Wednesday, December 5, 2012

...Twist Of Faith


My Story – Leo Schreven 23 March 2012 from InFocus on Vimeo.



My story: Leo Schreven's life change from InFocus on Vimeo.


He was one of my best friends in high school... we called it the new Auschwitz.  It was more like a labor camp.  Up at 3am to make breakfast and get a shower before the rest of the "herd" got in.  We were in religious boot camp.  A place that would make you or break you.  High up in the beautiful mountains of B.C. Canada.  A school of rhetoric and unbending religious fervor.  Our principal ruled us rats with a rod of "Thus saith the Lord".  She controlled our every waking moment - or at least tried to.  But Leo was her favorite.  I was a close second.  We knew the drill.  We had been schooled and drilled in the etiquette of a training style that later delivered to the world the likes of David Koresh and the Waco tragedy.  Yes - one lady possessed by the conviction of a voodoo priest - initiated us into the finer lines of black majick rituals with a Christian bent.  Reading Scriptures until we could "see" the words through the covers of the closed  book.  Existing on two or three hours of sleep just to go out in the freezing rain and work all day for 10 or twelve hours sometimes more.  Doing the Lord's work they called it. 

But Leo was different.  He knew how to make the best of a bad situation - or so it seemed.  He even found a way to date the Principal's daughter for years right under the nose of the principal - living in her house.  I know.  I used to be Leo's secret informer.  I ran "intel" for him so he knew when the coast was clear.  When it would be safe to venture out on those moonless nights - to spend some fleeting moments with his maiden. 

Looking back on it all some 30+ years later - I see it clearly now.  Leo taught me so much.  He taught me to laugh at the heartache that never goes away.  He taught me to eat seaweed with rice cooked under a bed on a little can of Sterno fire - because they would starve us for days at school.  Leo was a true friend.  A hero of sorts to me.  I was happy to hear of his success as a business man - and a travelling preacher man.  Over the years we never stayed in touch... The memories we shared were too traumatic I guess...

"But I always thought I'd see you again!"

                     Leo Schreven killed himself Saturday December 1, 2012

....And now you know The Rest Of The Story!