Mountain

In 1958, when I was nine years old, my parents drove us from Mississippi all the way to Seattle, where my dad attended an international forestry commission. We were driving through the Rockies. There was a stream in the valley below us. As we rounded a bend in road, lo and behold, there was a cattle drive, right in the middle of the road, conducted by some cowboys. I was amazed. These fellers looked just like the cowboys I’d seen on TV. . . Roy Rogers, Rowdy Yates, Lone Ranger, Ben Cartwright and his three sons. We had to stop; a cowboy let me climb up on the horse with him; my dad snapped a photo. It was a wondrous moment for a boy from the deep south. Those Colorado mountains were only the beginning of my mountain experiences. When we got to Seattle, we were driving through the city when I happened to glance up and see a great pink apparition floating in the sky, but it turned out to be Mt. Rainier. Six years later, my aunt Lena and Uncle Cooper were driving me and my friend Johnny through Mexico. Suddenly, I noticed a mountain in the distance. I’ll never forget that moment. Farther along, I had another mountain wonder moment when we rounded a curve; suddenly I caught a glimpse of Acapulco beach, stretched out below, along the Pacific Coast. It seems my youthful mountain wonder inspired me ultimately, to move to the Blue Ridge in 1975. While living in flat Florida, I had seen a movie, Where the Lilies Bloom, that prompted my decision. While living in Asheville, I attempted to start a newspaper, the first issue of which was prompted by a group of us boomer dreamers to prevent the NC DOT from cutting Beaucatcher mountain so they run I-40 through it. Well, it was a nice try, but so much for youthful idealism. A few years later, when we moved to Boone, I spent a couple of years working on a construction crew, to build a the Blue Ridge Parkway around Grandfather Mountain, a major peak of the Appalachian range, the oldest mountains in our world.

Now we live in the side of a small mountain, near Boone, about 25 miles from Grandfather. In all those years since, I’ve learned a lot about mountains. Moses brought the ten commandments down from Mount Sinai. That event, and the Ten Commandments delivered there, changed history forever.

Later, Jesus spent some time on the Mount of Olives.

2000+ years later, Martin Luther King took Moses’ revelation when he spoke of having been to the Mountaintop, when identifying his earthly mission with Moses’ mission, which had ended on Mt. Pisgah, where the Lord had given Moses a glimpse of the promised land, before taking him up to heaven. You can hear my song about Moses’ mountaintop experience and Dr. King’s mountaintop inspiration at Mountaintop https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3hQNMr0A48

American Liberty

From a Boston church steeple to the red clay hills of Georgia, the cry for freedom rang out, nourished by the blood of innocent citizens and dedicated patriots. The clarion call for freedom rang out like a clanging bell, sounded loudly in the voices, the horns and the shots heard around the world. Who knew? Who knew that American independence would inspire a wave of Liberty around the world? From the bold declaring of Independence, agreed to and signed into reality by native patriots who assembled in Philadelphia, not yet knowing the bloody consequences of their rebellion? who knew?

Who knew that the principles stated in their Declaration, would ultimately inspire President Abraham Lincoln to issue an Emancipation of slaves, so that they could be citizens of these United States, and live free, and work for themselves and have freedom. Who knew that Martin Luther King’s dream of Liberty for all people would be actualized, slowly but surely, between the red clay hills of Georgia, the shores of Maine, the coffee klatches of Seattle, the gates of our southern border, and Pearl Harbor in the middle of the Pacific ocean? Who knew? Truth be told, cold hard facts. . . the Revolution was a bloody battle in which we finally ejected King George’s soldiers, and initiated a struggle for freedom that has inspired the whole world since those days in 1776.

Glass half-Full

Flowers to Seeds

I don’t know, but I been told that in the Beginning, the Creator of this world said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed. . .and so the earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their own kind.

