24 September 2014

Notes - privacy / Grandma 6 completed / setting up Pouch 6

         0726 hours. I am pleased to announce is wearing a little thin on me. Time to take down the announcement. “Decorum suggests its time to lower this placard. Thank you again for your response. – rho”  -- I don’t remember what I said but I did delete the book announcement on Facebook. Enough is enough. I also deleted the announcement on Linked In and I am feeling more comfortable already.

         You enjoy your privacy more than most anything in the world. This is who you are. Later, my man. Post. - Amorella


         0912 hours. I closed my eyes with my fingers on the keyboard of my MacAir. Nothing transpires. I am ready for a nap.

         You had an hour or so nap then did your forty-minute exercises. You want to focus on Grandma 6 today figuring it will take some time to cut as it is 2317 words.

         1154 hours. I see I missed yesterday’s low fuel price. It was 3.089 yesterday now it is up to 3.399. I need to fill up the hybrid to have a fix on the cost of the Ontario trip. I should have done this yesterday. We did fill up the Honda though so that was good; it cost 2.889 a gallon with Kroger’s discount.

         You had lunch at the Street Italian; you decided you are done with their pasta for a while. Afterwards you ran a couple errands into Montgomery. Presently you are at the far north shaded side of the lot while Carol is taking her walk. Go ahead with Grandma 6. – Amorella

         1629 hours. I finished Grandma 6 in 799 words. I hope it makes sense. Most readers would not know about the theological problem between the Greek and Latin churches in 1066 but I can easily imagine it being important to those knowledgeable. Here is the problem among some of the English and Scots in those days -- 'Filioque'.

** **
Filioque, Latin for "and (from) the Son", is a phrase found in the form of Nicene Creed in use in the Latin Church. It is not present in the Greek text of the Nicene Creed as originally formulated at the First Council of Constantinople, which says only that the Holy Spirit proceeds "from the Father":
Καὶ εἰς τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ Ἅγιον, τὸ κύριον, τὸ ζωοποιόν, τὸ ἐκ τοῦ Πατρὸς ἐκπορευόμενον

(And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, from the Father proceeding).

The Latin text speaks of the Holy Spirit as proceeding "from the Father and the Son".
Et in Spiritum Sanctum, Dominum, et vivificantem: qui ex Patre 'Filioque procedit

(And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, and giver of life, who from the Father and the Son proceeds).

Together with papal primacy, differences over this doctrine have been and remain the primary causes of schism between the Western and Eastern Orthodox churches. The Filioque has been an ongoing source of conflict between the East and West, contributing, in part, to the East-West Schism of 1054 and proving an obstacle to attempts to reunify the two sides.
The Nicene Creed

The ecumenical council, that of Nicaea (325) ended its Creed with the words "and in the Holy Spirit". The second, that of Constantinople in 381 spoke of the Holy Spirit as "proceeding from the Father"
(ἐκ τοῦ Πατρὸς ἐκπορευόμενον). This last phrase is based on (ὃ παρὰ τοῦ πατρὸς ἐκπορεύεται).
The third ecumenical council, held at Ephesus in 431, which quoted the creed in its 325 form, not in that of 381, decreed in its seventh canon:
While the Council of Ephesus thus forbade setting up a different creed as a rival to that of the first ecumenical council, it was the creed of the second ecumenical council that was adopted liturgically in the East and later a Latin variant was adopted in the West. The form of this creed that the West adopted had two additions: "God from God" (Deum de Deo) and "and the Son" (Filioque).
The fourth ecumenical council, that of Chalacedon (451), quoted the creed of 381 and formally treated it as binding, together with that of 325. Within 80 years, therefore, the creed of 381 was normative in defining the Christian faith. In the early sixth century, it was widely used in the liturgy in the East and at the end of the same century in parts of the West, perhaps beginning with the Council of Toledo in 589.
Summary

