Jim Blakely ~ The Sojourn from My Father's Land

 

Before my departure into this strange land My Father advised me to…

Walk Carefully When You Are Among

 

“holy men” and
“righteous” deeds
Distract from the internal

“Learned men”
Distract from
Natural wisdom

Professional know-how
Addicts people to the contrived
And the external

Be respectful and compassionate
But walk carefully when you are among-

learned men
holy men
doctors
government officials
reporters
publishers
professors
religious leaders
psychologists
rich men
social scientists
women with beautiful faces
artists and writers
men who
charge fees
city men
movie makers
men who want to help you
men who want you to help them
Christians and JewsFor such as these
However well meaning
Place you on their chessboard
Addict you to their externals
Distract you from the
TAO within

The lesson of the TAO is more likely to be found among-

gardeners
hermits
mountain men
smiling eccentrics
men who build their own homes
children
parents who learn from their children
loafers
amateur musicians
serene Psychotics
animals
men who look at sunsets
men who walk in the woods
beautiful women
cooks
men who sit by the fire
wanderers
men who make bread
couples who have been in love for years
unemployed men
smiling men with bad reputations___________________________________Bless you Timothy…and rest well. We love you.

Exodus 2:22

King James Version (KJV)

My life has taken me down many untrodden paths separate and apart from my brethren in the mainstream. Some have had scary twists and turns, some have ended up in blind alleys, but on some roads I have discovered the most amazing truths ever beheld by the eyes of men.

For the decades of my life I have always felt as if I am a

Stranger in a Strange Land

The story of The Man from Mars.

Written by Robert A. Heinlein, the Dean of Science Fiction. He was (is) my favorite author and even though I love all his books it is this one which has had a particularly profound effect on my deportment and subsequently changed my world view.

This is the novel which actually defined the ’60s – things like water beds, free love, pop religion, etc. were first introduced to the mass audience in this book. It became the most famous Science Fiction novel ever written and the first hard SF novel to reach the New York Times Best Seller list of mainstream literature in 1961 and went on to become a modern classic of the 20th century.

The story revolves around the life of one Valentine Michael Smith, the orphaned infant who was the sole survivor of the first mission from Earth to colonize the Red Planet Mars. The baby was rescued from the crash and reared by the Martians.

When the next ship from Earth landed on Mars some 20 years later he had no idea what a man or a woman is. Hell, he had never even heard about sex!

The rest you will enjoy as the process of discovery – his and yours – unfolds when you read it.

 

Once upon a time on a cold and lonely December afternoon of the 6th back in ’48 they had closed the maternity ward at St Elizabeth’s Hospital in Baker, Oregon because business was slow and to save more money they had turned off the heat to that wing of the hospital as no babies had been delivered for several days and none were scheduled – or so they thought. They had somehow misplaced my reservation.

Mom arrived in time for appetizers and Demerol (if they even had that back in ’48). She was a well-trained Registered Nurse and had a no nonsense attitude toward childbirth. Since I was her first she was determined to do everything right.

It didn’t take long for the main event to appear. They didn’t even have time to turn up the friggin’ heat! Dr. C. Palmer McKim was in command of the port and this 6 lb 7 oz vessel was about to find a berth.

Did I mention that it was the middle of a cold winter in Eastern Oregon? Talk about a temperature gradient between a cramped but comfy 98.6 bachelor pad and about 42.3 in that big noisy warehouse with icicles on the windows and snow on the ground outside. As I floated down the canal I could see the harbor lights coming closer and that is when the water temperature suddenly dropped from nice to not very nice at all. My ears felt as if they would catch frostbite and fall off before I could give my first opinion about the poor service. Mom did the work and Dr. McKim received the goods then he tied me off, took a sample of DNA and some footprints for later booking and signed the Bill of Lading that the cargo had been delivered in good condition.

To their credit the hospital had nice fluffy swaddling blankets and in just a few minutes I was happy and warm in my man cave doing what every young playboy enjoys most – having a liquid lunch then kicking back and taking a snooze with a nice set of boobs in my face.

Not a bad first day after all.