The rarest genetic combination in the world is red hair and blue eyes. Don’t believe me, you can look it up. I didn’t always fully appreciate the fact that I am a glowing specimen of that tiny genetic group. There is an annual festival known as the “Redhead Days” in Tilburg the Netherlands (which I suggest all gingers attend one day) to celebrate these unique traits we possess. Redhead Days Festival
Redheads come in a spectrum of colors and my natural color falls right in the middle known as “coppery red”. At least it used to, before I lost most of my hair and began shaving what little remained. I staunchly believed then and now that due to these rare characteristics I am an exotic beast deserving of awe and admiration from people everywhere.
Despite all efforts to promote the “exotic beast” moniker, life happens organically.
I recall one of the greatest movies of all time, The Goonies. If you know this movie you will remember the characters Mikey, Brand, Data, Mouth, Chunk, Sloth etc. (Sloth, this classic character has always reminded me of Jody Welch). If you don’t know this movie shame on you and you should stop reading right now and watch it before continuing. Most of these character names are nicknames laid upon the individuals like a mantle, a personal coat of arms if you will. I love nicknames.
Growing up in Northwestern Wyoming has much in common with that great 80’s flick. I consider myself the luckiest of individuals to call Lovell home. Childhood there was great. Full of adventure and mischief, the likes which I engaged in would certainly give most parents now severe health issues and what the modern world identifies as anxiety disorders.
An integral part of Wyoming life, and for most of the USA, are sports. I loved sports then; I love sports now. In my adolescent years I, like most young boys, readily engaged in tee ball, little league baseball, little league basketball etc. I played at one point for the Good’s Trucking Company little league basketball team whose uniforms happened to be red. When decked out in the full outfit, I was red from head to toe. This earned me, organically, a short-lived nickname of Little Red Unit.
The little league years also happen to be growth spurt years. Unlike most, for me it was as if someone grabbed me by the top of my head and my feet then pulled. Like a long rope of taffy, I was stretched out gaining height, but becoming thin all throughout. Little Red Unit was quickly replaced with Scrawny Johnny which in my opinion, rates in the top 1% of all organic nicknames.
I loved this nickname from the first moment it was dubbed upon me because it just works. Fate finally brought me and the name together. It uses my original name; it describes me perfectly, and coincidentally, it rhymes. It rolls off the tongue better than any Shakespearean “to be or not to be that is the question” five group, stressed and unstressed syllable iambic pentameter nonsense.
My nieces and nephews, brother and sisters, closest friends and even sometimes my mother, despite all her efforts to the contrary, continue using it.
How does all of this relate to my ending up in Asia, you might ask?
Well, one day I decided I wanted to try my hand at football. I approached the coach in private and mentioned this to him. He leaned back deeply in his chair, kicked his legs up on the desk and looked me over, silently evaluating the situation.
“Scrawny, I have the perfect position for you. You have nearly the right color”. He stated while staring at my mop of curly coppery red hair.
“I think we can tie your legs up against your chest and make you the football. What do you think?”
In that moment I’m sure he deemed himself a great comedian, slinging mud at a young kid coming to him for advice and guidance. I took no offense from what he said then or now. Rather, I realized he was right, in a manner of speaking. He unwittingly gave me a gift that I understood right away. I was just not genetically predisposed for a life in athletics. I was six feet tall (182 cm) and weighed less than a hundred pounds. (FYI, I reached 100 pounds my senior year of high school.)
Like a character in a Neil Gaiman novel, what I wanted and what I needed were not the same. Up to that point in life, what I wanted was to be an athlete. This is what society wanted and respected, therefore it was what I wanted. The coach, without realizing it, let me know that what I needed was something else.
Like riding horses or being a cowboy, a future in athletics was just not in the cards I was dealt in life. Unlike the horse-riding experience, the football experience freed me.
I was no longer bound by what the world around me wanted. I did not need to spend any more time or effort on attempting to satisfy the greater group’s expectations. A road opened for me to pursue something uniquely my own, something I chose myself.
I did not yet know at that time where the pathway might lead, but I knew it existed. At that point this was enough.
I hope you join me in a few days as I continue sharing the nutty shenanigans that transpired in the pursuit of my path to Asia.
