Sitting outside an old country store somewhere between the real world and what used to be sat an old wrinkled man in a swing, straw hat on his head, tobacco chew in his lower lip with a tin coffee cup for the waste. He had his legs crossed sort of funny; I could tell that the age of his body made him feel uncomfortable. I could almost feel his back as it ached. As I got out of my car an old hound dog moved slowly to the old man’s side. Above the old man was on old tin Coca Cola sign mostly rusted away by time. I stopped for a moment and looked at the old store front. It must have been a vintage from somewhere around the turn of the twentieth century. As I passed by the old man on the bench, I nodded my head and the old man reached up for his old ***** straw hat and tipped the front of it slightly. He having greeted me in his way as I had greeted him with mine. I pushed on the old wooden screen door to hear its spring stretch and the hinges creak and after I entered I failed to catch the screen door and I shuttered as it slammed shut. Above me was an old silent ceiling fan whispering out a slow gyrating motion as it passed down the air around me. A peaceful majestic feeling came over me. Looking around the store I saw no glass fronted coolers, thirst was why I had stopped. “Do you have any soda’s?” I asked the lady behind the counter.
“Sho do,” she replied , “They’s over thare.” I looked to where she was pointing, it was like a big long flat freezer, painted red with several silver stainless doors on top of it and Coca-Cola embossed on it’s front. Arriving at the freezer I opened the lid and looked inside. “Jest’ put yer money in the box,” the feminine hillbilly voice continued.
On the front of the box and on each side of the box it had a hand written note which read, “Please Put .06 Cents Here.” ‘Six cents,” I thought – surely I must have gone back in time.” I asked, “How much are the sodas?”
To which she replied, “They be just six cents.” I fumbled in my pocket and pulled out my change, located six pennies and put them through the slot in the box. Then I looked back into the cooler to find that the only choice was Coca Cola inside. I took one and opened it up and took a big swig.
Walking back to the counter I asked the lady, “ How in the world can you afford to sell a soda for just six cents?”
She answered me with, “Well, did ya see Uncle Hap on the front porch?”
“The old man with the straw hat?” I asked.
“Yep, dat be Uncle Hap, go ask him how he can afford to sell a Coke for jest six cents.”
Interested, I walked back under the old ceiling fan and through the squeaking door. The old man had his hat pulled low on his eyes. “Sir,” I began, “I have a question to ask you.”
“Yes sir, sonny, and jest what be yer question?” he answered tilting his hat back high on his head.
“Well sir, just how do plan to make a living selling a coke for just six cents?”
The old man smiled and said, “That’s an easy one son, I ain’t a plannin to make any money offen them thar cokes.” I know I must have had a puzzled look on me but before I could inquire more he continued, “Has yer ever mined for gold?”
“No, I’m afraid not, sir,” I replied wondering what that had to do with the price of a coke.
The old man continued, “Well yer see Sonny, when yo be a minin, yer works real hard sometimes. You see, yer digs and digs and digs some more day after day – sometimes not seeing anything but more dirt but once in a while you be a finding jest a little bit a ore. Then ya comes back da next day and yer dig some more.” More confused than ever I sat down beside the old man in the swing taking another drink of my six cent Coke. He continues, “Trouble is yer see, you get hooked on that little taste a ore. It jest keeps ye a comin back fer more.”
Finally I had to ask, “But what does all this have to do with the price of coke?”
'Hold on sonny. I’m a gettin to that part but yer see yer got to hear da whole story.” I sat back in the swing deciding that maybe I’d just let the old man do his thing. “Now yer see, it was about 1920 I reckon when ever dis here young fellow come by dis here store a sellin this new fangled thing he called stock. Now he wanted me to buy some stock in dis here company he was a promotin. I was a minin at da time a-course and I’d just hit it a little lucky that week and I had some xtree money in me pocket. So fer five hunerd dollars, a whole lots a cash back den, I buyed a 1000 shares of that thar boys stock.” The old man then looked me in the eyes with a big smile on his face. “Yer see sonny, I works hard all my life a digging holes in the ground most times not seeing nuttin atall but I jest keeped on a diggin. I must say I always did believe that even if’n I fount no gold at all at least at the end of every day I could sit back and see whar I’d been. But yer jest never knows whar that real gold is. Sometimes yer find it in the strangest of places. Well sonny, I’z figures that 100 shares of stock musta split no less than 25 times since 1920. So yer see, I be one them whatcha might call million dollar aires. So don’t you fret that head o urin over’n what I charge fer that thare coke cola yer a drinkin. Matter of fact, if’n yer wants to, why don’t you go right back inside and buy yerself a whole **** case. Yer see, thar’s gold in them thare bottles. Yep, gold I tell ya. That 100 shares of Coca Cola stock sho was a golden God send. And wid me bein da onliest one a chargin just six cents a pop, well you can be one – o – da lucky ones to find soma dat gold. Who knows, the whole **** vein might be a sittin right side ya right now. You jest never knows. Just keep on a digging, Sonny. At least you can see whar ya been.”
The old man smiled as he turned to wave at a car as it passed by.
Me, I guess I’ll just keep on digging. But you know what? The old man was right. The gold is all around us. So if you ever find this place where soda’s are just six cents, well maybe it isn’t gold but believe me, the gold is all around you too.

