The Air, Alive
like an unseen presence
sensed long before it's seen or heard
from quiet it comes
the straining sound of silent static
energy is mounting
soon comes the lightning
-JB 11/10/11
In his playing days, my father was known as White Lightning. To look at him now, this moniker may sound strange, because it isn't like he looks like and albino. In fact, as a non-tanning freckler, he almost gives the appearance of having rather normal skin tone when he's got a shirt on. Take that shirt off, however, and the sheen reflecting off his torso may blind you. You see, that part of his body does not often see the light of day - and from daylight come the freckles. With his shirt off, he's an almost shickingly pale-white honkey, albeit with somewhat darker arms and neck.
Well, you get the idea.
Anywho... often coached as I was by his former players, and a non-tanning freckler in my own right, I was sometimes called White Lightning Jr. This reference fell into disuse over time, as many nicknames are wont to do, until I revived it many years later with an ill-advised self-depricating email sent to a few co-workers containing a photo of then seventeen-year-old Jamal in his high-school soccer uniform.
Soon I was known to the office (and other offices from Appleton to Chicago) as the man, the myth, the legend - White Lightning! A red-haired, short-shorted moron who sends goofy photos of himself to co-workers.
Well, friends, something interesting happened on a day when my wife and I held a devotional in the forest, and took communion with the wind in the trees - the spark of life took form... and it's been growing ever since. Will that spark turn into White Lightning the 3rd, or will it be a baby girl sidekick to join her mother at my side?
Only time will tell.
4 comments:
Ah, yes, you're spikey, dyed hair years. Good times. I can barely look back at my years with highlights without shuddering.
~Asher
Didn't you guys both become blonde-streaked at the same time? ha ha.
Just a note, "she" may be a soccer player and you the coach of her kick butt soccer team, Dad!
As the Highlander said, "There be only one" or something close to that. I was the original 'White Lightning' all the rest are pretenders.
You were you and whoever your child is will be who they are.
I miss playing terribly and still wake up dreaming I can run.
We're in the same boat on that now, and me much younger than yourself.
I wake up having played soccer in my dreams, only its usually that I somehow found out that I won't hurt my back again by playing... my many tracked mind is nothing if not realistic.
Post a Comment