The Royal Flush

There was a long period of European history in which the dominant Roman church was allied with rich landholders, dukes, earls, barons, kings and queens. For a very long time, after the demise of Roman hegemony, landholders were calling the shots in any dispute about who is in charge or who is going to establish the bounds of civil and military society and culture. In the 18th and 19th centuries, this hegemony began to fall apart. A period of philosophical and political revision, the Enlightenment, illuminated the minds of many thinking people. Those rowdy Americans lit the flames of Liberty when they declared independence from King George the third of Britain. Not long afterward, the working people of France caught that same flame of Liberty and the supposed Equality of all men and women. The French radicals mounted a revolution in 1789 and ultimately beheaded their king and queen. In the middle of the 1800’s, Karl Marx presented his theory about ultimate revolution, fomented by the working people, who would overthrow the the royals and the rich landowners and the owners of the factories and replace government and capitalist enterprises with a new type of governance, the dictatorship of the proletariat, the working people. The hot wind of Liberty and revolution was still blowing across the Continent when the royal houses of Europe ignited a firestorm of war in 1914, when Archduke Ferdinand was shot dead by a Serbian nationalist in Sarejevo, Bosnia.

But the royal regimes of Europe, accustomed to being in charge, ignited a clusterf**k of military destruction that ultimately inflicted four years of death and destruction on the people of Europe.

It just so happened that, during that time, 1914-18, the Marxist doctrines of the dictatorship of the working people were being actualized, up in Russia, where the working people were getting sick and tired of being exploited by the czar and his lap dogs of rich landowners and warmakers.The Marxist doctrine of dictatorship of the proletariat was applied to the Russian workers, who were mostly peasants laboring in vast estates, serving the landlords of the vast Russian steppes, where industrialization had not yet taken hold of society and industry. Long story short, the Russian radicals executed the czar and his family, then went on to terrorize the countryside, herding the Russian people into a new regimen of dictatorship by the working people, as Marx had theorized. After taking control of the land and all the institutions, the communist revolutionaries grabbed power away from their more moderate contemporaries. Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin, having no loyalty to the dead czar, released themselves and the Russian people from fighting the war that the royals of Europe had imposed on the entire continent. The new communist regime of Russia made peace with the Germans and Austrians, and began to establish their own dictatorship of the proletariat, a revolution that ultimately brought forth the communist regime that dominated Russia until the 1990’s. The Enlightenment winds of Liberty had been stirred up, but with a Marxist twist, to blow over the steppes of the far north of Europe and Asia, imposing a Stalinist cruelty that terrorized, then tamed, the Russian people until the 1980’s. Andropov, Gorbachev and Yeltsin were, at last, leaders who illumined by the flames of reform that had lit revolutions since the early 1800’s. What they were able to accomplish was no beacon of Liberty and Justice for all, but it was, functionally, a nation that the czars and the rich landowners would never have approved, ruled by bureaucrats. Later, at the end of the 20th century, a fresh group of Russian-styled neo-capitalists were able to commandeer the evolving institutions of new management, governance, and now wealth accumulation. Opportunistic rich Russian oligarchs were able to gain control of the bureacracy and the emerging web of newly-capitalized resources and assets of the new Russian nation, an unprecedented hybrid of communist/socialist/capitalist nationhood. So, to conclude. . .By the time that the 1920’s-30’s rolled around, the rich royals who had formerly ruled Europe were obsolete. Tragically, the 1940’s were doomed to more war when a maniac Austrian with a toothbrush moustache took hold of the highly skilled, habitually militarized German state and inflicted a World War I rerun on Europe, but with a pagan, war-obsessed nazi cruelty built into that “third reich” machinery. By the time World War II was over, most of the royal rulers of Europe had either been killed, or set aside into cultural and political irrelevance. Since that time, Europe has been a relatively peaceful place, with disputes between working people and rich people being managed by parliamentary governance. As for Russia, we shall see what the new dictator Vlad the Mad imposes on his people and the people of Ukraine and beyond. The western world process of replacing royals with governance by We the People took about a century and a half to complete. We do not want to—we must not— regress into those obsolete systems of governance by kings and queens.

Glass half-Full

Born Again Ben

Now that this writer has lived for seventy-fiver years, contemplating the great beyond, i have the experience of a very dear friend leaving this world and being taken up to the place that Jesus has prepared for us. Looking back on those early years of getting to know Ben, one of my first memories of him was shown in a photo of him painting the interior of a house that we were about to moving into.

But painting was only one of his multiple vocations. Ben was a hard worker, a husband, a father, a laboror in our Creator’s great earthly project. a life partner, a pastor, friend, a shepherd, a publisher. After his ascent, the magazine that Ben had tended for many years published a tribute edition.