The Filioque was originally proposed to stress more clearly the connection between the Son and the Spirit, amid a heresy in which the Son was taken as less than the Father because he does not serve as a source of the Holy Spirit. When the Filioque came into use in Spain and Gaul in the West, the local churches were not aware that their language of procession would not translate well back into the Greek. Conversely, from Photius to the Council of Florence, the Greek Fathers were also not acquainted with the linguistic issues.
While the Filioque doctrine was traditional in the West, being declared dogmatically in 447 by Pope Leo I, the Pope whose Tome was approved at the Council of Chalcedon, its inclusion in the Creed appeared in the anti-Arian situation of seventh-century Spain. However this dogma was never accepted in the East. The Filioque, included in the Creed by certain anti-Arian councils in Spain, was a means to affirm the full divinity of the Son in relation to both the Father and the Spirit.
Ironically, a similar anti-Arian emphasis also strongly influenced the development of the liturgy in the East, for example, in promoting prayer to "Christ Our God", an expression which also came to find a place in the West, where, largely as a result of "the Church's reaction to Teutonic Arianism", "'Christ our God' ... gradually assumes precedence over 'Christ our brother'". In this case, a common adversary, namely, Arianism, had profound, far-reaching effects, in the orthodox reaction in both East and West.
Church politics, authority conflicts, ethnic hostility, linguistic misunderstanding, personal rivalry, forced conversions, large scale wars, political intrigue, unfilled promises and secular motives all combined in various ways to divide East and West.
As regards the doctrine expressed by the phrase in Latin (in which the word "procedit" that is linked with "Filioque" does not have exactly the same meaning and overtones as the word used in Greek), any declaration by the West that it is heretical (something that not all Orthodox now insist on) would conflict with the Western doctrine of the infallibility of the Church, since it has been upheld by Councils recognized by the Roman Catholic Church as ecumenical and even by those Popes who, like Leo III, opposed insertion of the word into the Creed.
Selected and edited from Wikipedia Offline - Filioque
** **
         In my estimation this shows how (and with a little thought) why times have changed. The point needs to be included. This shows several segments of our species’ nature.

         You cantankerousness here goes back to The Apostle’s Creed and your false oath in its belief while joining the First Presbyterian Church in Westerville, Ohio at the age of twelve.

         1956 hours. Never again will I be caught in such a trap of my own making. I hadn’t really thought out my predicament in advance. It was a grave personal error.

         You have dwelled on this several times in the blog over the years. Post. - Amorella


         2031 hours. I have cut the words in Pouch 6 from 2194 to 1361. This will be the first segment from Home Planets One. I should probably limit this to Director Kembel and focus on the governmental set up.

          I agree. However, it would be better to include two more names. The only three officials we will be dealing with by name from this and the next book. – Amorella

         One will have to be from health and welfare and the other a machine like Ship.

         A machine like Ship will be one and the other will be a Priestess, a member of the Clerics. – Amorella

         A shaman?

         It is Merlyn’s dream not yours, boy. – Amorella

         2044 hours. We will have to make one up. I have not thought from this direction.

         You are not Merlyn. – Amorella

         2045 hours. It makes sense in that the Cleric are intuitive rather than scientific. Merlyn would lean towards a Druidess-like marsupial humanoid. The machine is reason personified. 

         No, the machine is not, it is human-like and must deal with the forces of the heart as well as the head. Both species are built with heartsansoulsanminds. This is a given. First, what do they anticipate? What does Kembel know about the machinery’s secret directives dealing with time, place and space? What about the safety backups? Does the planet that takes the earthlings have time to evacuate the entire planet before a plague may be unleashed? Running is instinctively their primary defense. – Amorella

         2052 hours. This is going to take some planning but I like it. What a challenge and in less than 800 words no less. This is going to be a fun assignment.


