I'm grateful for being born when I was and a certain history book. That book and the clouds have taken me from Denmark to Italy, from Ireland to Germany, From Ben Nevis to the Zugpitz, from the Dolomittes to the Rockies, all across the orient, from Tokyo to Saigon, island to island in Polynesia and in the South China Sea, from California to Maine over to Montana and down to Florida. I have stood where kings once had and where dictators ranted. I have strolled over battlefields and sat amoung the dead in graveyards the world over. I have walked through rain forest infested with the most poisonous snakes in the world to seeing the Adder scurry away in a highland glen.
That grubby little town, in the middle of nowhere was forty years ago. I wish I could do it all over again so I could make just one change. The profession that I chose and my childhood dreams came with a cost that will forever weigh heavy on my mind. But I won't think about that now. Eventually time runs out and some day both that history book and myself will be just ashes to the wind.
