What Are Your Failures?

[Scootertrash]

I'm a sexual failure!

H

Now I know that isn't true....

[jimboloco]

she turns me on tooo

in pilot training i was up at the top of the class going into t-38 formation flying
dumpy and me were the first 2 studs to do the checkride

2 bad things happenned
first, dumpy did a wingout
counted to three and did a wingout after him, was suposed to speed up and rejoin him on the wing
but he was gone
they had plugged in the afterburners and dissappeared
spent ten minutes finding them

then on the in-trail loop, dumpy as lead started at 15000 feet
too high
and too slow
was supposed to start at 10000 feet and 600 knots
over the top he ran out of airspeed
so did i
we were both hanging there
no aerodynamic control
i fell back about 50 feet
then he fell thru and then i fell thru after
caught up and we proceeded
i did all my lead maneuvers correctly

it was the instructor pilot in the other plane hat set me up
so i dropped with a"fair" rating, better than a "pink"
down to 13th, which is where i finished in the class
#13 out of 35 that finished
out of 55 that started

i volunteered for vietnam in a trash hauler
then refused duty the next year
joined vietnam vets against th war
hit the street and then the skids
read camus the fall for consolation

failed at everything i tried to do literrally for 10 years
couldn't keep a job or finish a class
except for several art classes
in detroit, houston, new york city

now i am resilient

last night i was dreaming
my heart was a beehive
the bees were making white combs
and sweet honey
out of all my old failures

from a poem i ran across in a book by a guy named whyte
by a spanish poet

i'll look it up
it struck me as inspiring

[hester_prynne]

Shucks youse guys.
I'm all atwitter.
(Keep it up eh)

H