         Something to think on. Post. - Amorella

23 September 2014

Notes - experience and not / wkg. on Brothers 6 / Brothers 6 completed

         Mid-morning. You had another night of poor sound sleep caused by fits of coughing. A beautiful Autumn morning in the neighborhood however. – Amorella

         0929 hours. I don’t know why the capital letter beginning Fall is not acceptable by Microsoft Word? Spring, Winter and Summer should also be capitalized as they were when we were learning our letters and reading. I remember when in grade school older people complained that we used too many contractions and stopped using ‘shall’ as in ‘I shall leave the state soon.’ Today people in the media say, “more wet weather” rather than “wetter weather” and the like, and I am the old person complaining.

** **
23 September 2014 Last updated at 03:42 ET

Brian Cox: 'Multiverse' makes sense
The presenter and physicist Brian Cox says he supports the idea that many universes can exist at the same time.

The idea may sound far-fetched but the "many worlds" concept is the subject of serious debate among physicists.

It is a particular interpretation of quantum mechanics - which describes the often counter-intuitive behaviour of energy and matter at small scales.

Prof Cox made the comments during an interview with Radio 4's The Life Scientific programme.

In a famous thought experiment devised by the Austrian physicist Erwin Schrodinger, a cat sealed inside a box can be both alive and dead at the same time. Or any combination of different probabilities of being both dead and alive.
This is at odds with most common perceptions of the way the world is. And Schrodinger's experiment was designed to illustrate the problems presented by one version of quantum mechanics known as the Copenhagen interpretation.
This proposes that when we observe a system, we force it to make a choice. So, for example, when you open the box with Schrodinger's cat inside, it emerges dead or alive, not both.

But Prof Cox says the many worlds idea offers a sensible alternative.

"That there's an infinite number of universes sounds more complicated than there being one," Prof Cox told the programme.

"But actually, it's a simpler version of quantum mechanics. It's quantum mechanics without wave function collapse... the idea that by observing something you force a system to make a choice."

Accepting the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics means also having to accept that things can exist in several states a the same time.
But this leads to a another question: Why do we perceive only one world, not many?
Schrodinger's thought experiment was designed to illustrate problems with one interpretation of quantum physics

A single digital photograph can be made from many different images superimposed on one another. Perhaps the single reality that we perceive is also multi-layered.

The laws of quantum mechanics describe what happens inside the nucleus of every atom, right down at the level of elementary particles such as quarks, neutrinos, gluons, muons.

The weird and wonderful world of quantum mechanics reveals that nature is at heart probabilistic. Nothing can be predicted with any certainty.

"Everybody agrees about that" says Prof Cox. But where physicists don't agree is about how these facts should be interpreted.

For decades, the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, which allows for only one universe, dominated particle physics.

But Brian Cox supports the many worlds interpretation and, he believes, more and more physicists are now subscribing to this view.

Brian Cox is on The Life Scientific on BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday, 23rd September at 09:00 GMT.

Selected and edited from BBC
** **

         1210 hours. Back to Schrodinger's cat and the earlier added concept of ‘Being and Not Being’ at the same time. Both concepts blend in well with the fiction in the story – how else could one be conscious of being dead? Very funny in a dark humored way; it certainly works in the storytelling.

         Now we must take care to continue tailoring the work for an added purpose. – Amorella

         1217 hours. What purpose is that?

         If an Angel is going to ask a recent member of the Dead to tell her/his story, what would be the purpose? – Amorella

         1218 hours. To show that the individual has all herorhis ducks in a row, so to speak. I have no problem speaking to an Angel directly as I once thought I was having the experience for a period of several months back in 87-88. Even though I eventually came to the conclusion that the experience was not real, I felt it was at the time. I cannot imagine any reaction other than that I already had. I have no fear of Angels, real or not. So, that behavior/experience counted for, telling one’s story outright seems the way to go – like I state in the Introduction, I would rather tell my dreams while they are still fresh. This is the story I have been working on for at least twenty-five years of my life, perhaps more. It is my story. It is who I am while telling it – a storyteller. Ironically or not, being a storyteller is my dream and I am living it. I feel well blessed in the circumstance. (1225)

