Unconnected

It all started at birth. Lynn was born to a father who didn’t want him. His father walked out on his mother before Lynn was two weeks old. But his mother still loved his dad and chased him around until Lynn was two years old before she finally gave up on their relationship ever being restored. At that point, they moved back to Kentucky. Lynn’s only memory of his father was waking up once and hearing his father yelling at his mother. He walked out of his bedroom and saw his father with a gun pointed at his mother. Soon after that, his father and mother divorced.

At the age of five, Lynn’s mother remarried. Lynn idolized his step-dad. He adopted Lynn and claimed him as his own son. He still carries his step-father’s last name. Lynn stayed with his grandparents who he loved dearly during the summer. He met and became friends with a boy who lived across the street from their house. The boy was 3-4 years older than Lynn. In school, Lynn says, you’ve got four groups: Preps, Jocks, Nerds, and Hoods. He was way too cool to be a nerd, too small to be a jock, and didn’t have enough money to be a Prep. So he naturally gravitated toward the Hoods. After all, the acceptance rate in that group is pretty high! It’s hard to be rejected by the Hoods.

So Lynn started trying to fit in. He and the boy smoked cigarettes and drank beer. Then they began to take speed that the boy stole from the truck of his father who was an over the road truck driver. They finally started smoking marijuana, and Lynn found that he liked the way it made him feel. What he didn’t know was that he had taken steps that would affect his life for years.
Lynn eventually started hanging out with an older cousin who moved in at a house next door. He was thirteen to fourteen years old and his cousin was in his early twenties. His cousin partied all the time so he naturally joined him in the party lifestyle. Lynn had money because he mowed yards. Because he had money, they let him hang out and gamble with them. He just wanted to be “cool,” to be accepted. He realized he had to learn to play cards better if he was going to make money instead of losing money, so he did. His life became: go over there, get high, and play cards. His cousin would call his mom and cover for him when he needed to. Lynn had now taken another destructive step. He had entered the rabbit hole and started down.

At age sixteen, Lynn’s adopted father walked out on his mother and him, as well as his own biological child. That stung Lynn very badly. He was crushed. When his step-dad left them for someone who had come into a lot of money, he suddenly had all the things Lynn and his mother had never had. In the divorce hearing, his step-father told the judge that he only had one child, and that Lynn was not his child. Something happened in Lynn’s mind at that moment. Rejection will do something to you. And in Lynn’s case, it was accompanied by a desire to prove himself.

So Lynn made up his mind that he would show his step-dad. If money was what it was all about, he was going to have money. He kept dabbling around and while working at the local wheel plant, got into the world of sports gambling. He felt that he could finally make money doing something he liked: sports. The local bookie took a liking to Lynn and brought him on board to work with him. Lynn called him “Big Daddy.” He was the father Lynn had never had, and Lynn was the son Big Daddy had never had. They were very successful in what they did, and a tight bond formed between them. Big Daddy taught Lynn a lot of life lessons he would never forget.
A couple of years after working with Big Daddy, Lynn got introduced to another gentleman who had more money than Lynn had ever seen. Eventually he gave Lynn a position. All he had to do was carry a beeper and report to the man when it went off. Lynn had gone from using drugs to the world of dealing drugs. He knew full well what he was doing. To say he didn’t would be a lie. That severed his tie with Big Daddy because he had always taught Lynn that winners don’t cheat and cheaters don’t win, and you never deal with drugs. Working for this new man, Lynn became a big time marijuana dealer. They imported marijuana from Mexico and Tucson, Arizona. They were selling between 300 and 1000 pounds a month. Lynn was making more money at age twenty-nine than he ever thought he could make. He had brand new cars and trucks and hot rods. He drove a sharp new truck, and his wife drove an Acura. He had diamonds and jewelry, a Rolex and plenty of cash. They high rolled everywhere they went. He and his partner even flew out to Larry Flynt’s house (the publisher of Hustler magazine) several times and played poker there. If money was what life was about, Lynn had definitely arrived. All the while Lynn knew something was missing...

The stories you are about to read are about people who were unconnected. They were on the outside looking out. Connection was the farthest thing from their minds as they spiraled deeper and deeper into un-connectedness….

I invite you to come with me for a journey on the road to connection. You don't have to stay unconnected to your hopes and dreams. Real connection, real life, a real future is just around the corner, if you are brave enough to reach out and claim it! Will you do it?