In this edition, friend Chip mentioned standing at Ben’s hospital bed the day before friend Ben died. Along the reading path of that special edition, many family members and friends commemorated the treasures, the testimonies, trials and tribulations that Ben had endured during his 40 years of service to his people, to mankind, to God. He was a man whose purpose was to bring leaders and followers together, reconciling disputes among people who were joined together in a common purpose, casting estrangements into forgiveness and peace, while his wife brought six admirable people into this world. Connie would attend others’ childbirths. She and Ben followed the path of service to their people, their followers, their friends, family. In the course of 40 years of service, Ben endured periods of being rejected by some, set aside, finding himself in a position to labor, painting, planting trees, all the while planting seeds of hope and encouragement along the way, breaking ground for new growth, growth to extend the kingdom of God on this earth, growth of thousands of pine saplings on a crew with me and some other fellows, to keep the Cox family happy and healthy while he was in between pastoral assignments. All the while, he was demonstrating mercy and grace, reconciling old enmities, breaking destructive behaviors, reading and preaching the ancient Word, the Good News, living the message of sacrifice, love, joy, peace, consoling widows and ophans, burying the dead, all after comprehending in errant youth that we can do nothing of eternal significance apart from being joined to the giver of life, the Creator, the vine on which eternal branches are nourished and irrigated with living water; Be understood the pit of despair where some of us fall , because he had been there, comprehending the transformation from a reckless lifestyle to salvation, utilizing that awareness of being born again and presenting that testimony to others who are in harm’s way, all of which he did to the very end. Sometime back in 1990’s, our friend David Browne set up a sound studio in our town, Boone. I gathered some friends together to help me record a song, Boomers’ Choice. In the recording, Ben’s son, Nathaneal, is playing the drums. Ben’s voice comes out loud and clear on a couple of refrains, where’s he’s singing, with our ensemble: “hey, hey, hoe, is there anybody home?”. . . You can hear the song in this link which is on my website: Boomer's Choice I look forward to singing with Ben again in heaven! King of Soul

A Wonderful World

A young man in Louisiana was called into the US Army during the war to defeat Nazi Germany and their Japanese allies. He was assigned to the signal corps, which involved him in radio technology. Not long after his training had been completed in Utah, the war ended when the Allies drove the third reich into the ground and their demonic leader shot himself in the head in a Berlin bunker. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, so to speak our American military had teamed up with Albert Einstein to devise a way of using atomic energy to manufacture a super bomb, an atomic bomb, the likes of which no man had ever seen. They used the finished product to inflict atomic explosions on Japan, an event unlike any that mankind had ever witnessed or experience. In the sweet by and by of progress, we developed technology for peaceful us of atomic power to generate electricity. When the big war was over, Louis was released from his military training. He returned to Louisiana and studied forestry at Louisiana State University. There he met Kathryn, a hometown girl who was majoring in chemistry. They married. Soon thereafter, they brought two boys and two girls into this world. Having obtained employment as state forester for the state of Mississippi, they bought a house, using the G.I. bill funds to get a start in post-war America. Their son, Carey, born to Louis and Kathryn in 1951 on a Friday 13th, July, was photographed while striding through the early days and driveways of the baby boomer generation.

Meanwhile, back in Baton Rouge, Kathryn’s mother, a widow, married a prosperous insurance man who had started his own insurance company, because. . . because that’s what Americans do; they start companies to make products and perform services. Carey’s maternal grandmother, Lelia, and her husband enjoyed travels in different parts of the world. Somewhere along the way, Lelia purchased a precious pottery, which had been set upon a marble table top in Lelia’s living room. Many years later, the vase was brought to our home, where Carey and Pat have lived since 1992, on an a wooded hillside in the Appalachian mountain, near Boone. In a moment of reflection on life’s precious memories and artifacts, I set these items on a deck rail and snapped into photographic history the memory of daddy’s shortwave radio and mama’s vase that her mother had given her.

The short wave no longer sends signals across radio waves of the world, because i don’t know how to operate it. But my dad did, and I remember him. The vase represents a prosperous life, now long gone, that had been lived by my grandmother in her travels around, what Louis Armstrong called, a Wonderful World. http://www.micahrowland.com/carey/Boomer's Choice.mp3 King of Soul

Understanding

Understanding is a long word. It combines a preposition, under, with a verb, standing. “Standing” is the present (here and now) tense, meaning that it is happening now. But the word “understanding” functions as a noun, something that is present in the mind of a person who comprehends the meaning, or the importance, or the significance of whatever is happening, or understand the meaning of an object, such a book, a document, a work of art, statue or any given thing that happens to show up. A STOP sign is understood by the driver; an EXIT sign is understand. When a person achieves old age, as this writer has after 75 summers, their understanding of this world, or this life, is more complete than it was at, say, age 25, or age 50. We old folks like to think that we know a thing or two about what is going on in this life, whether its obvious, or behind the scenes. I’ll provide an example here. Consider the events that took place at the US Capitol on January 6, 2020, when our Congress was attacked by a mob of proud boys, oath bleepers and 3%ers, along with a bunch of other wild people.

