After Texas sank, I started remembering more of the things that the old man talked about. No one actually believed that half the United States would just up and disappear, the old man had mentioned that it was a possibility, yeah but he was just an old man, I thought he was pretty cool though. He would stand up to anyone, he hated to see people waste their lives following false ideals. But when Texas started mimicing the Titanic, I realized just maybe he might be right about some other things that he expounded. I was about 22 when I met him, funny, I don't remember exactly the first time I saw him, but I sure remember the first time I became aware of him.
Remember, I was 22, I was pretty sure that I had accumulated all the knowledge that a young male human would ever need, and I was probably invulnerable. Yeah, Right.
Anyway, I proceeded to ride my motorcycle through this crowd of people, it was fun to watch them give me space, I had just made my second pass, and was about to turn around to do it again, when this hand reached out and literaly plucked me right off the seat, I hit the ground like a rock, and jarred every bone in my body, I tasted blood from biting my tongue, then man, I saw red, I came up ready for war. Standing in front of me, was this old guy, kinda balding, but a pretty big dude. He reached out and openhanded just set me back on my butt.
"Young Man" he said "Why don't you just sit there and remember your manners"?
It wasn't really a question I realized, but more of an order, something I didn't believe in taking. He squatted in front of me and looking directly in to my eyes.
"I live just over there in that trailer, when you get yourself together, come see me and pick up your scooter".
I watched him as he walked over and picked up my bike, and walked it toward the the vacant lot where a large trailer was parked.
"I'm going to get him" I muttered through aching teeth.
"Better forget it" says a ragged guy in a cammy jacket, "He will have you for lunch. Go talk to him, might be hell of a time to learn something"
The rest is history, I went and reclaimed my motorcycle, and wound up spending a couple of hours just talking. I found out there was no animosity, in the old man, he just felt like when something was wrong, it was his job to straighten it out. Funny though, life seemed to get serious though for me after that. Maybe it was just coincidence, but I don't think so, I think I was ready and my teacher appeared.
It was just two or three days after the millennium, I was in Austin, standing on a street corner, listening to a Jesus Preacher, ranting about the state of our existence. A large hand appeared on my shoulder.
"See, I told you the Y2K bug wouldn't really bite, but don't let down you guard, right there lies one of our real dangers" pointing at the preacher, the old man sighed. " they will destroy us yet".
I had heard him speak of the moral majority as being a College of Knowledge based on eternal misdirection. I wasn't sure where he came from on this for many years. Somehow, when you know something down deep inside you, you just have to justify it with words or facts, I learned this a couple of times in my life before it ever became a realization. The old man often said that life was like one of those huge jigsaw puzzles that was real popular in the last millinium. The way he put went something like this. If you remain aware of the things around you that the secrets of the Universe will just fall like snowflakes in the fall. And if you will watch closely, they will fall in there proper place, and the more of these that you see, the more clearer the picture will become, pretty soon you will catch your self thinking, after observing one of these snowflakes, Wow!! now that makes sense, why didn't I think of that before. I learned to appreciate history, no not the kind you learned in school, dry dates and boring facts that seemed that only a lawyer could have quoted, usually tainted by what ever color the reigning power wished to color it. His history was the journals and diaries and stories of his personal predecessors and their neighbors and aquaintences. Somehow, these seemed to give a clearer picture of the past. He said "Son ( it made no difference that our blood was not linked, almost any man of any age difference was son), a seer without a knowledge of the past, would have no idea what his vision contained".
