I have more than a few scars. Some big, some small; a scar from getting tangled in a barbed wire fence, a scar from jumping in a dog fight to protect my dog – most of them are reminders of major accidents or, more often, something really stupid I did. Some I don’t recall the cause of. I’d like to imagine they’re from wrestling a bear, but they’re probably not.
The easy answer to this prompt is one that gave me some big scars, but I already used it in the last drawing challenge, so I decided to search a little further. The prompt says “major” – it sure seemed major at the time, but in retrospect it wasn’t that big a deal (I don’t even have a scar 😉 ).
I was a scout as a child. Scouts, as you might imagine, have campouts. At such campouts, smores are often made. This is usually a good thing – until you leave the kids unattended…
One of the other kids got the idea to start slicing marshmallows in half with the coat hangers we were using as sticks, after heating it in the fire a bit. If you don’t remember being a kid: bigger, faster, higher, and hotter are always better. So it wasn’t long before the hangers used were red-hot, then white-hot.
It turns out, that when you heat a piece of metal until it’s white-hot, the heat takes quite a while to dissipate. This simple truth simply did not enter my juvenile mind as I studiously made ready to light-saber my marshmallow, firmly grasped a part of the hanger that glowed brightly less than 60 seconds before, and immediately started screaming. And screaming. And screaming.
2nd degree burns in two neat little lines across my little hand where the fatty fleshy part had wrapped around the hanger. And so it was that I simultaneously learned that heat needs to dissipate, and that I don’t need to do something stupid just because everyone else is.
Ouch. You have triggered a memory for me. A painful one. I shall now draw it.
Happy to be your catalyst. Look forward to seeing the post.