Death of an Old Vyking: Requiem

THE DAY THE CACTUS DIED: It is the last week in March 2010, I am in the front yard digging in the dirt, tearing out my ten foot tall large frozen cactus which did not survive the winter of 2009-10.  What a gooey mess.I am so with Gaynelle and David.  I am chopping and remembering the good times sailing the rivers and bay of Virginia. I am crying for days long gone. Gaynelle’s voice rings in my ears with “Don’t be so melodramatic. You cry all the time, so crying is not special with you.” So I told her I would fly to Tulsa and just stay with her.  She said, “I don’t need one more miserable person around here.” She took a breath and added, “I am miserable, David is miserable, and here we are in this small hospital. Small hospitals are friendlier.” In spite of everything, I know that they are where they should be at this time.  It has to be, because no one could have thought this up on purpose.

So the sailing Vyking and his Valkyrie now find themselves on the rolling prairie seas of Oklahoma: “Livin’ on Tulsa Time”.

In my memory of them, they have always been a part of each other and always there for the other with all the same ins and outs that free thinking modern couples have.  They lived life to the limit and then some.  They, together, have always been there for the other guy.  I see them as together because I have never know them any other way. 

Each of us has a story to tell.  There was day in 1982, I was one of those other ones that they reached out to and offered a hand up to a better life.  All of you have stories to tell and all the stories are worth the telling.

The Vyking closed the log book on his life and his story:

Set the Mainsul: Made way for Valhalla.

We stand on the shores of life, wave goodbye and say, “Well done, David, well done.  Farewell, my friend, farewell.”

We humans all stand at a bedside and wait with baited breath to hear the last words of dying.  We seek not for them, but for ourselves, some message to be told us from the Other Side that we could take hold of and walk away with courage and insight for all the trials and sorrows to come.

David’s words were three sentences spread out over the last two days.

David looked at Gaynelle and said,“We had a good run, didn’t we.”A strong verbal gift to the one left behind.Later he exclaimed with a strong voice, “I’m glad I did it. I learned a lot!” What? Who? We do not know.  We only know he was pleased.Then the last and strongest of all, “Son Of A Bitch!”  The rattle of the last breath leaving always leaves the rest of us with questions. Who or What Did He See? Gaynelle quietly smiles her quirky smile, “I think he saw his mother!”

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Change The World

Remember when—not so very long ago—the streets of Chicago

were filled with fair skinned white boys and girls

convinced to the death to save the world—“We Will Change The World”.

Remember when those vibrant young people burned the Stars & Bars.

The girls burned their bras and panties.

The boys burned their draft cards.

The runners ran to Amsterdam, Canada, destinations unknown.

Shots rang out one sunny day:

“Four Dead In Ohio” it was “The Day The Music Died”.

Un-lucky Lyndon lay across his Oval Office Desk

Cried out to the surrounding Pentagon Polished Brass:

NO MORE BULLETS!  NO MORE BULLETS!

One by one the trigger happy leaders of military creeds

Slithered backward out the Oval Office doors

into the halls lined with Lobbyist of American Greed.

Echos ever fainter followed nipping at their heels;

Disempowering their amputated trigger fingers;

NO MORE BULLETS—No More Bullets…no more bullets…………………

Once again our streets are filled with young people;

Different in heritage and ideas; attempting to change their world.

Who knows but what it was us who taught them how to mistreat

OLD GLORY!

History is a circle that rolls through time and writes the story in blood.

NO MORE BULLETS! No More Bullets……………..no more bullets………………

Sometimes a girl just has to write:  Gaylee

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The Fairy Tale Mind

No matter the age, a child at heart is a gift from the universe to the planet.

Movie suggestion: UP.

A dose a day for a month.  Start your adventure because this is probably your only fly-by.  It is never too late to tie balloons to your heart.

“It Is Never Too Late To Live Happily Everafter”.   Good Luck!!

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