In 1999, I hung mostly in Texas, doing odd jobs, small construction jobs, etc. I used to go to Austin about every other weekend, to party, and mostly to listen to music. Austin was a very exciting place to me, music, nite life, liberal attitudes, and some of the prettiest girls in the whole world. There is something different about Texas women, or there was, well, at least some survived. That seems so long ago somehow, it seems only in our era, that a specific place in the world can exist only in your memory, I listen now for people telling stories around the campfires, when tribes meet, to trade or to be social, pictures painted in a starry night of a weekend at Padre Island, or of the freeways in Calif. The young listen in wonder, and wish for the good old days........Still the world seems larger now than it did then. There must have been many, that could see things were going to change, but I think it was only a few that realized it was going to be so drastic. I had moved to Colorado, up north near Wyoming, I found a piece of land in a canyon with a small spring fed stream, and was learning how to live near the earth, it was spring of '04, I woke up one morning, listening to the local College radio station, the newsperson seemed agitated, and upset, as I listened, a story unfolded, the President of the United States, a prominent member of the "moral majority" had just signed into law, a bill forcing all children in public schools, both here and in foriegn countries to start their school days with prayers and the prayers were to be to the christian dieties, no other religion was to be recognized. The Islamic world and the Government of China had reacted with a violent protest, burning churches and Synagoges the world over, the Congress and the president countered by putting the US Military on active alert, the broadcast cut to a government offcial, bemoaning, that the Christian religion had been proven to be the only religion with a live God and the rest of the world would have to just get used to it, their founders like Buddha and Mohammed were only teachers. In the background, you could hear. a strain of "Onward Christian Soldiers. I felt a queasy feeling in my stomache, and one of those snowflakes fell into place, the old man may be right, he said it would be dangerous if they got into power around the millienum. The next few days, rumors and threats and discontent ranged at large. Threats were made by both sides, we all knew we were going to war, we just didn't know what direction. I hoped it wouldn't be China. Reports came from LA and San Francico, and Atlanta of riots and clashes between christian fundimentalists and other factions, some of them weren't even particularly religious.
About a week went by and I decided to go to town for supplies, As I drove the 25 miles to Fort Collins, I marveled, for the hundredth time at least, how much my world changed in those 25 or so miles, up there at my place, on the edge of the National Forest, life was real and in spite of the technology that I enjoyed, still simple, down in town people were in a hurry to be nowhere, and for the most part damn rude about it. If they could have only know what the next two years would bring. Parking my truck on College in front of the Ace Hardware, I proceeded to wander toward Old Town Square, It was always enjoyable to wander through the shops and hangout in the pubs and resturaunts and listen to people talk, I missed that a lot up in the hills. I spent the better part of an hour feeding my social side, and enjoying food not prepared for oneself, and decided to get back top the hardware store and the reason for making the trip to town, as I passed the local Radio Shack, a reporter was excitedly reporting a military coup in Russia protesting the new Primer Minister that had just gained power, She went on to say that in the excitement of the attempted takeover, several nuclear missiles were reported missing. Driving back that evening, that news disturbed me, I wondered where the weapons would show up. Next morning, as I pumped my water tank up for the day and watched a "Goldie" glide on the wind over the canyon below my camp, my phone buzzed in my ear, I answered "Hello"
the soft voice answered, "You miss me?"
my whole being turned on, "I hope you are telling me, that you are only 15 minutes away, I don't think I could last much longer" .....
"Well,,,,, I will be home tonight, but my connection in Dallas didn't connect, bye the way, have you caught the news this morning?",
the sudden hiss of water coming through the vent cap of the water tank suddenly brought me back to reality, I reached quickly and shut off the switch to the pump and closed the valve. Answering, "no, whats up". I was really more interested on getting her warm body back up the mountain, than in studying current events, but it was good just to hear her voice, regardless what she was saying. As she proceed to tell me it was mostly of the riots, the delay in her flight a direct result of some of it, and lastly the missing missels were reported to be out of Russia and missing, a huge search was being carried out by all governments everywhere, scary. My mate Sari, had flown to Austin a week ago to attend a sick relative, and by now was sorely missed. We had met at Renaissance Festival near Houston in '91 recognized each other as having bonded in a previous life, and wanting to continue it, jumped right into a relationship, it seemed the right thing to do. We were now in our thirteenth year, and she filled my mind with her talents, and all the good things of just being with her. She was everything a man, or at least this man could ever look for in a partner. I finished my chores, living on a mountain top required a certain bit of effort, but offered more rewards. We had built our place in rough terrain, which in the next few years would prove to be very much to our advantage. I walked to a point of rocks just a few yards from our house, one of my favorite places, I stepped out o the last boulder, the creek in the middle of the canyon, sparkled like a crystal ribbon 600 feet below, turning to the left the walls of the canyon fell away slightly to the west, then rose higher as they blended into the front range of the Rockies. To the East I could see the road in to my place down below as it wound into the canyon. Things were peaceful and quite, for now. I remembered the feeling of being able to sort out things while standing there. I could stand there and almost see Laramie Wyoming 50 miles away, the world seemed so big, it always helped with your perspective. The New Year and New Millinium passed without the major technological glitches that were expected by many, and life went on more or less as usual, it was an election year, and polititians lied as usual, traffic didn't get any better, fuel went up considerably, the tech world was probably the thing that expanded more than any other, but even the old people recognized the drastic difference in the attitudes of the masses, and the speed at which we rode the daily roller coaster. Since I had not seen the old man in a year or so, I decided to take a little trip to Colorado, it was early Spring, the Blue Bonnets were in full bloom, looking across the prairie west of Brenham, Texas. It was a sea of blue with occasional brush stokes of rust, making one think that the red clay had splashed itself into natures picture, a pretty picture, that would be hard to recall in later weeks when the hot sun would turn all but the pines to brown. Up ahead on the edge of Giddings, a young man in leather jacket and moccasins, and blue hair stood trying to look his most respectable Self, hoping someone would stop for him. Oh Hell, Why Not?
