In the autumn of 1972 on the only tour i can remember taking during my Navy liberty, i rode a bus to Pompeii. Much of the city had not been excavated back then, and from recent television programs about the city, much more information has been revealed about what happened .

i was enchanted. Ancient places, things now gone always move me, like the Petrified Forest in Arizona. When i returned to my ship, the USS Luce (DLG-7), i wrote this:

i went to Pompeii today in the rain;
left Naples on a tour bus
where at the front of the bus,
a fat little man
mechanically spoke his piece
about squares and statues, history,
as pimps, prostitutes, hustlers,
and
little boys selling dirty pictures
while trying to pick the target’s pockets,
along with everyday people
moved in masses
along the promenades
as we passed:
innumerable puppets in a large box,
highly seasoned with the filth of a city;

until we escaped to a smaller city
with polished tables of intricate design
and
mother of pearl cameo necklaces;

then a quick dash across the inland roads
to Pompeii
where the rain gently gathered
for the vendors to turn out
their umbrellas and raincoats
for a few lira to add to their take
selling photos and guidebooks;
the little fat man in his bemused fashion
told of the grandeur and beauty
of the ruins
before,
reeling off death statistics
before
dropping his voice suggestively
while showing rooms of licentiousness
among the ruins;
i wandered away from the tour
wondering about the people
before
they became death statistics
and
i was quiet, wondering;

i left Pompeii today in the rain;
near Amalfi, the clouds broke out
the sun in its harsh, unyielding glory;
the water far below the cliffs
on the narrow road
sparkled;
the hillside homes were bleached white
against the fury of the sea.

i left the bus to wait for hours
to make a telephone call
back home,
only to hear the unanswered ringing;
i walked to the pier
where i waited for the liberty boat
to take me back to the ship
alone.

at least the rain had stopped.

This was written in 1977 when i was the senior Navy associate professor (can you believe that?) at the Texas A&M NROTC Unit. i think i was seasick in the same manner folks get homesick.

no longer do i have a ship to steam;
the oceans upon which i sailed are
more than a thousand miles away;
my life is no longer entwined
with courses, currents, tides
and
coarse men of the sea;

academia flourishes here:
alive and well: professors stalk truth
behind their horn rims in cow country,
walk the pebbled paths,
loiter in the shade of trees
where birds are killed at night
by good ole boys
to prevent droppings on the pebbled paths;

i sit in my fluorescent lit office
laughing at the moon through the window,
which forgot to go down
this morning;

i wonder
how many cowboys
died with their boots on
in the streets
where the defeated general
grew into a legend?

if it rains,
i can watch
academia expound
and
let the world slide by
without getting my boots
muddy
on the bird-dropping free paths;

the seas, though far away,
sometimes beckon
with simple fury;
i remember
walking the decks
in the eye of a storm
with my boots on.

A long, long time ago, the Lord of the Heavens and the Universe, including all things within it, decided to conduct an experiment, namely creating a creature who had the capacity to go beyond the Law of Nature and improve upon life for the creature and others like him.

The experiment on Earth had begun very well. Then it went south, and the Lord of the Heavens and the Universe wiped out all but a handful of his experimental creatures and started over. For while that went well like the first phase, but that too went south. This time, the Offspring of the Lord was sent down to see if the Offspring could get it back on track. For a little while that worked pretty well too. But the creatures had an incredible capacity to screw things up, and in spite of many advances in improving their lifestyles, greed and self-interest took those advances and turned them into abuse of others through power grabbing, self-aggrandizement, then fear and hatred and more abuse, even killing creatures of their own kind.

The Lord of the Heavens and Universe is considering what can be done next with this mess on Earth.

Simultaneously ten million light years away, the Lord of the Heavens and Universe looked down on another planet and modified the experiment. The planet was Raptureon in the Solar System Glie in the Galaxy Xanad. The galaxy was similar to the Milky Way, the solar system was similar to the Sun’s, and Raptureon was similar to Earth.

On Raptureon, all began just as it did on Earth, creating these creatures who could think beyond the Law of Nature and could care for others of its kind beyond the family unit. In the creation of these creatures on Raptureon like those on Earth there was one major exception.

Five million years after the human experiment was created on Raptureon when, like on Earth, it began to go south, the Lord of the Heavens and Universe decided to intervene, not twice as he had intervened on Earth, but only once on Raptureon and in a different manner.

