scars

            was talking with a friend today and we ended up talking about my scars and where i was when that happened   .it was  my first day of shorts and my pastey white legs came out in full view and she noticed the scars on my shins. with out looking i knew what she was talking about as i was working construction and we were down a manhole and needed to finish pouring a concrete flow line in bottom of manhole and water was starting to come through and soon we were just trying to finish pour as water rushed through. water and concrete was over the top of my boots weighing me down and grinding against my legs . i could feel it was bad but just wanted to finish, well i became sick due to concrete poisoning with that get her done attitude. 

         look a little closer you will see a nice little hole i dug into my shin on a concrete block going for the frisbee, in doyleston ohio. or possibly the nasty spider bites i had all over my legs from sleeping unknowingly with a brown recluse in marietta , oh. . my nose and the scar in the corner of my eye is from slipping on a narrow set of steps in mineral city , oh , and going face first down  40 foot of stairs and staying awake for the ride as they scraped me off the street and scurried me away in an ambulance to hospital. yes those scars tell stories and always hang around to let you know it wasn't a good day way back when. 

         i look in the mirror at my back and see another wreck in my life as i flipped a mercury cougar convertible over and it threw me from one side to the other and ejected me , or tried to before snagging on to my legs and dragging me up a gravel road not more than 200 foot from my drive. i picked gravel out of my back for awhile and learned the meaning of road rash and knew i never wanted to go there again.

          to the center of my back is my laminectomy scar, and that was the second surgery on my back in my lifetime. on my hand i have scar where after 30 minutes of work on my first day at a new job aand only one i was ever referred to by ohio job services, i show up and i am put to work on a chop off saw that left an annoying piece of wood under saw blade that needed to be removed by hand. next time i will let foreman do it as it took 27 stitches in an inch and half to close that one up . and my new boss actually refused to pay my bill . guess i really didn't want to work there anyhow. 

       just seems like you can always remember those scars when you see them . maybe it was because of the pain inflicted. some have come and gone in my lifetime . some will stay as the piece of metal dug into the palm of my hand and visible at times. others will fade into oblivion as they heal

       yet some i remember as a matter of principal. like the ones on my right hand i received in football as someone from the opposite team stomped on my hand getting up out of a pile and turned and laughed at me . they threw me out of game  as i was getting blood all over the other teams jersey as i declared war on them all to make sure  i got the right guy. .i was back in a couple of plays. yes some you will never forget.. 

      and yet it isn't so much they show on the outside of your body, as they sure show along with a multitude of others on the inside of your body. the scar is physical and you are the mental part. that remembers the pain the place the time and why you would never do that again. but then there are other scars we carry and those can not be easily seen but are felt. and they all have a story in common. and they make you who you are.life moves on.