AN EXTRAORDINARILY ORDINARY LIFE

 

As of late, my blog entries seem to be about me, and to be even more specific, an age-related me.  Hmmm … is this because I am 70 years of age?  Suffering an existential dread?  At least suffering more so than I did in my middle-aged youth.

Hmmm (again) …

Whatever my reasons for such selfish and introspective writing, it is what it is and, fellow buskers, I do hope you enjoy the read!

AN EXTRAORDINARY ORDINARY LIFE is autobiographical.  I am writing about my life as a published author, a swimming instructor, a marathon runner, an academic, a master clinical hypnotherapist, a folkstar, a tough guy, and an extraordinarily ordinary lifestyle.

• PUBLISHED AUTHOR

I remember when I first rose from “ordinary.”  I left ordinary just for a bit when I had my first book, A WISHBONE EPISTOLARY, published in 1985 by the University of Toronto.  That, to me, was marvelous! And with royalties!  (This blog, even having been read in 151 countries, offers no royalties but intrinsically imaginary fame nonetheless.)

Factoid:

Until my book publication, I had always fancied myself as a poet.  While an English Literature undergraduate, I had submitted roughly 100 poems to varied publishers, for which I received 100 nays but nary a yea.  Having that Wishbone book published in my field of employ certainly raised my professional capital a notch or three.  I was nationally famous for fifteen minutes after that publication. Whenever I attended a guidance workshop following the book publication, always some other counsellors would approach me and compliment me on my book (not because I was ever a keynote, only because I was easily recognized because my visage had been printed on full display on the back jacket of my book).

• SWIMMING INSTRUCTOR

Another time I rose from ordinary was when I completed my swimming credentials to be a certified swimming instructor and lifeguard (Award of Merit, Royal Life Saving Society).  Being somewhat a beach bum in my adolescence, I had always been a decent swimmer.  I was gainfully employed as a lifeguard and swimming instructor for over ten years, during which time I saved handfuls of lives and taught hundreds of lives to swim.  I had over ten years of endless and Adonis summer fun, sporting shades, showing off a California bake, and overseeing a pool of swimmers and splashers.

Factoid: 

Before this swimming certification, I already been a certified scuba diver through NAUI (National Association of Underwater Instructors).  Also, my major at university was English Literature; my minor was in swimming. 

• MARATHON RUNNER

Running and completing my first official Saskatchewan Marathon in 1989, too, was well above an ordinary experience.  My running mate, Burt, was a seasoned marathoner, having each year for several years running (pun intended) competed in the Manitoba Marathon, the Saskatchewan Marathon, and the Honolulu Marathon.  He and I had run several half marathons together (last count we were at 13 times for the Echo Lake Road Race), and it was fitting that he be my guide and mentor for my first real and official marathon.  (Note: Sadly, my running buddy, Burt, passed away just a month ago.  Pictured above, is my friend and colleague and former professional hockey player, Gary, shortly after he completed his first marathon.) 

Factoid:

Before my actual marathon run, I was in great running shape. I had been running 15 miles every weekday, five miles in the morning, five at noon, and five late afternoons, followed by a10 mile run with Burt every Sunday.

• ACADEMIC

Defending my master’s thesis in Educational Psychology, I had serious angst.  “I’ll not pass,” I thought as I drove thither.  The actual defence took over two hours – the wait time for my sink or swim verdict took only two minutes!  It was an all- thumbs-up and applause from all the committee members in attendance, and no edits necessary!  That was a defining moment in my educational career.  I had arrived!  I had jumped out from ordinary.  And ever since that 1994 moment I have never been challenged or questioned about any methodologies I have practiced regarding my professional Psychology craft.

