Truthfully...I'd Say I'm Pretty Lucky

 I saw it. I picked it up. The old adage came to mind and in that instant, I agreed...

I'm pretty lucky.

Of course, luck is all about how its defined, and perhaps more importantly, who is doing the defining. I think on most accounts, I'm lucky. At birth I was placed into an amazing family and I've known wonderful people all my life. Yes, many have now passed including my mother, father, and little sister, but my childhood was filled with incredible adventures. No, we didn't have the most money back them, but we had the things we needed.

I've grown up, got married, had children, have a grandson, been relatively healthy my whole life, been employed almost full-time since after high school. It's like my whole life I've found pennies all over the place.

It's about perspective.

Like everyone, I can look back on my life and the life I'm living now and get depressed. I could blame growing up without a father for problems. I could blame my birth parents for putting me up for adoption. I could blame other people for other issues in my life. It's human nature to do so.

I don't mean to imply that I'm always positive, always taking the blame for the bad times that come along in my life. I'm not. I still get bummed every now and again, but if I change the perspective, I cannot stay that way. I mean, I sometimes forget the perspective thing and am still down, but if my logical mind wins out, I realize just how lucky I've been my entire life.

Yeah, I picked up the penny, even though...

I didn't need to.

The Calm...Before The Con

Right now, hundreds of booths await the masses. The booths range from completely stocked and prepared, to untouched with only chairs, a table, and a sign. By tomorrow afternoon, the relatively quiet in the hall will be replaced by noise, the sound of thousands of feet shuffling across concrete floors, the sounds of laughs, cries, screams, sighs...it will envelope the space, drive out the quiet. 

It's comic con time again.

And many of these people, those setting up, will do this all again next week...only the location will change. 

I've been involved in this particular comic con for ten years. The first one opened my eyes, not only to what is possible when thousands of people work together toward a common goal (a successful con...), but to a life I never knew existed...the life of the traveling artists. I remember that first show. I mooched some table space for my books--actually, they were anthologies in which I had stories. During the down times, I found myself wandering among the aisles, chatting with vendors, discovering more about them.

It's a modern-day traveling carnival. 

Not everyone at this convention travels. I don't have the numbers as to those who live here and do this and a few shows each year and those who travel city-to-city, state-to-state and do this for a living. Those that do travel the country--a different city/con each week--fascinate me. I can't imagine that life, but I'm sure many of them can't imagine doing what I do...sit at a desk for forty hours a week, fifty-two weeks a year.

It's all about perspective.

I have the upmost respect for what they do. It takes hard work, determination, and something else...courage. It's not a life for the timid, that's for sure.

In a little over twenty hours, the floor will come to life. Commerce will commence. Goods will be exchanged for money, either cash, credit, Venmo, PayPal. It will be a long three days. Right now, however, it's the calm before the con. There's a beauty in that, too.