Jest keep on a digging. At least yer can see whar ya been.

Having answered my ad for a handyman
A knock on my door offered the first applicant.
I am apt to hire anyone at first sight and
Never more so than when a poor supplicant
Is as myself but I know my own weakness -
Though that knowledge usually proves most worthless.

I let the man in and his look alone
Already predisposed the situation to be in his favor.
So, as usual, I hired him first and then began
To inquire of him what was his traver.
The man looked up to me and replied ”say what?”
I stated, “ Your sir name?”

He looked puzzled and stated, “Sir name, what’s that?”
“Well it’s your last name, sir.”
His voice quivered as he spit it out, “Nazareth.”
I kinda chuckled, “Say What?, Your first name – is it Jesus?”
He nodded his head as I half jokingly asked “Is that Jewish?”
“When can you start,” I asked handing him a wrench.

I explained that I had several tasks that needed completing
Knowing full well that a Hebrew can do anything.
We started with an outside light fixture which needed reseating.
I showed him where the ladder was and in a flash as he was riding
It up when 'Yahweh' started a low but cheery tune whistling
As he glided up the rickety thing.

I swear to my soul had the man been able to do nothing but whistle
His delightful tune - I would have not been better served.
Having finished that task I took him to the next which required a chisel
To skim off a bit of the top side of the front door which had become curved
By its constant dragging upon the frame.
He whittled it out whistling all the while just the same.

And from one task to the other we went fixing, repairing
And finishing them all until I heard his stomach growl.
I looked at my watch – it was after 12 – swearing
To 'Yahweh' that I had no idea that I had made such a foul
Keeping him from eating his lunch.
He not having one was my hunch.

“No worries,” I said as I led him inside.
We feasted on onions and tomatoes with all the trimmings.
When finished I made us a *** of coffee with a piece of fried pie.
As we ate I asked him what that tune was he was whistling.
He said he didn’t know the title but that he knew only the words.
He started whistling each line of the song like a songbird.

Between each whistled line he’d stop and speak the words.
The words went something like this.
“The lips of wisdom should always be closed
Until the ears of understanding are fully exposed.”
I had never heard this song before but from somewhere -
And I know not where – I seemed to be aware -

He continued whistling a line and then saying the words:

The mark of an intelligent mind
Has the ability to entertain
A controversial thought without
Necessarily adopting it.
Then he just whistled on as he got up from the table.


I paid him and he set out the door back to his life
As gallantly as any man ever does.
He served me a day that ended up being my whole life.
At the end of which I whistle as I go
About my day satisfying both my physical
And spiritual need to play and to know.

“The lips of wisdom should always be closed
Until the ears of understanding are fully exposed.”

I contend that it is not my place to give testimony or
To tell what love is but that I must include love
Here now so that I can get on with my story
Intelligibly with the help of the word itself
Without any other ideas or explanation for it.

Dr. David Dosa, speaking on behalf of Oscar the cat,
Stated that Oscar was never wrong and that Oscar
Seemed to have some innate ability to know when a
Patient at the Steere House Nursing Home was going
To pass - going all the way back to when the cat was a kitten.

Dr. Dosa went on to say that the pernicious, anti-social cat
At the Rhode Island center would only cuddle up to those
Patients who were in their last 2 to 4 hours of life.
The talented Oscar has proven the medical staff wrong on
Several occasions when patients were close to death.

