FROM SECURITY TO THE UNKNOWN

When most imagine a road like the one pictured, they think of looking down it, wondering what's around the bend. When examined from the other end, the known becomes what one leaves behind. And one can go back.

I first remember the Little League Field. Since I coached a minor league team for two years after I played, I had really not gotten too far from it. But then other interests took me away for a year or so. When I returned, I was stunned by how small the field was. Remember how big it all seemed, I thought. Home run distance is a pop fly. It's all about perspective. When you're there, you don't have it--you're too close.

It occurred to me again in high school. The huge campus at MTV frightens even the most cosmopolitan. The sheer number of sudents from all parts of the county overwhelms most. But even in its hayday of students, the number never reached 2,000. I remember knowing who someone was, but not thinking they knew me. For some reason I ran around with a few seniors when I was a freshman, but I didn't know one of my good friends now knew me back then. Big Daddy Shaw was a force on the football team--All-State Honorable Mention if I remember correctly. Man, that's impressive to a frosh. Again, it's perspective.

Even in junior college, my take on things was inaccurate. We used to have dances in the basement of B Building where two classrooms later were housed. Two classrooms! And I thought we were in a gym with all the space.

When we get older, we get tunnel vision, according to Stephen King. But somehow we had it all along. We just looked wide-eyed.