When you’re young nothing can touch you.\u00a0 If you think you can do something, you don’t doubt that you can.<\/p>\n
I stood on the edge of the roof and looked down.\u00a0 I knew that I could fall and maybe even die.\u00a0 But I wasn’t scared.\u00a0 No I wasn’t even shaky.\u00a0 I shuffled my feet to the edge so that the toes hung over the emptiness.\u00a0 That heightened the sense of danger. I didn’t feel fear.\u00a0 I just felt the rush of excitement at impending doom, at my ability to face it and defy it. Yeah I was invincible.<\/p>\n
And the time old man Rabinsky came riding up on his black horse to our house threatening to blow us up with the stick of dynamite in his belt.\u00a0 I stood him down, and he pulled out that big 44 magnum and put a bullet into the ground six feet away from me so close that the dirt came up and stung my arm.\u00a0 My knees betrayed me, my voice clogged in my throat, my body froze, but inside all was calm–because I knew I couldn’t die.\u00a0 I knew that I was invincible.<\/p>\n
And that day I rode on the side of the tractor, and my hands rested on the side of the loader.\u00a0 I heard the sound of the hydraulics and felt the steel scissor down and rest for a microsecond on the back of my fingers.\u00a0 I pulled them out in a blink of an eye and watched the trap close on empty space.\u00a0 Yeah, I prided myself on my quickness, and I knew I was invincible.<\/p>\n
But when I was grown and my son lay on his bed so sick he couldn’t lift his head, I was scared.\u00a0 I knew something had changed.\u00a0 For the fear was in me, and I would never be the same.\u00a0 I would never be invincible again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When you’re young nothing can touch you.\u00a0 If you think you can do something, you don’t doubt that you can. I stood on the edge of the roof and looked down.\u00a0 I knew that I could fall and maybe even die.\u00a0 But I wasn’t scared.\u00a0 No I wasn’t even shaky.\u00a0 I shuffled my feet to the edge so that the toes hung over the emptiness.\u00a0 That heightened the sense of danger. I didn’t feel fear.\u00a0 I just felt the rush of excitement at impending doom, at my ability to face it and defy it. Yeah I was invincible. And the time old man Rabinsky came riding up on his black horse to our house threatening to blow us up with the stick of dynamite in his belt.\u00a0 I stood him down, and he pulled out that big 44 magnum and put a bullet into the ground six feet away from me so close that the dirt came up and stung my arm.\u00a0 My knees betrayed me, my voice clogged in my throat, my body froze, but inside all was calm–because I knew I couldn’t die.\u00a0 I knew that I was invincible. And that day I rode on the side of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p32u0F-in","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2613,"url":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?p=2613","url_meta":{"origin":1139,"position":0},"title":"Mira","author":"KeithBPhillips","date":"August 10, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"MIRA by Keith B. Phillips Omicron (\u03bf) Cetus, Mira (related to the words \"miraculous\", and \"ad-mire\", from Latin mirus, \"wonderful\"), is described as a deep garnet colored star located in the neck of the Whale or Sea-Monster. \u2014 The Constellation of Words She was late, but he didn\u2019t mind. It\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Stories"","block_context":{"text":"Stories","link":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?cat=6"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.keithbphillips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/img_0592.jpg?fit=428%2C344&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1141,"url":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?p=1141","url_meta":{"origin":1139,"position":1},"title":"Owl and Kat","author":"KeithBPhillips","date":"October 28, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Owl looked over the water as the boat bobbed up and down rhythmically. His eyes pierced the darkness, scouring out every detail that the moonlight could reveal to him. Kat watched him closely as he swayed back and forth in time with the waves. \u201cDo you see it?\u201d She asked.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Stories"","block_context":{"text":"Stories","link":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?cat=6"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3116,"url":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?p=3116","url_meta":{"origin":1139,"position":2},"title":"A Place to Rest","author":"KeithBPhillips","date":"April 5, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The little tree grew into an enormous tree. It loved the hill where it had grown up, extended its roots deep into the ground, and tasted the waters of the earth. In the spring, it dropped its cones; the seeds scattered around and the little ones were born. They sprouted\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Stories"","block_context":{"text":"Stories","link":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?cat=6"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":958,"url":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?p=958","url_meta":{"origin":1139,"position":3},"title":"Guns Under Fire","author":"KeithBPhillips","date":"January 25, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The recent gun related tragedies have launched an all out attack on guns, and I have decided to write down my thoughts on the matter. I grew up around guns, and guns were everywhere. The weapons and ammo were readily available, and not under lock and key. My father is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1309,"url":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?p=1309","url_meta":{"origin":1139,"position":4},"title":"The Making of Villains","author":"KeithBPhillips","date":"February 3, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"How do you make a villain that feels credible? Meet Baxter Hickman. Part man, part monster, and totally being used.","rel":"","context":"In "My Thoughts On Stuff"","block_context":{"text":"My Thoughts On Stuff","link":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?cat=8"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3047,"url":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?p=3047","url_meta":{"origin":1139,"position":5},"title":"The Villain I Made","author":"KeithBPhillips","date":"March 30, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"I've not been good at villain creation. I've known many of them in my life, but I haven't ever made one. I guess my storytelling child author just assumed people are good or bad. But in reality people are all different shades, moving in and out of these shadows, transforming,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Stories"","block_context":{"text":"Stories","link":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?cat=6"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1139\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}