Dr. Rosa – when asked about Oscar’s accuracy stated
That Oscar was right 100% of the time and that to his
Knowledge or to his staff’s knowledge that Oscar had
Never gone in and cuddled up to any person who was
Not near death, something that he had to accept - that
The cat had better instincts than he – a doctor – possessed.

At present, I hope that I have sufficiently captured
The reader’s understanding that there are yet many
Things out there in the real physical world that neither
Science nor religion can understand but I know what
Oscar knows – what he knows is this thing called love.

Now that phrase is not at all to my liking.
For to say a man is fallen in love, -
Or that he is deeply in love, -
Or up to the ears in love and sometimes
Even head over heels in love carries
With it an idiomatic implication that love is

Somehow beneath the man (fallen) – something
Regurgitated in Plato’s opinion which with all his
Divinity ship – I for one hold that the thought of Love
Being beneath a man be damnable and heretical.
While Oscar the cat simply says – let love be what it will.

And possibly, just possibly - gentle reader -
Without any further current explanation, so do I now
Join ranks with Oscar as I write of a love that is
Alive and well – and if I do not come and cuddle
With you it is not because I do not love you.

Tis but my task to find those in greater need and
When I find them near death, afraid or lost
I, like Oscar, I know of their fear and of their
Desperation so with pen in hand
I purr next to them cajoling

Them onto their next great experience.

Somewhere in the dawning of morning
In the moonlight far before noon
Lies the flickering stars of the evening
The sun shines on the moon.

A crippled man stands on the corner
Repeating his minded chant.
To no one is he a foreigner
Telling who he is, he both can and he can’t.

He rocks from side to side
Repeating the same wordy sighs.
I move closer trying to hide
There is only whiteness in his eyes.

I listen intently to what he has to say
For how can a ******* man without any eyes
Tell me any lies?
What he spoke of went something like this.

“In the beginning that which is was all there was and there was nothing else. Yet all that there was could not know itself because all that is was all there was and there was nothing else. So much so that all that is could not be. For in the absence of something else, all that is, is not. All that is knew it was all there was but this was not enough. For it could only know who it was conceptually and never know of its own touch. Yet for the experience of itself is what it yearned. For it wanted to know what it would be like if only it could know itself. But all that is could never know itself unless that which its not showed up. For in the absence of that which its not, that which is, is not. The one thing that all there is knew is that there was nothing else. So it could not nor would it ever know itself from a point outside itself because such a point did not exist. The is not wasn’t, just as the am not was. Still the all of everything wished to know itself. This pure, unseen, unheard, unobserved and therefore unknown energy chose to experience itself as it was, utterly magnificent. To do this it had to use a reference point from within. It thus divided itself into portions – each portion less than the whole and being now less than the whole it could look back on itself and see its magnificence. So in one glorious moment with all that was divided, itself becoming in one instant all that is this and all that which is that. For the first time, this and that could co-exist quite apart from each other. As did all that was neither. Thus three elements suddenly existed. That which is here and that which is there and that which is neither here nor there. But that which is neither here and neither there had to exist in order for that which is here and that which is there to exist. It is the nothing that holds the everything. It is the non-space which holds the space. It is in the everything that we find itself for it is he that divided itself into the here and the there and into the no where. Therefore itself is all there is as well as itself is all that is not. For in creating that which is here and that which is there, itself could experience itself from within and from without. From no-thing sprang everything which some choose to call “The Big Bang.” And with the possibility of here or there came the difference we know as time. For first it was here and then it was there and the period from here to there was measurable. As the parts of itself which were seen began to define themselves, so too did the parts unseen. Itself knew that for love to exist and to know itself as pure love its exact opposite had to exist as well. The great polarity of the great opposite of love is fear. But in the instant that fear existed, so too could love exist and be experienced. In order to know that all this is true – all you have to do is to follow your heart.”

I watched him as he stumbled along
With one leg turned oddly to one side.
I knew this man could do me no wrong
For he could not even see his crooked stride.

I stepped up beside him and took him by the arm,
“Sir, could I possibly give you a ride?”
“I guess that would do no harm.”
Soon we were side by side.

“Son,” he called me – turning those egg white eyes
To me, he asked – “Do I know you?”
“Yes sir, I’m just a part of all that is -
And a part of all that is not – just a part of your crew.”

