The Uncanny Process of Growing Up

Meditation - Especially clear and fresh, untroubled.Thoughts are light, much simple, plain awareness.That awareness opens out - space, light - expansion, unbounded.And this is reminiscent! -Babysitting, bowling, starting college –Quite surprising,feeling these connections!Perhaps the three most expansive spaces opened in my tiny world.Around 12, I started babysitting for my sister’s one to two year-old son.Early Friday or Saturday evening,the kid already asleep.Seems like, for the first time, I was alone, all quiet.I’d watch TV, eat potato sticks with a soda –no disturbance, my space.The one show I remember, was John Gunther –places around the world, with some history.At about that time, a bowling alley was built in Taunton.Unlike anything done before,my father took me, an older brother, and mom, Saturday nights.Much younger, I had bowled alone on a bedroom floorwith clothes pins, and a tennis ball.Bowling became my greatest passion till end of high school.At which time,I had high average in a quite serious men’s league,and placed second in the citywide tournament.I never thought about going or not going to college - I just went.No one ever talked with me about it at all.Nor did anyone talk of life –What’s it about?Maybe, because of that, I took this step so seriously.This was something about adulthood,which I knew nothing of.Without any question or hesitation, I stopped bowling.Never had the time or the money - I studied.My co-op coordinator said to me,“You are not supposed to be doing this well!”I did very very well…I was singularly focused.Maybe because I had no broader notion,or how one became an adult.