Later, the first man and woman screwed up, so the Creator ejected them from the garden, and set them out into the wide world to make it on their own. They procreated, making love. . . every time a man deposited his seed into his woman, or at least some times, his male seed would conjoin with her fertility and then, lo and behold, nine months later, a little baby would pop out. I first heard about this when I was in fourth grade, I began to understand some of these divine arrangements when a buddy of mine told me that the man puts the seed into his wife, or that she has the seed and he fertilizes it, something like that. . . and if his aim is good and she’s fertile, get this! another human will pop out a few months later! But getting back to that ancient genesis “seed”. . . generations of men and women populated the earth. Some of them were pretty good people; others, not so much. Eventually, the Creator noticed a fellow who was doing things right. He took Abraham aside and told them that in his “seed”, all generations of the earth be blessed, because Abraham obeyed the Creator’s rules for living a good life, and he taught his offspring the proper way of living. But you know the rest of story. A lot of things happened in this world. . . a lot of water under the bridge, so to speak, and millions of seeds were planted; hundreds of years passed. . .things were going along pretty well in Palestine, under Roman rule. Generation’s later, the Creator did a special impregnation, when (first time ever) a woman’s womb was fertilized without the man’s seed! The child was special, having a divine nature; He was destined to change the world, (you’ve probably heard of Him). . . by his resurrection after he was crucified for breaking a few rules, or something like that. His message—you’ve probably heard it—has been told from generation to generation ever since those ancient days. When Jesus was teaching men how to live, he told parables to illustrate the principles of the way the Creator does things. He said that the good news of His sacrificial work, was that He conquered death itself! But you gotta believe it to qualify. He said that the good news of his victory was like the news of His salvation. His conquest of death itself would be like seed that a farmer went out sew, and some of the seed landed in fertile ground, destined to bear fruit and more seed. Some seeds would sprout, and some would not. So keep that in mind whenever you plant your seed anywhere. It’s better to have a good crop than not to have a crop, thereby letting your offspring screw up. Train a child in the way he or she should go, and most likely the good news will bear fruit and your seed will be engendered in your progeny. Now because I am twice-born. . . once from my mother’s womb, and then again, spiritually, when I saw the Light of eternal Life that shines through the whole history of this world. And because, I am born again, this is what I thought of when I caught sight of the plant. . .

Glass half-Full

Something Happening

The voice of Stephen Stills still echoes in my memory as I remember, back in the day—1968, I think it was. . . his words sung in a song on the radio, “There’s somethin’ happening here; what it is ain’t exactly clear.”

That assessment—or maybe it was just a feeling, a hunch—was a thought that seemed to hang like a storm cloud over my generation. From the Cuban missile crisis, to the Bay of Pigs fiasco, to the November 22, 1963 shock wave of President Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas. . . and on and on. . . why the hell did Jack Ruby shoot Lee Harvey Oswald? There’s somethin’. . . it ain’t exactly clear . . . clouded in a mist of Agent Orange. . . then the Pentagon papers. . . Ellsberg said “I hope I’m never in a job where I have to lie like that’’, referring to the public comments of a defence secretary. Then there’s Kissinger playing the craps game with the press and the jungle people of Vietnam.

Then there’s Nixon drawing fire from the press over his suppression of a nocturnal burglary in Ellsberg’s psychiatrist in the Watergate hotel, Then so much public questioning, criticism about tricky dick’s “dirty tricks” that decides to just leave the oval office before the American people and their lawyers impeach him. So Nixon waves goodbye. A hand-picked VP turned President for a few days, or weeks before Jimmy Carter left his peanut farm in Georgia, defeated Ford in ’76. He had to deal with Benachem Begin and Anwar Sadat trying to make peace in the Middle East (sounds oddly familiar) But then all hell broke loose when the Iranians ejected their Shah. Iranians raided the American embassy in Tehran. The 1980 election was bearing down on Carter. . . a gubernatorial cowboy from California rode into Washington to put an end to the shootout at the Iran corral. It really was like an old western. . . when Ronald Reagan rode into Washington, just like in the old cowboy movies like my dad used to watch, back in the ’50’s. Looking back on it all, now at age 75, I’m still thinking, as Stephen had sung back in the day. . . “There’s something happenin’ here; what it is ain’t exactly clear”. . . Something happening in 2026. . . something wrong that needs a fix. . . it’s just a. . . weird magamania that won’t settle back into the American way of Law and Order.