我過去，現在和將來都永遠是骨瘦如柴-約翰尼。
世界上最稀有的基因組合是紅頭髮和藍眼睛。不信我，你可以查一下。我並不總是完全珍惜這樣一個實施，即我是那個微小基因群體的發游標本。荷蘭蒂爾堡有一個一年一度的節日，被稱爲 “紅髮日”(我建議所有紅頭髮的人都參加一次)慶祝我們擁有的獨特特微。Redhead Days Festival
紅頭髮有多種顔色，而我的自然色正好落在中間，被稱爲 “銅紅色”。至少以前是這樣，在我掉了大部分並開始剃掉剩下的一點之前。我當時和現在都堅定地相信，由於這些罕見的特微，我是一頭異國情調的野獸值得各地人們敬畏和尊重。
儘管竭盡全力推廣 “異國野獸”的綽號，但生活還是有機地發生。
我記得有史以來最偉大的一部電影The Goonies. 如果你知道這部電影，你會記得米奇，布蘭德，數據，大嘴巴，肥快，樹懶等角色。(樹懶，這個經典角色一直讓我想起我朋友喬迪)。如果你不知道這部電影，你該感到羞恥，應該立即停止閲讀並在繼續之前觀看它。這些角色名稱中大多數都是像披風或紋章一樣放在個人身上的暱稱。我喜歡暱稱。
在懷俄明州西北部長大與那部偉大的80年代電影有很多共同之處。我認爲自己是做幸運的人，能把洛佛爾成爲家。那邊童年很棒。充滿冒險和惡作劇，而我所從事的活動肯定會給大多數父母帶來嚴重健康問題，以及現代世界所認定的焦慮症。
懷俄明州生活的一個組成部分，美國大部分地區也如此，都是運動。那時我特別喜歡運動，我現在也特別喜歡運動。在我的青春期，我和大多數年輕男人一樣參與了tee球, 小聯盟棒球，小聯盟籃球等的. 我曾經為古德物流公司小聯盟籃球隊效力，我們的制服恰好是紅色的。當我穿上全套衣服時，從頭到脚都是紅色的。這自然而然地爲我贏得了一個短暫的綽號小紅部隊。
小聯盟的歲月也恰好是成長突飛猛進的歲月。與大多數人不同的是，對我來説，就好像有人抓住了我的頭頂，然後拉了我的脚。就像一根太妃糖繩子，我被拉得很長，越來越高，但整個人變瘦了。小紅部隊 很快被骨瘦如柴約翰尼 取代，在我看來，它在所有有機昵稱中排名前1%。
我從這個綽號被賦予我的第一刻起，我就喜歡上它，因爲它在各方面有效, 命運終於把我和這個綽號聯繫在一起。它使用我的原名，它完美地描述了我，巧合的是，兩個字押韻。它比任何莎士比亞都 “是還是不是，這是個問題”五組，重讀和不重讀五音節廢話，好地從舌頭上滾下來。
我的侄子和侄女，兄弟姐妹，最親密的朋友，甚至有時候我的母親，儘管她盡了一切努力，仍然繼續使用它。
這一切與我最終長期住在亞洲有什麽關係，你可能會問？
有一天，我決定嘗試一下美式足球。我私下裏找到教練，向他提起了這件事。他深深地靠著椅子上，吧腿蹬在桌子上，看著我，默默地評估情況。
骨瘦如柴，在球隊我有適合你的完美角色. 你有幾乎正確的顔色。” 他一邊説，一邊看著我那一頭捲曲的銅紅色頭髮.
“我想我們可以把你的腿綁在胸前，讓你成爲足球。你怎麽看？”
在那一刻，我敢肯定他認爲自己是一個偉大的喜劇演員，侮辱一個年輕的孩子來找他尋找建議和指導。
我當時或現在對他所説的話沒有冒犯。相反，我意識到他在某種程度上是對的。他無意中給了我一份禮物，我馬上就明白了。我沒有遺傳傾向，不適合從事運動。我身高六英尺(182公分), 體重不到一百磅（45公斤）。 (僅供參考，我在高三時才達到一百磅) 。
就像尼爾-蓋滿小説中的人物一樣，我想要的和需要的是不一樣的。在人生的那一刻，我想要成爲一個運動員。這是社會想要和尊重的，因此也是我想要的。教練在不知不覺中讓我知道我需要的識別的東西。
就像騎馬或當牛仔，成爲運動員的未來並不在我生活中得到的卡片中。與之前起碼體驗不同，足球體驗讓我解放了。
我不再被周圍世界想要的東西束縛。我不需要再花時間或精力去滿足群體的期望。一條道路爲我打開了，讓我去追求自己想要的，自己選擇的獨特東西。
那時我還不知道這條路會通向哪裏，但我知道它存在。在那一刻，這就足夠了。
請過幾天再來，因爲我繼續分享在我前往亞洲的道路上發生的瘋狂惡作劇。