...on brain time

Reading for March 28, 2010

Never before, and................. not ever since....... had my reptilian brain surfaced and taken over. An alertness was summoned. I stayed completely still, however, in my suspension - pulse and respiration rates down . A primal sound….......anechoic and pure .........opened the air as might a sword unsheathed by lover's final breath.

Then a form caressed my vision and dropped below my sight.

I initiated an efficient and rapid transfer of my body out of the mango tree, and onto my motorcycle. Ironically, though, before I could even start to understand ~~* in my homo-sapiens-brain *~~ what had just happened - I was distracted by the intent of my mission: getting the information about starting a zoo. 

So there I was, at the mirroring beacons of socio-economic enlightenment before I began to really understand what had happened.

In a neuronal trailblazing frolic, wildfire images of the Promised Land played off each other as political sense started to make nonsense.  Vamping consciousness still easing my Mango Tree Event into full awareness, and, unaware of the danger I would face before nightfall ~ unless I made a drastic turn ~ I indulged in invitations to utopia – both of them. Both referring to the duo, that, were/was actually, very close to schizoid mirrors for each other.

On one side of the street, was the United States Information Service [a government agency that no longer exists] and on the other side of the street, was the Soviet Union Information Service [a socialist state that no longer exists]. The large front window of each building had posters with pictures of happy, smiling people – all ages, urban and rural inhabitants. A few brief sentences dotted the constructs. Again, almost word for word, each place said the same thing: this is the best way people can live. The US posters were in English - the Soviet's in Russian and English.
Hmmmm... I looked back and forth.......... yep! The posters could be switched without any one of those rosy-cheeked, well fed, well dressed, folks knowing the difference. Neither place had crime, poverty, or homelessness. 
As I gazed at the faces of the people in the Soviet pictures, I couldn't find any one who looked like they had wanted to bomb my second grade class.

….................to be continued

Join Captain Flip Side every Sunday in his true life adventures...........

happy daze,

the Captain

Reading for March 21, 2010

Intoxicated from unrestrained yellow, I seeped into a sublime state where governance forbade such inquiries as: “How secure is the mango tree's hold on the bluff?” - “What is the distance from the jutting limb to the ground below?" - and, “What was it they said in training about fatal reactions relating to mangoes .....oh, what was it?...the leaves, the sap, the fruit itself?.........or was it only near-fatal reactions?”

View #1 is a quick sketch of what might be a view of where I sat in the mango tree, out over the cliff above the land stretching to Accra, Ghana.

…........okay, its my first illustration as a published author ~*~ so here's View #2: a picture of me pointing to the spot........circa 1970

For View # 3. I'm going out on a limb to sketch what I remember of the view from the roost itself.

In that state of seepage, the vibrancy of the mango's color was a doorway to the mulch-dimensional space of nature. I haven't been the same since. A commune perfect with all that exists independently of human activities was made. To re-tool a great point made by one who traveled by tornado which dropped a house on the sister of one of my exes. I wasn't in Illinois, anymore.

But, in that Aburi outcrop, it was neither peril of deadly allergen, nor fatal fall, that presented an intimate threat experience. Mortal danger would, however, face me before the sun set on the African plains below.

….........to be continued...........

Join Captain Flip Side every Sunday in his true life adventures...........

happy daze,

the Captain

Point, or Thin Line?

Reading for 3-14-2010

“There's a fine line between genius and insanity”...........I have heard it said ~ I know not by whom ~ but have become convinced that there is a fine line between anything and everything else. Furthermore, it is the very place ^^ ~~ wondered about in my childhood at that Lawndale tree ~~^^ where one step beyond could be made with God. I call it the point, and am humbled, while elevated; alone, while with everyone; anxious, while serene; saddened, while blissful........... when there. The more I let go of what my parents were fond of identifying as “me, myself, my shadow and I” - the more I am there........and the more souls inspire, invite, and invigorate.

For the artist, scientist, nurse, teacher, artisan, child, parent, and philosopher in us , there are just times when musing: infinities, dreams, levels of consciousness, callings and the essence of our very souls - just has to get in line and wait – like everybody else's entrancement – while overriding priorities arise...................like survival.

And so it was, that day in the Fall of 1970, “upcountry” from Aburi, that such a priority arose.

I reference Aburi because it was about halfway between the town - where I taught – Koforidua................ and the capital city - where I sped to get information for the project that the high school class had chosen. Aburi, also had the best roasted chicken in Sub-Saharan Africa; and, was a stone's throw from a view across some 40 kilometres of the Accra plains to the Gulf of Guinea.

From Aburi, the rapid, steep descent to sea level necessitated a switch-back road. On that route, high up from the waters of the the Atlantic ocean and the diagonal line of underwater volcanoes in its equatorial gulf, there was a hair-pin curve. At the outermost point of that sharp turn, its roots grasping the rock wall and its outstretched branches in prayerful supplication for sunlight, was a mango tree. Its trunk stretched over the cliff, into the  warm, moist tropical air.
 
Eight feet or so from solid ground, the tree had made its first branching.

Any sense of my class project, along with the everything of - books, dream interpretations, physics, and metaphysics, were vaporized – for I had paused my charge down the escarpment, climbed the tree, and fell into repose..................... in palm of hand Divine.

There, the mangoes were of such a perfect yellow, that the color itself, was alive.

…...........to be continued........................

Join Captain Flip Side every Sunday in his true life adventures...........

happy daze,

the Captain

A ZOO, of course

The hypnotic chorus of “......he must have lost a book” continued repeating ~ until it tired, and gave its final breath as a silence that naked trees danced to..... in still motion.

It was to those trees I awoke from that dream.

In varying degrees, dreams, which conjure themselves from rich memories mixed in secret laboratories of the mind, become part of everyday life.

I found that in pursuing the most fantastic of dreams, it is of greatest importance to cover my butt.

D r I f t

As a short-term goal – something we can accomplish by the end of this school year, what would be your dream idea for our class project. I asked my seniors at Koforidua Secondary School in the Fall of 1970. I was quickly overwhelmed with enthusiastic suggestions. In no time at all, however, a fever pitched winner evolved in a unanimous uproar: a ZOO. Instantaneously, I roared back approval – a Zoo, it shall be.

From where would any possible hesitancy come?

That I had lacked the background, training, education, experience in such matters didn't give me any pause........... whatsoever.

I did get my only “D” in seven or so years of college in Zoology, but that was a passing grade. Adding to that, my family had a Cocker-spaniel when I was growing up (that just disappeared one day, and another Terrier-type dog appeared as our new dog – and I never thought about that until now) …....and.............I had (more or less) over a hundred ant killings to my curricula vitae.

**apologies to my dear friend, Steph – actually, Steph, it would be best if you did not read the next paragraph

Then there were untallied scores of fly smashings, spider smearings {under a foot well protected by shoe} and cockroach crunching [unfortunately, I am unable to certify the events just south of Mobile, Alabama, in which I torched an old boat cushion full of those orthopterous pests single handed]

Thus, with those sterling credentials, I boldly said “.....if you find any animals, just bring them to me – and tell everyone that”.

…............................everyone..........................

to be continued...

Join Captain Flip Side in his true life adventures, every Sunday!

Happy daze,

The Captain