of a man that is called to duty in order to take out a giant population of aliens that made homestead in their village. At the end of this film, the main character steals one of the aliens robotic suits in order to rise against the group he once worked for. Nonetheless as he was controlling this suit it malfunctioned and made him do some not so loving things against this group. I believe that this is how this young man feels. He knows he is in control ultimately but cannot help but feel that there is a malfunction in the suit he is wearing (his body).
All of this being said was a round about way of getting to this point, he loves his family and he is certain they love him, but when a man’s suit of armor starts to fail him he genuinely questions he and his families ability to cope with the malfunctions his suit now has. This may have made it seem as though he is depressed, but I do not believe he is...in fact I believe he is quite thankful for what he has in life. This man is a hunter, a fisher, a provider, but most of all a father and a love. But I guess you could compare his life to a boat man always hunting for the best way to provide for his family, fishing to find a way in the midst of a giant sea of turmoil at times. Sometimes he feels as though he is in the third person, knowing who he is yet someone else is writing the story. The beautiful part of this is no matter who writes the story, they sure knew how to put some really perfect parts in it. I was talking to him the other day about writing this and if I could use his name, while he was hesitant at first for fear of what people may think, he finally agreed. This young man’s name is simple, yet meaningful...it is short, yet strong...it is crazy, but true, this man is “Me”!
Now for the first time in this story, you will know me for who I am...the writer of my life and the owner of all that may come to be in it!
So now, lets hear the end...which is not much of an ending because it continues to move on. I will explain a little bit of how I FEEL that my ending will be, I plan my death as a way of making myself laugh. We will start with my personal favorite “Death by Toilet Plunger”, now I am almost afraid to write this simply because I do not want stricter “toilet plunger” laws after this gets read. Either way back to my demise by plunger, in this death I clog a toilet which is not uncommon, in fact is probably more common than not...so I grab the plunger. This part may be graphic so if you choose to not read such horror, please count 3 lines down and start reading again. I start plunging the toilet, you know really getting into it (major clog) when out of nowhere a huge rush of water flies out, forcing the plunger through my head! We find out later the the clog was so bad that it built a mass of water pressure causing the poop filled explosion of death!.
My next death is more of a non humorous one, and to be honest is very frightening to think about, but we are not here to candy coat a possible death...we are here to learn, right?. So Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (the form that I have is the vascular version, meaning it will eventually lead me to my death) is what will ultimately cause my death, but I have horrible luck so, I envision myself on my death bed from having EDS (Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome) when the doctor comes in to announce I also have cancer. So in turn I die twice in my own mind because I fight one disease with all of my might, only to receive another disease in the meantime, so my struggle with one turns into 2 and I end up dying because I cannot handle both.
My next death is...well...I am engaged to a red head (enough said).
And now the humble beginnings of the one they call Rob (me).
I was born, in the typical way...lots of screaming, crying, kicking, fighting. The amazing part of me being brought into this world, is that from day one I started writing this story without even knowing, an author from birth. I had very few health issues when I was younger, minus the occasional ear infection/and an appendectomy, I was a healthy little guy with a TON of energy!. I see a lot of the younger me in the older me, the rambunctious, unable to sit down type of attitude...with an uncanny ability to smell EVERYTHING. I always make the joke that “if you ever want to know what something smells like, ask me...I have probably sniffed it already!”, most people want to hide from smells but not me, put me in ground zero!. For real though, I was a touchy feely kinda kid, the kinda kid that you would love to punch in the face if you knew you wouldn't get arrested. And don’t lie to yourself, we have all wanted to do it no matter how wrong you may feel it is; for instance you are at the grocery store and a kid is crying non stop, you instantly want to punch the parent in the face but hey, why not kill two birds with one stone and punch the child to (then they will have both learned!...equality is key after all!). Here is the reason you have to understand the middle to understand the end, and you have to understand the end to understand the beginning. I have always been different, very flexible, some people would say “too flexible”, I have always been double jointed, always had stomach problems and never knew why. You see I have had Ehlers-Danlos my whole life and I did not know, had I known maybe even I would have understood the middle of my life a little differently?. This journey I call my life may never be understood completely, nor would I want to to be, because surprises are the best part of life, and to be honest I do not believe that knowing your future is a healthy practice. So I will continue living and may even add a few parts to this depending on the response I receive back. Until then love your life, love your family...love yourself!