         By whom? – Amorella

         1227 hours. Being an agnostic, and this after many years of soul-searching, is who I am. I have my doubts even when I thought that Angel was perhaps real I had my doubts, so I wasn’t devastated when I came to that conclusion, but ironically, with my doubts intact I do not know. I have no idea what a real Angel would be like meeting as I don’t know that I have met one or not. Met one or not is somewhat akin to Being and Not Being at the same time in my heartanmind. Thus, the dark humor rises a bit more into consciousness much to my delight. To answer your question – blessed by a good-humored Creator of All Things and Beyond (as one of my marsupial characters might say). Why would I care why an Angel asks anyone to tell herorhis story? Some might feel that means to talk about their life but I don’t. I figure an Angel or G---D or who or whatever already knows what my life or anyone else’s conscious and unconscious life already is.

         Don’t you consider the fact that you might be misinterpreting the Angel’s question? – Amorella

         1239 hours. If I were, that is, if my story is not what the Angel is looking for then I assume SheanHe or whatever would tell me. My experience with an Angel was not all that polite. I was told ‘No’ in fewer words than one several times. I learned to live with it. I was not beyond learning from the experience, real or not.

         Enough for now, boy. Post. - Amorella


         You had a late lunch at Panera/Chipotle and presently you are in the Tylersville Kroger lot waiting for Carol to pick up ground steak for meatloaf or chili – her pleasure. While at Panera one of your former student’s (who owns a floor company in VOA Centre) came up and said his wife, also a former student, bought GMG.One. So, you made a sale. Plus, earlier you received a friending from Mike M. an assistant professor in Florida who also said he was buying your book. You were concerned about the price but as you told your student at Panera – ‘If she doesn’t like it she is only out two-ninety-nine.’ You both laughed and you are happy that is all you are asking so curious readers didn’t waste that much money if they don’t like it. – Amorella 

         1432 hours. Aunt Ruthie said she was buying one for her Kindle so I have three books sold and I haven’t bought one yet. I am feeling better about putting it out there, but part of me would be just as comfortable keeping them on the MacAir on in iCloud.

         You are at the far north end of Pine Hill Lake Park facing west, sitting in the shade of trees on the hill while Carol is taking her walk. Before noon you did your forty minutes of exercises for the first time in a couple of weeks and are feeling better for doing so. – Amorella

         1511 hours. It is still a wonderfully pleasant day. I am more comfortable in the slightly cooler than summer air. Now to Brothers 6. I have no idea what it is about but I hope to detect why ‘Transparency’ is being used as the word title. This makes the task part of the fun.
         You have six hundred and sixteen words mostly by elimination. – Amorella

         1552 hours. I think it is interesting but you are right I haven’t gone through the whole 1597 words in the original draft. Maybe the rest of it is interesting too.

         Orndorff, this is not about your interests now, it is about focusing on the revision. – Amorella

         1554 hours. I tend to forget that. Maybe it would be better to begin here and with the rest of the draft create another ‘now’ draft then choose between the two.

         Do as you will. Carol has returned and is reading Lee Child’s The Enemy, page 146. – Amorella

         1620 hours. I read and deleted the rest of the original draft and have some 200 words left. I should be able to narrow that down and finish Brothers 6 this evening.

         Carol is on page 158 of her book. Take another break and enjoy your surrounding nearby natural world, boy. Later, dude. Post when it is convenient. – Amorella

         1625 hours. Lots of car noise from Kings Mills Road but between I am hearing mostly the vibrations of cricket legs. This is what I find in Wikipedia Offline.