The Lord of the Heavens and the Universe first passed down his most important rule, which these creatures who were exceptions in the Law of Nature could understand. He passed it through all of the religions and the cultures to all of the human creatures on Raptureon.

The one law all of these experimental creatures were required to live by was simple:

“Do Unto Others As You Would Have Them Do Unto You.”

Unlike on Earth, the Lord of the Heavens and the Universe decided to take a personal hand in upholding this one law above the Law of Nature. The Lord of the Heavens and Universe decided that once this law was made known to all of the creatures, and they failed to follow the one law, their lives would end quickly and painlessly. Anytime one of the creatures disobeyed and did not do unto others as they would have the other do unto them, the disobedient creature was gone to the great beyond.

The Lord of the Heavens and the Universe then sat back and observed his experiment, having set the penalty for failure to obey in the “automatic” mode.

The population of Raptureon began to decrease rapidly. Over the space of less than three years, even though it had taken five million years for the population to grow, the numbers were reduced to only a handful of these creatures. Even this small number of the creatures seemed incapable of adhering to the rule. Greed and self-interest and vanity in their own knowledge, which they believed was superior to anyone else’s knowledge, were too seductive for these creatures not to employ power grabbing, self-aggrandizement, then fear and hatred and more abuse on anyone with whom they had a relationship.

Soon, the entire population of these human creatures on Raptureon was down to two, a man named Evers and a woman named Adamina. The Lord of the Heavens and the Universe stopped his other ventures for a while and gave close attention to what happened next.

As it is with nearly all relationships between a man and a woman, Evers and Adamina began to argue over who was right. This particular incident was about which fruit they should eat.

Suddenly, Evers and Adamina were gone. Kaput. There were no more of these creatures capable of rising above the Law of Nature on the planet Raptureon. The plants and other creatures on the planet Raptureon thrived. It was a beautiful, wonderful place for each and every living thing to live by the Law of Nature except, of course, those creatures that had all gone to the great beyond.

The Lord of the Heavens and Universe, his Offspring, and even his buddy Satan, laughed and laughed together at the result of this part of the experiment.

Then, the Lord of the Heavens and Universe turned his attention to the other part of his experiment, the one that was ten hundred million light years away in the Galaxy Milky Way in the Solar System of the Sun on the planet Earth…

i took almost an entire week off my usual routine. To begin the week last Monday, i had stitches removed from my right arm above the elbow. It was from whacking out an early caught melanoma. It was successful. i am clear of the scourge but no golf for at least another two to possibly five weeks. Ugh.

This also played with my mind about my time is coming. Not imminent. But it’s coming. So i worked at what i could. My book is wading through Mombasa where a whole chunk of things happened in a short period of time, not like the long, seemingly forever time off of Oman. So half-way through Mombasa and the week, i took a break.

Turned my attention to honey-dos, except it’s more me than the honey. i hung sunshade on our new trellis duplicating the style of the old one next to it. Next, i’ll hang the lights, build a couple of boxes for storing tools, trash, and junk in the “dog prison” (someday, i really will relate that story, but not for a while). The back and side yards are looking quite a bit more respectable now. We plan to spend more time there. Already, i have been out there past nightfall reading and jotting down my thoughts.

i have been pretty good about staying out all of the frays, offering encouragement to friends and relatives and having discussions with friends i trust will continue with an open mind despite differences in opinions. Learning, i think it’s called.

There is peace in this strategy for an old man. i can step out and look down one side and rest easy with the peace of mind flowing over me:

We talk about putting a fountain and bench out here, a contemplation area if you will, but as with many such plans, it will be a while.

Quite frankly, i am at peace. If i thought i could have a significant impact on positive change, i would be in the thick of it, but i have observed the clanging of cymbals, blazing rhetoric of folks my age, and it seems to just stir them up, stress them out, with no real impact on much of anything except maybe alienate a few friends who disagree with cymbals of their own. i am attempting to digest this clanging noise with calmness. Don’t know if i can do that, but when i do, i am at peace. You young un’s go for it, but please try to correct the core problems, not the superficial ones.

There are other sources of my peace, of course: friends. As mentioned in a Facebook post yesterday, we are meeting a dear friend for a safe lunch in a park today. A number of folks have commented on Nikki McCullough’s artwork newly hung in our kitchen. i tried to find Nikki’s original post of the artwork, which is when i fell in love with it, but i couldn’t. This should give you a better idea of what it really looks like.

Thanks, Nikki.

Peace.