King of Soul

We the People will

When in the course of American events, it becomes necessary for the People to dizzolve the political bands which have connected them with a tyrant magamaniac, and to appropriate among the powers of our Constitution and our Rule of Law, a separation of the insurrection instigator from the executive office that he had formerly obtained . . . a decent respect for our Rule of Law requires that we should declare the reasons that impel US to the Impeachment.

We hold these recent events to be self-evident, that our Congress was attacked and that our Constitution endows us to protect our senators and representatives, and to defend, legislate and preserve our heritage of Life, Liberty and the pursuit of lawfulness, and that to secure these rights We have a long history of lawful resolution of disputes between liberals and conservatives, between Democrats and Republicans, between our Constitution and rebel Confederates who had attempted to separate themselves from US so that they could enslave other citizens of these United States. And furthermore, in the course of our history. . .Conservatives, Congress, and our Constitution have played major roles in the preservation of our Union. Even in our tribulation time of 1930’s Depression. . . we managed, by Congressional, Judicial and Executive declarations to preserve the peace and prosperity of America. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that our government, long established, should not be destructed for the sake of one chief insurrectionist who happened to be traipsing in the Rose Garden on January 6, 2021 and who still yet strives to establish his name, unworthily, in our most hallowed American institutions and landmarks.

We therefore resolve to protect and defend our ole New Deal, our Great Society, even our Morning in America, which happens every day that the sun shines on US. We can improve and provide for our Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Prosperity while still utilizing our historic ole New Deal and its subsequent Deep State, like it or not, read ‘em and weep all ye magamaniacs. . . our Great Society, even our deepstate bureaucracy required for all our agencies to function, alive an ticking. Yes, indeed. . .

We the People will somehow, some way, raise up the party of Lincoln. We shall overcome the magamania that so recently occupied the GOP by hook or by crook, we know not which. We shall let the Supreme Court pick and choose from their shadow docket, even as they toss their immunity life raft to a sinking president, even as the people come and go, speaking of Michelangelo, or of whomever the chief insurrectionist chooses to decorate his ballroom, or his reflecting pool, or his magamaniacs who try to Make America Go Awry. We can slog through the slush funds, drain the swamp or whatever it takes for a free people to break the bands of injustice and insurrection. We can overcome again, and again and again. . .until its time for We the People to elect new leaders. We Shall Overcome the gerrymandering pandering, somehow, some way, when its least expected, because We have a dream that someday, all God’s children will prevail when Justice rolls down like the waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream. . . and all God’s children will live together, whether in the red clay hills of Georgia, the rocky shores of Maine, the old north church in Boston, or any church. . .the coffee clatches of Washington or the star-studded studios of Hollywood. . . We shall overcome someday. Deep in my heart, I know. . . Americans will overcome magamania. Glass half-full</b>