** **
Cricket chirping

The sound emitted by crickets is commonly referred to as chirping; the scientific name is stridulation. Only the male crickets chirp. The sound is emitted by the stridulatory organ, a large vein running along the bottom of each wing, covered with "teeth" (serration) much like a comb. The chirping sound is created by running the top of one wing along the teeth at the bottom of the other wing. As he does this, the cricket also holds the wings up and open, so that the wing membranes can act as acoustical sails. It is a popular myth that the cricket chirps by rubbing its legs together.
There are four types of cricket song: The calling song attracts females and repels other males, and is fairly loud. The courting song is used when a female cricket is near, and is a very quiet song. An aggressive song is triggered by chemoreceptors on the antennae that detect the near presence of another male cricket and a copulatory song is produced for a brief period after a successful mating.

Selected and edited from Wikipedia Offline – Cricket (insect)
** **

         1631 hours. No question about it, these nearby crickets are calling the females. What a life. I don’t know how the lady crickets put up with all the noise. What is the female’s criteria? The males all sound alike to me.


        You had left over soup for supper and Carol froze the rest. You watched NBC News and the first part of ABC News. Then Carol pulled two personally coded individually wrapped Jennifer cookies out of the freezer, quickly thawed them and you ate the scrumptious dessert watching “The Blacklist”. She went upstairs to read. – Amorella

         2137 hours. I completed Brothers 6 in 798 words.

         That’s all for tonight boy. Post. – Amorella


22 September 2014

Notes - Stage Manager / 'Transparency' for ch 6 /

         Mid-morning. You were up periodically through the night with coughing fits and don’t feel so well to far today. Carol is running an errand with neighbor Amy King and has volunteered to donate blood at Hoxworth at noon. You need to prep chapter six and do the stats on chapter five. – Amorella

         Noon. Just up from a nap you are feeling a bit better. When Carol returns, out for lunch and running further errands. – Amorella

         1226 hours. I cleaned the litter boxes and swept their surrounds and cleaned up myself for lunch out if Carol will trust that I will not have a coughing fit. Ellie is sitting between my ankles on the footstool. I needed to get out of the bedroom and downstairs. The day is looking rather pleasant with the blue sky intermixed with white clouds – reminds me of the recent setting of the Dead in chapter five. I think of the characters dressed for their own times except for Merlyn who I think might well ‘dress’ for the times he is in rather than his traditional seventh century garb or Druid wrappings. In here he is a man for all seasons and earthly times.

         You did not emulate Merlyn to become him boy, so get that out of your mind. You adapted an historical and legendary character in which to ‘ride’ your dreams. Merlyn is the vehicle and center of the story. For you the center of the story is whichever character you have on stage at the moment, even the setting is not essential. The ‘base’ for this is one of your favorite plays of all time Thorton Wilder’s Our Town. It is the quintessential seed if you will of the whole of your Merlyn stories. If any scene of your books was dropped on the stage, the truest of settings would be the starkness in Our Town. You got that boy? Post. Amorella

         1255 hours. Strange I see these words as true though I never thought on such an event before. 

          You are the Stage Manager. I direct. - Amorella

         You both had excellent tasting and generous dinners at Longhorn. Carol had salmon and a sweet potato and you had a six-ounce renegade sirloin and a loaded baked potato with a side of onions and mushrooms. You split the side salad. Carol is presently at Target in the VOA Centre looking for a curling iron. Next stop, Kroger’s for sugarless cough drops. – Amorella

         1642 hours. I have the stats for chapter five:

** **
Ch. 5  – Resolution
Words -  3106
Sentences - 249
Words per Sentence – 11.6
Sentences/Paragraph – 2.2
Passive Sentences – 1%
Flesh Reading Ease - 100.0
Flesh-Kincaid Grade Level – 0.6
** **

I also discovered a couple grammar errors and I am correcting them on the master. Chapter Six is set by segments and ready for working. Also, the chapter title word this time is ‘Transparency’ or I assume it is.

