Guy Reams (00:01.006)
Today is day 164. When I was a child, I had a fever.
So when I was a young boy in elementary school, right around 1979, 1980, the album Pink Floyd, Pink Floyd The Wall came out. Now, you may not remember 1979, but it was a tumultuous time. It was the Jimmy Carter to Ronald Reagan transition. And...
You know, we had the Iran hostage thing going on. We had the end of the 70s, the disco era. You know, the peace, love and happiness era kind of became the disco era. And then and then we started transitioning into the 80s where it would be all about excess and cocaine parties and Wall Street and hedge funds. So this was an interesting time.
I remember my family and I, instead of movie night, we stayed up and watched the hostages being released from Iran and Kool and the Gang did their celebration song. So interesting time period. We were worried about inflation, high gas prices. We were worried about potential nuclear war with Russia. We were worried about
the intense amount of conflict in the United States between the two major political parties. We were just worried about all these stuff. Well, you know, actually come to think of it, we were worried about exactly the same things we're worried about today. Interesting. But anyway, I remember, you know, Pink Floyd wasn't as popular as like Blondie or Casey and the Sunshine Band or whoever that was. But they were they they had released the wall and.
Guy Reams (02:03.79)
I think in November of 1979 and then by the time I went back to school in the early spring in January. The wall had hit mainstream and I remember sitting in the bus on the way to school and a kid had smuggled in a cassette player in the back. Now this was a very small unit, not very loud, but he was playing the wall as loud as he could. And.
Of course, when it got to another brick in the wall part two, all of us kids were singing along with this, the wall very, very much excited about saying that we need no education. We didn't want any dark sarcasm in the classroom. And the teachers need to leave us kids alone. So we had a lot of fun listening to that song partying on the way to school. So.
But that wasn't the song that had the greatest impact on me. The album was out for a while. And of course, I'd listened to it a few times. There was another song in there that had a bigger impact on me, and that was Comfortably Numb. Now. I had some I was having some weird dreams then I remember I had this dream that I was strapped to a conveyor belt being ready to get chewed up by the machine, which so happened to be the fifth grade classroom.
Uh, but comfortably none. There was this one line in there where Roger Waters talks about when he was a child, he had a fever and his hands were numb and, and that he now felt much like that, that he did as a child. Now, many people thought this was a reference to drug use. People thought this was a reference to challenges with adolescents.
But I knew I knew what it was and years later Roger Waters would say what it was. He actually had a fever when he was a child and it had an impact on him and I and I could relate because when I was at this time in my life I had these crippling migraine headaches so bad that I I sometimes was would be days out of school. Remember going to the doctors getting checked out. I had to go to biofeedback sessions to see if I could calm down to maybe cause my headaches to go away.
Guy Reams (04:25.678)
And my hands actually did feel very numb. I mean, I felt numb at times because the pain was so severe. So I knew what that felt like. And so when Roger Waters was talking about that, it's like I could relate. Right. So because I was going through that, too. And I was a child. So during this time, you know, obviously I'm having these bad headaches. It's the first time I've ever had a real big physical ailment like this. A new president had been elected.
I'd just been sworn in Ronald Reagan. There was lots of, you know, in the community I lived in, it was rather economically depressed and, you know, inflation was high. You know, there were long lines at the gas station. I mean, these were things that as a child, you're like, whoa, something's going on. So I was contemplating my future, right? I was thinking about, well, what's life going to be like? What's it going to be like when I'm an adult?
These are things I was worried about as a child, right? So I started coming up with the dream that, and my mom was involved in politics at the time. She was heavily involved in politics, helping people run for office, especially Congress and Senate in Colorado. So I decided that I was gonna become president of the United States.
So that was my thing. So if anybody ever asked me, what are you going to be when you grow up? I would say president. And people would nod and laugh.
And so, in fact, that didn't change. When I got older, in fact, my senior year of high school, you know how you have your picture and then you can put a phrase underneath your picture? Well, I was gonna put future president of the United States in there, but my friend put that. So I couldn't duplicate what my friend put. So I had to come up with something new. So at the time, I think, well, maybe the United States won't be around that long.
Guy Reams (06:29.646)
So I put something like future leader of the Western Hemisphere or something like that. So that childhood ambition kind of stayed with me. Now, I was nowhere even close to being on the track record to become president of the United States. I mean, I had barely enough grades to graduate high school. I didn't have anywhere close to the grades to go to an Ivy League school or something that I might need.
But needless to say, that was the ambition. So then a while back ago, I heard a motivational speech by somebody who made a big deal about childhood dreams, talked a lot about pursuing your childhood dream is something you should try to accomplish in life. Because, you know,
There's something about the childhood dream that is intrinsically you. And the further you get away from that, the harder it is for you to be fulfilled in your life, to find your true vocari, to try to find your true passion. And I think a lot of people believe this. A lot of people believe that you should go back to your childhood and do what you dreamed as a child. And we hear this a lot.
So I was thinking about that. I mean, I think your childhood does really impact you and it does help shape your character. Right? But I started thinking, you know what? This idea that I'm going to go back to my childhood and relive these fancies of my childhood, maybe that's not such a good idea. I mean, maybe that fever I had as a child was just a delusion. Maybe it was just a fever and I was delusional.
Maybe I was immature. Maybe I didn't quite know what I really wanted in life. Maybe I was being influenced by others and not enough by myself, right? So yeah, childhood is important, but let's not discount the growth, the resilience, the wisdom that you gain as you get older. I mean, I've had successes and I've had failures. I've disappointed people. I've disappointed myself. I've had tremendous
Guy Reams (08:46.062)
opportunities which some of I've capitalized on some I've completely failed on. I mean I've learned a lot. I've overcome a lot and why would I discount that? So me now many years later have different ambitions, different dreams. I have different desires and some of those desires are actually pretty darn good. They actually are good desires to have. So,
Maybe this idea of going back to my childhood and reliving the passions of my seven -year -old self or eight -year -old self is not actually the best plan. Maybe I should focus on the present and focus on what's ahead of me and what my potential is now that I've learned so much as I've gotten older. So yeah, I overcame that childhood fever. I eventually figured out how to
not have as many migraines.
I overcame that. You know what? And I even built that wall that Roger Waters was talking about, brick by brick. Well, now that I'm older, I broke that wall down. I shattered that sucker, and now I'm open and living free. So why would I go back to that? No, I'm not going to go back to that. I'm going to continue to live free, and I'm going to live with the wisdom and knowledge and experience that I have now. And my passions now and my passions in the immediate future are what really count.
Because you know, at the end of the day, the past doesn't exist anymore. It's gone. Now, I think it's important to remember lessons from the past or from your ancestors, but that is gone. The only thing I have is right now. So what am I going to do right now to fulfill the dream that I have today? The dream that has been built by decades of trial and error. So no, I don't think that...
Guy Reams (10:43.)
speaker that I heard was right. I think he was wrong. I don't think I need to go back to the childhood dream. I think I need to fulfill what I've become and that's what's more important. Thank you.