Back when I was … hmmm, about 12 years old, I don’t remember exactly…
But I remember distinctly what I was back then, the proud owner of a Meccano set.
This was in the pre-computer games days and anyway, the money was scarce. In fact, I remember somebody said there wasn’t any to be had.
So with the money I could muster, I would purchase these Meccano fan magazines. They used to reveal all kinds of secrets how to make the most of it.
Another thing I possessed but wasn’t proud of, unaware of the fact it’s a gift at the time, is a curious mind.
Perfect way to keep a kid happy and quiet for hours? 🙂
Get him to build complex structures (have the skill) just to run some stupid electric signal that would make a wheel turn or a light flash.
After a while I got sick and tired of building sand castles made of metal.
So I learned how to get things done myself.
What the Meccano set had to do with getting things done, I understood, but about the mind, I did not. That’s when I first got interested in “the movement you need is on your shoulders” as the Beatles, a few years later, would immortalize.
To this day, I keep getting inquiries about how much I got paid for selling, to the Beatles, the worldwide rights of using my name.
Just kidding!
At the same time I used to love reading these ‘G-Man Jerry Cotton’ books written by paperback writers as well as books by authors with names.
The UNCERTAINTY of the ending added more adventure, drama, and suspense to reading. I BECAME part of the narrative.
So I started projecting stories to my third eye, while keeping the other two open, on the principle of choose your own – when a fork in the road, turn left, or right, or continue straight, simple as that – to live an adventure even when I didn’t.
I’ve not shared these adventure stories in past (there was no internet back then).
And because I authored the stories, I knew the different endings. But I would still play them myself.
I know, pretty dumb, right?
“A fool is a person who knows the difference between right and wrong, and chooses to do wrong.” – Andy Stanley
But it kept me busy and happy. And it must have planted a seed in a remote part of my mind.
Because several life times later…
In 2016 and 2017, I started to get serious about storytelling again.