Found In the Woods

Hearing about death always brings up painful thoughts of regret. No, I don’t regret most of the big decisions in my life… it’s always been my belief that all things happen for a purpose. (See James 1:2-3) Good and bad things always lead you down the path that is your life. But, I still get bummed out from time to time over seemingly stuipd, silly or foolish decisions I made in my past.

Take this, for example. David Sutherland passed away on June 6. He was the well-known artist who decorated many of the early TSR Dungeons & Dragons books, including the very first editions! You can see most of them here (scroll down). When I was in 6th grade, my Dad took me to a local library book sale. It’s where they sold old books for cheap to pare down the collection. While rummaging through, I stumbled on 4 gems:

• 1977 Monster Manual
• 1978 AD&D Players Handbook
• 1980 Deities & Demigods
• 1974 Dungeons & Dragons

It’s that last one that’s particularly interesting. It’s a 3 volume set of the ORIGINAL TSR rules for the game Dungeons & Dragons. Not an easy find. This particular set was in pristine condition with no damage. Very very cool. I had no idea, though, that it was much of a collectible.

So, one day my friend Toby offered a trade. He was much more into D&D than I was and I was much more into comic books than he was. A stack of second-rate comics for the old 3-volume D&D set. The deal was done, and I was happy with my trade. For the time being. Never did I ever think that I was making a decision that I might regret 18 years later, and probably ’till I die. It ranks up there with me trading my collection of 1984 Fleer baseball cards for a small 3″ lock blade knife and trading my Darryl Strawberry rookie card for a handful of Boston Red Sox All-Star cards. Well, life goes on and it’s all a part of it. But, I can still be reminded from time to time of those seemingly stupid things I did. The Red Sox won the World Series and Strawberry was in rehab.