Riding backwards on a train
Leaning my head into the window
Seeing my own reflection – Clackity
Clack – Clickity Clackity Clickety Clack,
Don’t talk back, Clackity Clack.

What I see in the passing frames
Bridges, houses, brown fields
And rough terrains.
Clackity Clack, Clickity Clack
Don’t talk back, Clackity Clickety Clack.

There goes an old barn beside an Azores tree
There goes an Azores tree beside an old barn
My God there goes another one – that’s three
Clackity Clack, Clackity Clack, Clickity, Clickity
Don’t talk back, Clickity Clack.

Telephone poles all passing as one
Streets and warehouses, street signs
And red lights – green and now a nun
Clackity Clack, Clackity Clack
Don’t talk back, Clackity Clickity Clack.

Into the tunnel we clamber and scramble
Concrete walls all painted with daises
So close to the glass we go into this gamble.
Clackity Clack, Clickity Clack, Clackety Clickety
Are we coming back, Clackity Clack.

Deep under the bay we travel
As loud and deep as the devil.
All held back by nothing but gravel.
Clackity Clack, Clickity Clack
Please don’t crack, Clackity Clack

When all at once into the terminal we fly
We made it – me – myself and I
Slowing to almost a crawl - good-bye!
Clackity, Clackity, Clackity Clack
Next time I’ll check my Zodiac.

Stone | Water | Wine
You | Truth | Fire
Physical | Consciousness | Spirit

The good book if read properly focuses its allegory of
Symbols and signs saying one thing while meaning another.
The word stone always meaning - you or the physical.
The word water standing in for truth and consciousness.
The word wine meaning the fire or of the spirit.
The trinity thus is – stone, water and wine
In every biblical representation of each.

How do I know, what do you know and what does it matter?
Watch this…

In the ancient document we often find the use of the word Israel.
But what was Israel and where was it?
Was it a real place?
Israel is not a Jewish word.

Is | Ra | El
Egyptian | Egyptian | Egyptian
God | God | God
Isis | Ra | Within
Female | Male | Both Male and Female
****** Spirit | Mind | Ang-el (do you see the El)*

That’s why all the angels are named, Michael, Gabriel, Uriel, Rafael and
All the other El versions of the angelic allegorical texts.

The word Israel when spoken of in the gospel has nothing to do with
A race of people or a specific nationality of people.
It means that when the spirit and mind are together
They produce the power that is within.

So when someone asks you “Why is God prejudice – or why God
Has chosen people,” and they truly want to know what all this is about
You can now safely tell them that the Apostle Paul said that
A Jew is not a Jew outwardly but instead a Jew is one inwardly.

Now I am going to let you ponder on these teachings for a bit.
Go read your bible and when you see the word rock or stone
Think of it as a symbol for you or for the physical aspects of life.
When you see the word water see it as truth or the conscious aspect of truth.
When you see the word wine understand that it means fire and spirit.

The bible is not only transcribed by men of ancient times
But they had a knowledge that has become mired and confused
By time and by countless belief systems – these people had an
Advanced knowledge of the cosmos and the inner workings
Of everything.
Don’t believe me?

Jews are known in the bible as the children of light.
And what is God? The bible says that God is light.
Look it up. His name is what? His name is I am that I am.
God is not human – it is written. Look it up.
And in Numbers Chapter 2 and verse 9 we hear
That the number of the tribe of Judah was 186,400.

And what is that number, does it mean anything to you?
186,400 is the exact speed per second of light and here we have it
In the old testament referring to the Jews – the children of light.
How could they have possibly known that exact figure?
Oh we’ve just begun. The knowledge held within the pages of
This book is fascinating beyond belief – if we would just
Get through the false teachings that the Bible is literal
And learn to read the stories and their allegorical teachings
Through the lens of a pure heart and mind not jaded
By conviction or guilt or all the traditional ties.

Instead listen to Jacob tell you what is inside of you:

Genesis 32:30 - Jacob then named the place Peniel,
'For I have seen God face to face,' he said,
'And I have been delivered.'

I could build you a fortress,
Drape you like the moon does the sea.
But without the real you to know,
We are just the color of an empty fantasy.

Something we think of?
Something we need?
Time knows all the answers,
Especially the present portrayed
In these shaded words of please.

It takes two hands to make a strong hold.
Inside the grasp the ink unfolds.
Two touches to erase the long winter’s night.
One lover’s moon ‘til
One morning’s light.