An Unorthodox life in an unorthodox time

When I was growing up I thought I was the only one who had to hide my religion from other people. Then as I was growing up I found out Christians were mostly killed for their beliefs if they were found out up until Constantine the Great around 300 ad changed this in europe. Both he and his mother completely changed the future history of Christianity in their lifetimes. So, it went from being killed if anyone at all found out you were Christian to where you had to be only a certain type of Christian so you wouldn't be killed in Constantines empire.

• Abgar VIII
  conversion to Christianity in about 200 AD. Upon his death in 212 AD, Abgar the Great was succeeded by his son Abgar IX surnamed Severus in contemporary
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• Cirta (category Archaeological sites in Algeria)
  elite. In the first two centuries AD Christianity began to take root in Cirta. While little remains of African Christianity before 200 AD, records of
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• Jesus (category God in Christianity)
  Ἰησοῦς Iesous; 7–2 BC to AD 30–33), also referred to as Jesus of Nazareth or Jesus Christ, is the central figure of Christianity, whom the teachings of
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• Constantine the Great and Christianity
   
  So, since my parents believed in a slightly different version of Christianity than some Christians do I didn't talk about it much. Since it somewhat resembled Christian Science, Science of Mind and Church of Religious Science I told people who asked my religion as "Similar to Christian Science".
   
  However, since I was born in the late 1940s when the movements of the 1960s got started starting in 1965 to 1970 in California I found many of these new young people believing ideas similar to what I was taught growing up.  So, I sort of found a new home in various ways of seeing things that also included other religions as well as new experimental religions. However, because of the way I was raised by ministers who didn't smoke or drink and were faithful to each other I tended to be much more stable than most people I met in all these new movements in California and around the country and world. I remember one guy telling me, "I'm so glad you kept your name Fred instead of turning it into "Freedom" or "God" or "Golden Angel" or something like that. We laughed about this at the time. 
   
  However, sometimes I fantasized of being in a rock group called "Blue Lightning" or something like that. But I really hated being around drunk people or people smoking so that wasn't going to happen because of my upbringing. It wasn't that I didn't see people drunk or see people in various kinds of intoxication. You couldn't help seeing this sort of thing if you lived on the California coast and went to college in the late 1960s and early 1970s because it was everywhere. Sometimes I wonder how even I survived those times because many didn't both because of what was happening here in the U.S. and also because of the Viet Nam War. 
   
  However, the point here is that most people I met felt that they "didn't fit into society" and were trying to find a reason to stay alive in the 1960s. Our friends were coming home in body bags from Viet Nam (50,000 of them) and we could even watch them die on the evening news on TV which was sickening then.
  
  Now the country hides this from everyone. I'm not sure which is worse.
   
  The point is almost no one feels like they fit into society. Those that do you have to worry about a little. Mostly, we all have to make our own world because we don't fit into the world as it is. 
   
  So, having a little testosterone can kill you or make your place in the world. It usually does one or the other. But, for me, having a son meant I would stay alive to raise him right. Otherwise I don't think I would have lived to 30 the way I was going. I likely would have fallen 1000 feet rock climbing or crashed at 100 mph on a motorcycle or crashed a Hang glider or something like that the way I was going already at 24 or 25. My son being born when I was 26 made me give up rock climbing at least even though at 3 he was riding in front of me on my 1974 Honda 250 XL dualsport. He told me he burned his ankles sometimes on the engine back then. But somehow both he and I survived those crazy days of my 20s.
   
  It's amazing how having a child can make your life better so you take your life more seriously. 
  After that I started my own businesses to support myself and my son and the rest of my kids from then on. I don't know what would have happened to me if I hadn't gotten married and had a son at 26.