"Hi Where you headed?"
"West"
"no Shit"
"Actually, Abilene"
"Get In"
"Kewl"
We rode for several miles with out talking, finally, "Whats in Abaline"???
"MY Father. He had a Stroke"
"Too Bad. Is he going to be OK?"
" I don't know, they don't have a phone. I just gotta get there"
"I understand"
Later that afternoon, we turned off on the narrow dirt road into an equally narrow driveway toward an aging mobile home more or less surrounded by junk cars and other collectables. As we approached a graying woman some where in her forties to sixties stepped through the torn screen door into the fading light, her face went from a worried mask of confrontation to joy as she recognized the young man with me, she sighed "Thank God" I had walked out to the corner of the yard, to stretch my legs and to enjoy the setting of the sun over the brushy hills to the west, I stood for sometime catching the last rays of sunshine. Sensing someone near I turned, it was my young passenger.
"How is he"?
He looked down, "he is dying"
I felt a pang of sadness, I had lost my own father a couple of years before, and I knew what he must be feeling. He looked up, "So, thanks a lot for bring me here, I wish I could pay you, but....... I'm afraid I don't have much to offer"
."Do something good for someone, sometime soon", I said, " that will be pay enough, now I must be off, good luck".
The next day, I drove up a rocky drive above Horseshoe Lake, parking my car I walked the next 50 yards down to the weathered old trailer, as I rounded the corner I heard "I was expecting you yesterday"
I replied "I had to do a good deed"
"That's good, you can't hardly ever stack up enough of them, come give me a hug"
I never could explain, even to myself, what effect he had on me, He was cranky, but gentle, he always seemed without saying anything to make me want to achieve more than I was capable of, and indeed, I would find myself doing that, seemingly without effort. One time I questioned him about that, his answer "maybe sometimes it is enough for at least one of us to know that you can, reckon?" I guess, that is what always drew me back, that and the fact I was more able to see the important things more clearly, like living simply and close to the earth. He didn't like cities, he said that cities were the scourge of our planet, indeed of our civilization, he talked about the effect of the heat they created with their miles of concrete and metal and asphalt, and the reflective effect on the eco-system around them, the pollution of their waste. He said that if society had any chance at all, it would be when the cities were abandoned and people live in small tribal societies again, I have always wondered if he had any vision of what was to happen in the next 20 or so years. America had reeled from the outbreak of terrorism in the first year or so of the millieum, but true to their tradition, rose up and withstood the years of threats and sometimes actions directed toward them, wars were fought and won.
"Son, I have found something for you and that lady of yours, come go with me".
We got into his old 4x4 and drove to an area about 25 miles from Ft. Collins up graded county roads, pictuesque in there grassy meadows. with their pile of stacked rocks, left as if some giant child had been arranging the countryside, up above us to the west, ribbons of snow laced the high peaks of the northernmost Colorado Rockies. We passed through a couple of ranches and a couple of gates, and time slowed as it always did as we left civilization behind us. We stopped at the bottom of a steep hill, he put the old truck into four-wheel drive and we ground our way up the mountainside, about a quarter of a mile later and 600 ft higher in elavation we topped the hill and a beautiful vista lay before us, acres of meadows dotted with pines and a few aspens sprawled down and out beyond lay the great plains, he pulled the truck out of four-wheel and we turned to the right up a narrow dirt road into the forest. About a quarter mile later he pulls of to the right kills the engine, and says "come here". We walked about a hundred feet to the edge of a very steep canyon, The view was fabulous, I could see for miles all around. Son, I want you to buy this property, it is probably the most important thing you could ever do for yourself and Sari. The rest is history we arranged the purchase and about a month later the place was ours. The next 5 years were a whirlwind of moving, building, creating, the old mans energy never seemed to wane, he was full of ideas and suggestions, and he worked like it was his own.