Sunday, January 25, 2015

Are You A Neutrino?

Poppa Neutrino

I have a life long friend Rodger, with whom I grew up with in Amherst, Nova Scotia. I've known him since I was a teenager. We were actually both born the same year, 1953.

There was a gaggle of us kids who hung out together at the local hole in the wall, the very funky Y.M.C.A., where we had those big spools for tables you could get from the Power company, and they were covered in carpet. We had old couches and chairs, a pool table, and a ping pong table and even a "Blue Room" for those gals and guys who wanted to catch a few snogs in the corner. Most importantly it was were we learned about ourselves, the real meaning of leadership and we developed our values.

Safe to say we are all pretty grateful for having such a great example that was set for us, by Arden, a compassionate and very intelligent man, a young 27 year old director, then about ten years older than most of us. He was truly a great example and mentor, who went on to bigger and better things, making the world a better place. The Amherst 'Y' would never be the same without him. Arden greatly cared about a bunch of wild and crazy teenagers, got us off the streets, kept us safe and happy as possible, and gave us all a lot of special memories. He made all the difference in all of our lives, in one way or another, and we are all grateful to him. I know we didn't realize then, how very fortunate we were to have him in our lives.

Once our group of friends left the Y.M.C.A. for the day, or on other occasions, my friend Rodger would often invite all of us down to his house, where we would play pool, board games, and eat copious amounts of junk food and just have a lot of clean wholesome fun. His parents always welcomed us, and there was never any illicit substances involved, at least not at Rodger's house.

Of course we all thought we were pretty cool, but weren't, but little did all of us know just how cool Rodger was, and what he was going to do in the future. This blog post is just about that, what my friend Rodger did in 1998. We all need to take risks, face our fears, follow our desires, be ourselves and walk our own path. That takes real guts, and makes us feel fully alive with conviction.

 I'm so proud and happy for my friend Rodger that he faced his fears, took a risk, and how it changed his life forever. He's another example for those of us living on the side lines of life as bystanders, as opposed to participators.
 Here's the link to the preview of what Rodger and the Neutrinos did. http://www.films.com/ecTitleDetail.aspx?TitleID=26238

I found a really compelling blog post about the Neutrinos that gives a great overview.

As the Neutrino website says 'anyone who stays true to their deepest desires and who lives by their own script is indeed a Neutrino.' Rodger certainly has done this, and I hope we all are or will be some time, some where along the way become Neutrinos.

2 comments:

Judith Joseph said...

What a fascinating story! I'm glad to know it. So refreshing to hear about such free spirits in a time of tightening social control and conformity.

Unknown said...

Thank you Judith for reading and for your comments. Of course my friend Rodger he is so modest and simply said he was doing what he thought sounded was interesting and adventuresome. Maybe but not too many folks would set out on this kind of adventure! I told him it reminded me of the famous sailor Joshua Slocum, who also venture around the world on a raft like vessel.