One of our nightly summer rituals became a game of MIDNIGHT TAG! Our mid-summer skies stayed lit until way past 9 o'clock, and so around 10 PM we would agree to meet in the middle island of our culdesac to begin the night's festivities!
The game itself was our version on the standard Hide and Go Seek; only in the near pitch blackness of the toasty summer night. To start each game, one person was picked to be the TAGGER. They would close their eyes and count to thirty. In a hurried rush that resembled something akin to a ‘Chinese Fire Drill’ all the other players scurried about in the near dark to find a hiding space! Once the TAGGER had finished his countdown, 'LET THE GAMES BEGIN!' The objective was fairly straightforward, albeit somewhat scary given the lack of light. The TAGGER went searching the neighborhood to try and 'Pick Off' any of the other players in hiding through physically touching them. All the other players tried to get back to 'Home Base' safely before being tagged. Once a player was tagged, that round was over and anyone who had made it back 'Home' safe and sound earned a point. And the player tagged became the new TAGGER in the next game. At the end of the night's Battle Royale, the person with the most points won the game! Man, to be a kid again, right?!
On one now unforgettable evening of frightful fun, my sister and I started running toward Home Base at the exact same time. I was the TAGGER and was doggedly determined to knock her out of the game!! Now remember, with vision being compromised from the veil of darkness, we had no idea that WE WERE RUNNING STRAIGHT INTO ONE ANOTHER! Without anyway to have known to brace myself, KAPOW!! A full speed collision in which my sister's forehead blasted into my left upper eye, leveling me down for the count before I had any idea what the HELL just happened! For a couple of minutes, I didn't know Who The Heck I was, much less Where the Heck I was. (Cue circling cartoon stars and tweety birds around my poor noggin')
When the cobwebs finally starting tearing away from my consciousness, I remember being on my back with all my friends hovering above me in utter disbelief. 'Did I win?!' was my incredulous first question. LOL To which my friend Frankie kept repeating, "Is it going to keep getting bigger than that?!" Prompting my buddy Mike to continue sheepishly retorting, "I Dunno?!" Bigger than WHAT I thought! Then, I started regaining feeling in my body and I felt a warm, deep thumping-pounding above my left eye. Inner Monologue Please: UH OH! Either something nasty must be happening, or by the looks of all these faces, maybe I was just abducted by aliens! And Scene........ ;0)
By the time my friends carried me back to our townhouse, my eye had closed completely shut from the impact of the blow. I couldn't see a lick out of it! Looking in the mirror, all I could conjure up was the line from the movie the ELEPHANT MAN; "I AM NOT AN ANIMAL!" LOL
On the bright side, this not so little mishap did befall on me a Get Out Of School pass for one week! Yeah for me...? Kinda..... Once the wound slowly resolved, my vision in that left eye was never the same. A trip to the optometrist to be fitted with a new pair of eye glasses is now part of my lore/origin story and eventual transformation into a New Age Nerd!
Fast forward to last night watching the 2019 Golden Globe Awards. Near the middle of the program, the customary Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award went to the great and very deserved Jeff Bridges! And during his exceptional acceptance speech, he began to tell a story about Being Tagged in life. I would like to share it in full:
"One of the great, great Directors I was lucky enough to work for was the late great Michael Cimino. I can remember going into his office before the first day of filming and saying, "Mike, man, I think you have made a terrible mistake. I'm not feeling this guy (his character) at all. I feel so inadaquate. I feel bad because I'm giving you such late notice. But please fire me." And Michael looked at me and said, "Jeff, you know that game TAG. Well, YOU'RE IT!" I said, 'What do you mean, I'm It?' And he said, "You are the guy. You couldn't make a mistake if you wanted to. The life of this character is coming through you. It's a done deal." I thought, that is a wonderful vote of confidence and a great new perspective to look at this thing. And I used that in the film and use it now in all the other movies I've gotten, as well as in my life. I've BEEN TAGGED! I guess we all have been TAGGED. We're alive! Ya know what I'm saying. I look at my life through the filter of movies. I find directors and fellow actors all over the place in my life and one guy, he had nothing to do with the movies, but I have taken a lot of direction from him. His name is Bucky Fuller. Bucky made this great observation about these ocean going tankers. He noticed the engineers were particularly challenged by how to turn these things. They have this big rudder that took too much energy to turn the ship. So they came up with a brilliant idea. Lets put a litter rudder on the big rudder. The little rudder will turn the big rudder. The big rudder will turn the ship. That little rudder is called a Trim Tab. And Bucky made the analogy that the Trim Tab is an example of how the individual is connected to society and how we affect society. And I like to think of myself as a Trim Tab. And ALL of us are Trim Tabs! We may seem like we are not UP TO THE TASK. But we are, man, WE ARE ALIVE! We can really make a difference. We can turn this ship in the way we want to go. TOWARDS LOVE! Creating a healthy planet for all of us. So, I want to thank the Hollywood Foreign Press for TAGGING me. And I want to TAG you all! You're all Trim Tabs! TAG, YOU'RE IT!"
Do any of you reading have what I call GODBUMPS? I sure did and still do! And Mr. Bridges story is so poignantly powerful. Every single one of us is here NOW because we have been TAGGED by the Universe. We are all HEROES on a Hero's Journey with a unique, divinely devised Calling that absolutely No One can fulfill but...... Y...O...U! You are that Special, that Amazing, and the God Given Gifts that have been bestowed upon you for this grand adventure are desperately needed by the World; RIGHT NOW! No more excuses. NAP TIME IS OVER! It's time to fully awaken into your Divinity.
Just like my own personal story about being TAGGED, I'm not professing that the Journey will be easy. Life isn't meant to be easy. It's meant to be meaningful. And Transformative. You will be asked to face your fears and undoubtedly will be gobsmacked down to the mat more than once! Just as I was that summer night over 35 years ago. But PLEASE do not let that stop you from answering the Soulful Ringtone that is trying to awaken you to your calling. Bless that sound in every form it arrives in your experience. Be it in the next song you hear, or the next blog (wink) or book you read. That music is just your own Soul seeking back it's dance partner. Re-member, you are not doing any of this alone. Within each of you is a Super Heroic Higher Self! Don't be afraid of stepping out of your comfort zone and pealing off the Illusionary Veil of a former self that no longer serves you. As scary as I know it can be.
What if I told you that everything that has ever rested deep within your heartfelt desires is awaiting you on the other side of all your Fears, Self Doubt, and Pain? Would that give you the courageous push to finally Ignite your Super Heroic Higher Self and start living from that New Illusionless Identity? And in addition, that the byproduct of transforming into this Miracle Makin' Machine was nothing less than widening the flow of LOVE, WISDOM, COMPASSION, and BLISS back into the World! All while Being in Loving Service to All while wielding your own set of Super Powers. As Mr. Bridges said, we are all 'Trim Tabs!' And there is no more time to waste.......
TAG, YOU'RE IT!
BE SUPER HEROIC!
BE SUPER HEROIC!
BE LOVE - SERVE ALL - INSPIRE ALWAYS
Nerdmaste,
Jeffrey Louis Martinez
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