I did forget one key part of my life, I was married...then got divorced (yea, that sums it up).
Amidst The Sea(Robert Fluck)
Amidst the sea.
Most stories start out in the beginning, but this one is different...in order to understand the beginning we must understand the end but in order to understand the end, we must understand the middle.
Sitting on a soon to be deceased recliner a young writer (26-28 I would guess), was having a trouble he had never had before, trouble telling a story. You see, he was always a good story teller, had a way with words that most people did not, and he chose to waste this ability, to pursue a career in the kitchen (I must add I have had his creations...amazing!), he did love his career though, he was in the height of his game when his body decided to come unglued and could no longer function as a chef...either way this is off topic and I am getting to the end before the beginning which would make no sense at all!.
So back to this young writer, he sat there thinking until he could not focus enough on thought to continue his own thinking, when he had an epiphany. This sudden thought came to mind “If I am to write a story that I want people to enjoy reading, why don’t I write it about my life...the life I have enjoyed writing along the way!”. He did not want this to be a typical A&E life story, nor did he want the “Behind The Music: Motley Crue” version either. So he started out with this!
“Confessions of an adult man with nothing better to do!”
His first confession is that he has a secret love for composition, music composition that is, he loves classical music but only the piano...the rest is background noise trying to highlight the beautiful sound of a gloss black Steinway, with the pianist sitting on his bench with a black tuxedo (2 tails of course)...getting ready to use his fingers to express what his heart feels. That in this young writers eyes is music, beauty, feeling...perfection! Most people have heard of “air guitar”, you know when a song comes on the radio with a pretty cool riff and you start strumming your belt “strings” with an invisible pick, while fingering out some crazy chords on your other hand “fretboard” (his air guitar was in fact a beautiful Gibson Custom Les Paul...so shiny it was invisible). We are off topic again, very easily sidetracked, nonetheless when this young man would hear Grande Polonaise Brilliante - Chopin, he would would play the most beautiful “air Steinway” on his legs, he was a weird one I tell ya!
His second confession is that he does not always want people to know his feelings so he has become very accustomed to being a listener as opposed to a teller! For instance, he may be sick and people may have the inkling that he is but rather than telling them he will just say “And how are you today?” in hopes of keeping it hidden. I know this young man personally and I must say, he is an idiot when it comes to expression through vocalization, he LOVES the taste of his foot in his mouth, for he tastes it often. Back to the topic, it is not that he does not feel that people would listen...in fact I assume that is the fear he has is that people in fact WOULD listen and then he would get the third degree on why he should not feel how he does. I can vouch for him on this though, if you ever need a good listener this young man has some big ears!
Third confession (I will stop numbering after 5, I am only doing this strictly for annoyance to the reader!). This is a long one so be prepared...He loves the life he has but he hates what is entails, by that I mean he has a rather great life with one downfall! This young man has two beautiful children, and a loving fiancé, a beautiful home to share with them and most of the material things a man could want. I will start with his children, one if five years old and the younger of the pair is two. People say they use this program called “Insanity”, for a work out and they are on the floor after 30 minutes...I bet this young man’s children could do it to them in 10 minutes or less. His children are the most witty, intelligent, rambunctious, adorable, perfect little men (they take after him I believe). Now on to his fiancé, they are in love but I do believe that you can see his insecurities come out when he thinks of the possibility that it is within her power to walk away from him at anytime. Now don’t get me wrong, he does not think of this possibility often, for the simple fact that when a person worries about their lover walking out on them all the time and throwing false accusations of events that never happened, he believes is worse than money causing a divorce. Since we are now acquainted with his family we will go on to his personal problems that may effect his abilities to remain a strong loving father and lover. This young man was diagnosed with a relatively rare genetic disorder known as Type 4 Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, it is a collagen deficiency which has a negative impact on every part of your body, minus your bones. Collagen is a binding agent within your body, it makes up your muscles and cartilage, so without this...you basically come unglued.
When a person has a disorder like this, they may find it hard to believe that a wonderful woman such as his fiancé would even want to be with them. They almost feel as though some other form of life is controlling every movement they make and you just wait for them to make the wrong move. There is a film called “District 9”, it takes place in Johannesburg, South Africa and it is the story of a man that is called to duty in order to take out a giant population of aliens that made homestead in their village. At the end of this film, the main character steals one of the aliens robotic suits in order to rise against the group he once worked for. Nonetheless as he was controlling this suit it malfunctioned and made him do some not so loving things against this group. I believe that this is how this young man feels. He knows he is in control ultimately but cannot help but feel that there is a malfunction in the suit he is wearing (his body).