War and Pieces

“War: what is it good for, absolutely nothing!” Those words, recalled from a Motown hit song back in 1960’s, or ’70’s, when we were dodging the draft, endeavoring to stay out of the Vietnam war, a war that we lost anyway. But the question echoes through the decades. Looking back on it all. . . war was good for evicting King George’s soldiers out of our brand new nation. Moving right along, it was good for enforcing President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. In the 20th century, it was good for stopping the German juggernaut twice, especially the second time, when the little kraut madmen with the funny moustache had thought he could take charge of Europe and exterminate the Jews along the way. War was, maybe, not as bad, after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, when we Americans demonstrated the power of the new atomic bomb at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I mean, certainly it was not good for the Japanese people, and I pray that they have forgiven us for demonstrating to the world that those nukes should never be used on anyone. But like it or not, they took the hit for all of us. May it never have to be done again! In recent years, the little Russian, Vlad the Mad, started making war on Ukraine. The situation was similar to 1938 when Hitler wanted to take the Sudetanland in Czechoslavakia, just because there were a lot of Germans living in that region. So there has been some confusion about Vlad the Mad in Russia, because supposedly, he wanted to guide Russia into a more reasonable, democratic nationhood. But the power went to his little bald head and he decided to try and take Ukraine back into Russian hegemony. I guess he thought he was acting like Peter the Great, or Stalin with gulags. Meanwhile, back at the Maralago ranch, trump was faced with the predicament of dealing with Putin, because everybody knew that the USA was now the big kid on the world block. But Vlad the Mad kind of saw himself as the big kid on the block, and he thought that trump might let him get away with it, because they both saw themselves as the big kid on the block. . . As it turned out. . . trump did give Vlad a pass, or a wave or something like that . . . when he posed a meeting with Zelensky, the Ukrainian leader. I guess trump just told Zelinsky that he could not be one the big kids on the block. Vlad and donald just wanted to demonstrate their bully hegemony. What the people of this world didn’t realize was that the hood ole boys club, Vlad, donald, Xi and a few other tagalongs were more dedicated to performing their roles as big kids on the block, you know, the round block that circles around the sun. Then the occupant of the Oval office got stir crazy when an opportunity came up to take it upon himself to destroy the ancient country of Iran. I guess he thought it would be a walk in the park as he was putting on his defensive bully hat to help Ben in Tel Aviv. but it has not turned out that way. So the war in Iran drags on, I guess. . . I mean we don’t hear much about it, but then again its so far away. . . like the war that Orwell wrote about in 1984. I suppose its always been this way, since our times turned modern, and we’ve gotten used to there always being a war somewhere in the world.

Lastly, I’ll mention the novel I wrote about the war that started in Europe in 1937. The passage of time is cloaked in smoke. And remember, its just a matter of time before the winds of war start to blow again, and again, and again, until? Carey Rowland

Cape Cod

I must have been in fourth or fifth grade when I began to comprehend the historical importance of the state of Massachusetts, way up north somewhere, where the Boston Red Sox played baseball. I was growing up in the deep south when John F. Kennedy was elected President. T’was then that I began hearing about Cape Cod, where the Kennedy family had their vacation home in Hyannisport. Yesterday, only days away from my 75th birthday, we went to Cape Cod., first time ever for me. Along the way, still on the mainland, I saw signs for Plymouth, that settlement on the mainland shore that faces outward toward Cape Cod. . . Plymouth colony, where the Pilgrims first set up their rendition of the Lord’s community, apart from the high church establishment in Europe. . . a return to the ancient Christian vision of establishing the Lord’s kingdom on earth. Crossing on a bridge, we arrived on Cape Cod. After a few minutes, I was seeing signs for Hyannis. I recalled hearing about Hyannis port, where the Kennedys had their yacht docked, back in the day, During those early days of the Kennedy administration, President Kennedy’s wife, Jackie generated a unique fascination in the media. Their family, residing in the White House, inspired popular comparisons to Camelot, the legendary kingdom where King Arthur had ruled with his queen, Guinevere, back in the earliest years of Great Britain. Later, while sitting on a Cape Cod beach, my mind was generating other memories. In 1971, while working in a Colorado ski lodge tavern, I had heard John Duffy, a New England native, sing his song, “Nantucket Ferry.” I was thinking that the legendary Nantucket was out there somewhere.

Back in 1847, Herman Melville had signed on as a harpooner with a whaling ship sailing out of Nantucket. Following that whaling voyage around the world, Melville wrote his great (some say the greatest) American novel, Moby Dick. Being a novelist myself, I was reflecting on this Cape Cod moment as I waded through the water at Breakwater beach. Those whaling daydreams cast my memory net back to a song earlier heard, back in the day, 1960’s, on the old 33 rpm record player. Judy Collins sang “Farewell to Tarwathie”,a song about the coast of Greenland, a song sung by some long-gone sailor whose hope was to find riches in “hunting the whale.” Perhaps that sailor would have returned to Cape Cod when the expedition was complete and the voyage was done. I was humming “Farewell to Tarwathie’ as we bid farewell to the legendary Cape Cod, to return to Boston. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qV29xK2xyZ4 Glass half-Full