I had an aunt who lived very modestly. She walked the streets of Boston, ate in cafeterias, dressed rather casually, and lived her life much like someone in dire straits.
Who would have ever guessed she taught high school English for 40 years, married into wealth, and left behind $1 million in her dowry, which went to 10 different Armenian charities?
Yet, she chose to survive in rather humble means and gave the illusion that she lived from hand to mouth.
We all have an alternate side, I suppose, an alter-ego, hidden talent, something about us that may surprise others.
I did not know that my parish priest was a musicologist in his pre-ordained days who plays an impeccable organ and has sung with some of the greatest ensembles in the world.
Nor did I realize that a newspaper photographer I have grown to admire in my community was a “zoo-zoologist” in her spare time. She’s been to 142 zoos and has plans to add at least another 8 to that list in 2014.
To her, a monkey is not just another monkey nor is a snake just a reptile. Maybe there’s a sacred mission with animals that brings her inspiration.
My dad was just a coffee shop owner until one day he brought me to his church and sat me in the front pew, while he took to the pulpit in a robe and delivered the homily before hundreds of people. In his other life, he was a Eucharistic minister and probably missed his calling.
I never knew that author Margaret Ajemian Ahnert could pull aboard a 350-pound marlin, piloted airplanes, and is an adventurist par excellence when she doesn’t write.
A guy at my church passes the collection plate around each Sunday like any ordinary trustee. Few would ever guess that Joe Almasian was the first athlete to represent Armenia in the World Olympic Games as a bobsledder. He doesn’t flaunt it.
The instructor who taught my son math at our local high school was a world class marathoner who once finished in the top of the pack. Another guy owns a restaurant, serves up his pasta and meatballs, then goes out and runs a marathon.
“I didn’t know that,” people are apt to remark when they hear something unsuspecting about an individual.
A lot of interviews I conduct usually carry the question, “Tell me something about yourself that may surprise others.”
It usually unravels some best-kept secrets.
My own brother had a latent talent. He could take apart an airplane engine and put it back together again. But that was not his calling. Instead, he worked as a videographer for the transit system and put his mechanical past behind him.
I had an editor once who painted wonderful landscapes as a stress-buster. Many of his works are collectibles now. Another news guy I know scales one mountain after another as his release valve.
The man you see cleaning rugs is a prominent photographer/historian on the side who has to make a living doing what he would rather not. The ophthalmologist who saved my wife’s eyesight after a detached retina has an eye for photography that might rival Karsh and Ansel Adams. He’s that good.
Favorite actor Johnny Depp likes playing with dolls while singer Rod Stewart is a model railroad fanatic. Actress Angelina Jolie collects daggers while actor Pierce Brosnan eats fire.
One day my own son surprised the dinner table by picking up three apples from a fruit bowl and juggling them ambidextrously. We sat there stunned. He picked up another, then a fifth, and put on a circus act.
Come to find out, he picked up juggling in college as a way to keep his mind straight. Not a bad investment for the $125,000 we shelled out for tuition. Now he juggles his life with four kids and a responsible job.
The children’s author who wrote 18 best-sellers was just an ordinary guy around town, dining in a fast-foot restaurant without a single illusion of grandeur.
A chief of surgery at my hospital was a weekend motorcyclist who belonged to a group called the “Rethreads” and found solace in the outdoors revving up his bike.
Another friend who was a senior engineer got his kicks inside a kitchen as a sous chef. He could whip up a Thanksgiving meal in no time flat and his bread was to die for.
In case you’re wondering, yes, I do have an alternate side besides writing and photography. In my spare time, you’ll find me inside a racquetball court, on top of a mountain, or inside a high school classroom addressing students on human rights education and the Armenian Genocide.
Two lives are always better than one.
Tom Vartabedian
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Very nice article. Right to the point. Thank you. Enjoyed every bit of it, and every bite.