All of this being said was a round about way of getting to this point, he loves his family and he is certain they love him, but when a man’s suit of armor starts to fail him he genuinely questions he and his families ability to cope with the malfunctions his suit now has. This may have made it seem as though he is depressed, but I do not believe he is...in fact I believe he is quite thankful for what he has in life. This man is a hunter, a fisher, a provider, but most of all a father and a love. But I guess you could compare his life to a boat man always hunting for the best way to provide for his family, fishing to find a way in the midst of a giant sea of turmoil at times. Sometimes he feels as though he is in the third person, knowing who he is yet someone else is writing the story. The beautiful part of this is no matter who writes the story, they sure knew how to put some really perfect parts in it. I was talking to him the other day about writing this and if I could use his name, while he was hesitant at first for fear of what people may think, he finally agreed. This young man’s name is simple, yet meaningful...it is short, yet strong...it is crazy, but true, this man is “Me”!
Now for the first time in this story, you will know me for who I am...the writer of my life and the owner of all that may come to be in it!
So now, lets hear the end...which is not much of an ending because it continues to move on. I will explain a little bit of how I FEEL that my ending will be, I plan my death as a way of making myself laugh. We will start with my personal favorite “Death by Toilet Plunger”, now I am almost afraid to write this simply because I do not want stricter “toilet plunger” laws after this gets read. Either way back to my demise by plunger, in this death I clog a toilet which is not uncommon, in fact is probably more common than not...so I grab the plunger. This part may be graphic so if you choose to not read such horror, please count 3 lines down and start reading again. I start plunging the toilet, you know really getting into it (major clog) when out of nowhere a huge rush of water flies out, forcing the plunger through my head! We find out later the the clog was so bad that it built a mass of water pressure causing the poop filled explosion of death!.
My next death is more of a non humorous one, and to be honest is very frightening to think about, but we are not here to candy coat a possible death...we are here to learn, right?. So Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (the form that I have is the vascular version, meaning it will eventually lead me to my death) is what will ultimately cause my death, but I have horrible luck so, I envision myself on my death bed from having EDS (Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome) when the doctor comes in to announce I also have cancer. So in turn I die twice in my own mind because I fight one disease with all of my might, only to receive another disease in the meantime, so my struggle with one turns into 2 and I end up dying because I cannot handle both.
My next death is...well...I am engaged to a red head (enough said).
And now the humble beginnings of the one they call Rob (me).
I was born, in the typical way...lots of screaming, crying, kicking, fighting. The amazing part of me being brought into this world, is that from day one I started writing this story without even knowing, an author from birth. I had very few health issues when I was younger, minus the occasional ear infection/and an appendectomy, I was a healthy little guy with a TON of energy!. I see a lot of the younger me in the older me, the rambunctious, unable to sit down type of attitude...with an uncanny ability to smell EVERYTHING. I always make the joke that “if you ever want to know what something smells like, ask me...I have probably sniffed it already!”, most people want to hide from smells but not me, put me in ground zero!. For real though, I was a touchy feely kinda kid, the kinda kid that you would love to punch in the face if you knew you wouldn't get arrested. And don’t lie to yourself, we have all wanted to do it no matter how wrong you may feel it is; for instance you are at the grocery store and a kid is crying non stop, you instantly want to punch the parent in the face but hey, why not kill two birds with one stone and punch the child to (then they will have both learned!...equality is key after all!). Here is the reason you have to understand the middle to understand the end, and you have to understand the end to understand the beginning. I have always been different, very flexible, some people would say “too flexible”, I have always been double jointed, always had stomach problems and never knew why. You see I have had Ehlers-Danlos my whole life and I did not know, had I known maybe even I would have understood the middle of my life a little differently?. This journey I call my life may never be understood completely, nor would I want to to be, because surprises are the best part of life, and to be honest I do not believe that knowing your future is a healthy practice. So I will continue living and may even add a few parts to this depending on the response I receive back. Until then love your life, love your family...love yourself!
I did forget one key part of my life, I was married...then got divorced (yea, that sums it up).
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