There are sections to skim and even skip in everyone’s life story. Most often these sections are bypassed due to their status as mundane, redundant and/or irrelevant in context to the larger story. The same is true of Cosmo Zimik’s story.
But, unlike the rest of us, Cosmo’s story also contains sections that must be passed over for his safety and the safety of those he loves. It is also vital this book do no harm in his continued efforts to improve the physical and spiritual conditions of his people.
In some instances, masking sensitive information is as simple as changing or concealing the names of people, places and dates. Astute readers might note throughout the text a lack of specifics when it comes to military forces, “militants” or investigative governmental agencies.
This lack of detail, while unfortunate, is necessary to avoid agitating said authorities.
Due to sensitive and continuing circumstances (and Cosmo’s desire to continue his work in and around his homeland), I have skipped over or euphemized aspects of Cosmo’s life. I apologize in advance for declawing aspects of the story. Until circumstances change, there is no other choice.
I have chosen this point in Cosmo’s story to raise this issue because Cosmo’s late teens proved too difficult to easily obfuscate. Instead, I’ve chosen the more disappointing (yet practical) option of skipping them entirely.
And so, dear reader, as you’ve been reading this aside, nearly three years have passed in Cosmo’s life. The sixteen-year-old Cosmo you last knew is now nineteen. It must suffice for me to say those three years were dark and violent ones during which Cosmo both dealt and suffered abuse. Each act of violence inched him further along a path he would have recoiled from had it revealed itself all at once. But as they say, if you want to cook a frog, don’t throw it into a boiling pot.
On that note, I’ll return you to Cosmo’s story moments before one of its lowest points—the same point I chose for the opening of the book.
YOU ARE READING
Empty Hand Revolution
Non-FictionBorn into a tribal war with India, violence his earliest memory, Comso Zimik trained as a black belt and street fighter from the age of nine. His vow: never show weakness. Tortured and left for dead in the jungle at the age of seventeen, Cosmo birth...
