There Be Dragons

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As a very young child, I read a book called Lost Horizon that captured my attention and introduced me to India, China and Tibet. Reading that book lead me to another book written about a Medical Doctor serving in Indonesia. He was fighting some kind of fever and the only cure was something called PG. Late in the book it became apparent that PG was simply "pure gin." I read more and more books about that area of the world: some Kipling (The Jungle Book, "Riki-Tiki-Tavi", Kim; Lowell Thomas (With Lawrence in Arabia, Book of the High Mountain); and many more. Some World War II books about the area were on my list also. I heard about Sumatra, Tibet, New Delhi, Bangkok and on and on.

I've never been to any of those places though I have lived in a number of places in the northern half of the Western Hemisphere. I think though that a lot of my sense of adventure or "adventure quotient" came from those readings. I once read that people like me love to look at old maps and in particular those maps which have the caption "There be Dragons" on the very edge of the world. I've done some interesting jobs too and will talk about them later when I get this period of my youth completed.

Few have placed their hand on the key used to release megatons of nuclear weapons. Fewer still have programmed the delivery vehicles for them. And I'm willing to be serious money that I am the only one who having done this was also a foot soldier in Iraq! Life with the dragons has helped me feel significant and shown me the world, but now, with those days complete I still seek the lost horizon...