The Science Fiction Book Club

Looking back over the years I have to admit that fashion sense has not been my strongest trait. I suppose should have taken a hint when my friends often gave me gifts of clothing. I mean how many people get extra large button down dress shirts? As I look back through all the years, back to the early 80’s I realize that I made not being cool, cool. Flat top, black shirt with zippers all over it. I thought I looked good, but didn’t. Oh well, at least I did not wear Zubaz.

I remember one of many moments when I realized how truly not cool I was. I was in 5th grade, sitting at a local library where I grew up. I was one of the first people there. This was to be the first meeting of the science fiction book club. I had seen a flyer up, and was excited to be there. Gradually more people began to fill in. It quickly became clear that this was a gathering of the least cool kids in the neighborhood. If this was a sting operation to catch the dorkiest kids in the Chicago land area, it was successful. As I looked around I suddenly had an optical effect. I suddenly realized that if everyone in the room was a dork, I was one too.

I do not know why I should have been surprised. I had always read science fiction, and was deep into fantasy. Bilbo Baggins was real to me. Gandalf was someone I looked up. I would imagine my own superheroes, what they looked like and what their super powers were. I read and collected comic books and was pumped when the preview for the new movie “Star Wars” came out. I was also studying philosophy. meditation and self help books like crazy. In 1976 I read “Your Erroneous Zones” by Wayne Dyer. As I grew older I remained a dork though I tried not to let anyone know.

As I sit here so many years later, it seems a long, but impossibly short time ago. I am still a dork. I still read science fiction and fantasy novels. I am still living a life dedicated to easing the experience of fear. I am still a dork, and I now realize that we all are. Being uncool is very cool indeed.