Childhood Imagination

When I was young one of my sisters and I would play a game. We didn't have a name for it but the game took up hours of our day. It was a story line with us performing the leading role. My sister was the more creative us the two of us so she took charge of the story line. I was more excited about spending time with her than than I was about the game, but I played my part dutifully.

The setting for our story line? We are brother and sister, wealthy because of an inheritance from our recently deceased parents.

Our story begins when we are shipwrecked on a desert island. Naturally we are the only survivors. We learn to survive bu building grass huts. My character became a hunter/fisherman providing for the family. I'm not sure what my sister did, probably something much more refined like cooking or something. We lived on this island for a number of years until our luck changed. We stumbled on a cave, the Cave of Wonders. Inside were riches beyond our wildest dreams, but most importantly, 2 lamps containing genie's. This provided the means for us to return to the civilized world.

Thus our adventure begins. Beginning with the wish for infinite wishes (its our game, we make the rules) We then stretch our imagination as big as it will go. We decided that 3 or 4 stories for a house was for sissy billionaires. For people like us, we needed a five goggle plex story house, each. For those unfamiliar with what 5 goggle plex is, it is a 5 with 100 zero's after it. In short its a huge number. Naturally, each floor had a theme. Top floor was space themed, convenient since it was well into outer space. We had the safari room, the sports room, weight rooms, every culture was represented in our house, etc...etc. Each time we played it involved us exploring/discovering another one of our rooms. My favorite was my bed room. It encompassed an entire floor. I didn't have a king sized bed, I had a water bed the size of an Olympic pool. Other than the water bed, my room had a castle theme. Grey stone walls with tapestries hanging. Artwork depicting the great football stars of our century; Jim Thorpe, Joe Montana, Steve Young...etc...etc.

I'm sure the outside world thought that at least 2 of the Ross children had issues, but it was a wonderful bonding moment with my sister, one that we still talk about on occasion. When you have 10 brothers and sisters, its not about what you do together, its about doing something.

Hero's

So ironically it took me leaving home and really being on my own to realize that my parents are my hero's. I might be their biggest fans. Its amazing how much I desire to talk to them. Its really easy to call home just to talk about anything. When I had my run ins with the cops who did I call? My parents. Why? I'm not sure what I expected them to do from 1000 miles away. Somehow they made it all better. When I'm having a bad day, I call mom. When I need to advice, I call mom. When I need to know how wonderful I am, I call Dad. When I need to laugh, I call Dad.

My parents might be the busiest people in the world but they have always made time for me. I called my Dad the other day at work. He was obviously busy but he sat and talked to me as long as I wanted. I'm sure that he could have been much more productive, but he decided that I was more important. I called my mom, just to talk, while she was trying to fill out a report for her church calling. She must have talked to me for 30 minutes.

My parents are amazing. I wish that I had realized this before I had left, it would have made my experience much more enjoyable. They are super hero's. They are my hero's.