There are two ways to understand this event. Either it was lawful and permissible, or it unlawful and criminal. Was it in the same category as the American Revolution, a legitimate cause with a belligerent strategy, or unjust attempt to seize power and authority? Or was it a rebellion, as the southern states had attempted in the Civil War? In our present circumstance, our United States of America is in a divisive predicament. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord, who established the foundational document of true understanding. Understand it by reading Mattew 5: “Blessed are. . . the gentle people, people who are pure in their motives, people who have been persecuted even when they were right, Jesus advises opponents in a court to settle their differences before they drag the court people into the dispute. He also advises us to turn the other cheek when someone slaps us with an insult or a punch or some other offense. The bottom line of this treatise on understanding is: try to figure things out, calm down, make peace with your opponent before the sh** hits the fan, or the punch is thrown or the shot is fired or whatever.

Now that I have presented a reasonable explanation of “understanding” and its importance, I’ll direct you to musical representation, as conducted by the Moody Blues, in a place far away, a time long ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sp5iMzgENM

El Shaddai

YWHW stretched out the universe with a tapestry of stars and planets, moons and tunes of spinning wheels. Along the way YWHW created us people. YWHW appointed the man as angular and agile, the woman as beautiful and bountiful. When the man and the women joined themselves together, new boys and girls were born into the world. As time passed, the boys and girls grew up to be men and women.Then the family cycle became a continuing cycle, a heritage, with one season following another, laden with happiness and tears. When it all gets down to it, we are all strung out into this life, trying to make a joyful sound without some high and mighty authority depriving us of our life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.

Mothers and fathers, their lives strung out like gut strings on a fiddle, hoping to stretch those forte’s and adagios as far as they can before the final notes of life’s melodies are sounded. . . do ponder their expanded life, perched upon the heights of maturity, middle age and then old age and beyond to whatever is eternal. They would ask themselves, regarding those young ones whom they have brought into this shtetl world: “When did she get to be a beauty? When did he grow to be so tall? Wasn’t it yesterday when they were small? I can’t remember growing older. When did they?”

Lastly, when the holy elder is asked to pray for the tsar, he prays: “May the Lord bless and keep the tsar. . . of maralago far away from USa! Glass half-Full

Empire

In kingdoms, long, long ago. . . China India Babylon Persia Egypt And then there were. . . Assyria Greece Rome, but eventually split into kingdoms.

and somewhere along the way. . . Byzantium Russia on the other side of the world. . . Maya Aztec

In Medieval and Modern Times. . . Spain Austria France Germany There was a time when the sun shone on. . . Great Britain

And once upon a time in a former republic far, far away. . . America

Glass half-Full

Jonah

Long, long ago, in a place far away, in a kingdom by the sea. . . The word of the Lord, the Creator of the universe, came to the prophet Jonah, saying: “Arise, go to Ninevah, the great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness has become known to me.” As we were wandering on the Yucatan shores of Mexico this afternoon, I noticed this ancient Mayan city that had fallen into ruins:

As I was contemplating the parabolic Jonah/Jesus connection, it seemed to me that these ruins might resemble the ancient city of Ninevah that was in peril during the time of Jonah. Now I don’t know but I been told that the ancient city of Ninevah had become a place where corruption and something like wicked magamania proliferated and accumulated, like sargasso sludge on the shores of ancient history. And so, “ The word of the Lord came to the prophet Jonah saying: ‘Arise, go to Ninevah, the great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness has become known to me.” But Jonah neglected this divine command; he decided to sail to another locale, a place known then as Tarshish, probably somewhere on the Mediterranean, between Cyprus and Spain. But the Creator, the Master of the Universe, El Shaddai/YWHW, had other plans. So. . . when the sailors of the ship suspected, with a little help from on High, that there was something fishy about the passengers on the ship, they began to worry about the voyage as the wind whipped up to a furious gale and the good ship and crew were in peril. When the sailors realized that their passenger Jonah was trying to get away from the Lord’s calling, they conducted an enquiry. Long story short. . . Jonah confessed that he had boarded the ship in an attempt to get away from the Lord’s calling him to deliver prophetic warnings to the people in Ninevah. So they solved their near-shipwreck problem. They tossed Jonah into the sea. Suddenly, he was in serious trouble underwater. But the Lord had mercy on him, even in the depths of his Mediterranean peril. The Lord appointed a whale to swallow him; so Jonah was in the belly of the whale, as it turned out. . . for three days. Then the whale spit Jonah out. The scene might have looked something like this, with Jonah mired in sargasso sludge.

Later. . . many years later, when Jesus was living in this world, he compared what would be his post-crucifixion entombment to Jonah’s ordeal in the belly of the whale. “Just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” (Matthew 12:40) Glass half-Full