Factoid:

Since my thesis defense I have had delicious job postings with a variety of agencies, including my long-time public-school system employer.  I have had loads of fun and opportunity designing and delivering an educational program for incarcerated sex offenders, designing and delivering a Psychology program for mainstream but high-risk students, designing and delivering a summer school credit program for high-risk students, designing and delivering The High School Registration Centre to vet and place students new to the city of Regina, designing and delivering university curricula for 22 years as a sessional professor in the Psychology faculty, and designing and delivering (yet another) program for violent young offenders incarcerated for murder, attempted murder, assault with weapons, and (again) sex offenders.       

• MASTER CLINICAL HYPNOTHERAPIST

Achieving my Master Clinician Hypnotherapy certification from the Canadian Hypnosis Association was an extraordinary accomplishment.  In my private hypnotherapy practice, I am no longer ordinary.  I am a certified Master Clinician!  Such a feat took months of hard study, hard writing, and a rather grueling oral exam. 

Factoid:

I do fancy myself as an academic, though these days, pseudo-academic would be more apt as a descriptor.   Not matter.  If it were not for my teaching Psychology at the University of Regina for 22 years, my lag time for the Master Clinician achievement would have taken, not a few months, but a few years!

• FOLKSTAR

Performing gigs live, with my guitar is such a rush!  Singing my original folk songs while thrumming my guitar is, truly, a Folkstar experience.  (Note:  I am an acoustic folk singer-songwriter, hence, Folkstar rather than Rockstar.)  I am rather well known in the local folk community, my clerisy, so to speak.  For the past nine years I have been regularly performing onstage at the BUSHWAKKER BREW PUB in my home city, Regina, Saskatchewan.

Factoid:

I used to be a singer in a rock and roll cover band.  For the last 20 years I have been guitar busking on the street and strumming and singing solo on the bar stage.  Busking can be a very hard road to travel.  Performing live onstage is even harder.

• TOUGH GUY

Striving now for my Blue belt in Muay Thai has, too, lifted me from being ordinary.  In my social community, I am the only one who practices the martial arts.  A few of my friends spend regular time working out in local gyms, but I am the only one in my crowd who has membership in two gyms, one for weightlifting, and one for martial arts.

Factoid:

Training in martial arts has been ongoing since my adolescence.  In my grade 12 year I trained in karate over each noon-hour -- one of my teachers was the instructor.  Later as a young high school English teacher, I enrolled in karate again, different city different dojo.  And later yet, as a middle-aged martial arts wannabee, I took Tai Chi.   And now, for the last fifteen years I have been practicing Muay Thai.  Sometimes I take private lessons, sometime public lessons.  I think I am a tough guy, but only in class do I ever spar, outside of class I have never fought.

• EXTRAORDINARILY ORDINARY

Yes.  By design I have attempted not to be parochial.  Yes.  I have risen above the pedestrian fray of other ordinary humans and their ordinary achievements.  But so, too, have others.  There are over a million freelance writers.  There are hundreds of countries offer qualified swimming programs complete with thousands of certified instructors.  Each year there are over a million registered marathon runners.  In the United States alone, there are over 135,000 university professors.  Right now, on the planet there are 1.2 million singer-songwriters.  In all 195 countries of our world there are trumpeting loud-mouthed schnooks who think they are tough guys.

Factoid:

I did live in a big two-story house, four bedrooms, four bathrooms, two furnaces, a huge front yard, and an even bigger back yard.  Our front yard was a lush lawn surrounding a two tall pine trees; our back yard we had a deck and a small forest of trees, a birder’s paradise which attracted owls, red-wing blackbirds, hummingbirds, and several other feathered species.  Ah yes and surrounding all of this was the stereotypical and literal and metaphorical white picket fence.

I have risen now to an eighth-floor downtown condo.  My habitat is, literally, above that of the ordinary hoi polloi.  In my typical delusional fashion, I do state with a certain bluster that I have achieved much grander status than my pedestrian peers.  And surprisingly not in delusional fashion, I have come to introspect that being extraordinary is but an Aesopian tale, a rather ordinary endeavor.