| ross d. martin |
| bio |
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I was born in Homestead AFB, Florida at a robust 11 lbs., 1/2 oz. My parents must not have fed me out of fear that I'd turn into a giant monster, because by the time I was in first grade, I was the smallest kid in the class. My disproportionately sized mouth got me in plenty of trouble until I finally got wise about the judicious use of personal opinions.
My military family moved often before my arrival, but settled in Fairborn, Ohio when I was only two. My wanderlust remained unrequited as my father left the Air Force to pursue real estate sales and become a big fish in our town's very small pond. Despite my pleadings that we move somewhere -- anywhere -- else, Fairborn remained our home for the rest of my youth. As they say, it's a nice place to live, but I wouldn't want to visit there.
It wasn't until halfway through my freshman year in high school that I broke five feet and a hundred pounds. We'll let Twain's "curtain of civility" lower over the scene of my social life from that period. Needless to say, I wouldn't live through junior high again for all the money in the world.
High school was just starting to get better -- I grew up, filled out a bit, started applying myself in school, was producing a television show and even had a couple of dates -- when I returned to my place as a social outcast for an entirely different reason: I found religion.
For more than ten years, Christianity was the burning focus of my life. I embraced my faith with all the youthful zeal I could muster, memorizing entire books of the Bible, telling everyone I met what I believed, and writing music. As I continued to experience life and to be exposed to more of the world, I found it harder and harder to explain everything about me within the context of my religion. Eventually, I stopped trying and took a sabbatical from my faith.
At the moment, I guess you'd call me a hopeful agnostic. To me, declaring oneself an absolute atheist is about as unreasonable as knowing with certainty that God is, though God remains unknowable using conventional means. Ask me again what I think about all this and it may be different. I'm not trying to hedge. It's just a really tough question and one that I'll probably wrestle with all my life.
One of the things that has me believing in divine intervention is the recent addition of a new love. I met the woman of my dreams on the dance floor at a ballroom competition -- we've been dancing ever since. You can see a picture of Kym and me by clicking here.