         Later in the afternoon. You are sitting in the shade of a single tree; the Honda is facing south on the east earth dam lot while Carol is taking her walk at Pine Hill Lakes Park – a clear and cool blue afternoon sky pervades. ‘Transparency’ hit you earlier while at the VOA Centre; out of the blue it was, interesting, eh? - Amorella

         1625 hours. The quiet allows a listening to the chirps of crickets within a hundred yards or so. Four children of various sizes playing tag or swinging near playground equipment with two early forties’ something parents observing with affectionate attachment. A few trees have frost’s first touch of red on this very peaceful sunny afternoon on the last official day of summer in the park, 2014. A few walkers (with dogs or without) are about. A few cars are scattered in the north lot sixty or seventy feet to my west.

         1639 hours. ‘Transparency’ (chapter word) appeared hovering in the center region of my brain. Consciousness surrounded and moved in to pluck the word up – upon the initial hovering the use of the word was immediate. It is interesting how these ‘creative’ aspects work from time to time. Carol returns. (1641)

         Carol is watching “The Good Wife”; this is after you both watched “Madam Secretary”. Curiosity got the better of you and you goggled ‘Great Merlyn’s Ghost – richard h. orndorff – ebook’. This is the first time and there are a few responses. You are delighted because this shows BookBaby ebook publishers did what they said they would do, put it on the Internet. – You are satisfied with their work. Supper after Carol’s show finishes. Later, dude. Post. - Amorella


21 September 2014

Notes - thoughts / a set of goals / Ch 5, bk 2 completed /

         1008 hours. We have two days until the Fall Equinox.

         You awoke groggy and unsettled after spending the night moving from the bed to the chair to the bed in Kim’s old room where there was less chance of waking Carol with your periodic hacking cough. The Sunday funnies and paper have been read, Carol is relaxing after working with the wash and various household chores most of the day. You swept yesterday and this morning, gathering more cat hair then you would have expected today. You feel guilty for not cleaning the litter boxes before breakfast as Carol did so while you were eating. – Amorella

         1014 hours. That is my designated job as she does their feeding. I should have done it last night but I went upstairs early to relax with the some headphone music before bed. I am feeling somewhat better but I could use a short nap before venturing into my exercises. Last week we walked enough each day that I didn’t feel like I was missing them. Arthritic aches and pains, no doubt a temperature change like Carol says. I want to complete chapter five and work through most of chapter six before this next weekend. I have a month before we ready ourselves off to Florida for a couple weeks or so; surely I can be done with chapter seven and working on eight by then. I feel a sense of accomplishment now that GMG.One is out there and an even greater sense of determination on finishing GMG.Two by mid-Winter if possible. This will leave GMG.Three to work on for the rest of 2015. Once these books are completed I will feel that I have accomplished not what I thought I was going to accomplish but I hope to have the stories intact before I actually die. It may seem odd to tell one’s story to an Angel before death and leave it for a few of the interested to read at their leisure, but in real life as in real death no one knows what’s next no matter what they may say or believe. I am getting into actually liking this idea Amorella came up with. It makes the works unique in terms of perspective for any reader, including myself.

         You have accomplished the draft for the story to an Angel in the first three Merlyn books, so you are further along than you think. You also find it interesting to think on, that is, your imagination is catching up with the concept of story-telling to an Angel that makes the request first, because that is how it is in here, ‘I asked for the story’. As an agnostic you are open-minded enough to dwell of the plausibility of an Angel of G---D and this supports your authenticity from my perspective, not yours, boy. This construction then is as a ‘philosophical thought problem’ brought to life within the blog and earlier notes. You are retired and have this work to do for now. Later, dude. Post. - Amorella


         Mid-afternoon. You have some 421 words on Dead 5, mostly written after a Subway picnic at the Carl Rahe park along the west bank of the Little Miami. Presently, you are waiting for Carol who is in Kroger’s for essentials such as bread and milk on Mason-Montgomery Road. – Amorella

         1519 hours. It occurred to me while writing that this circumstance-in-writing is no different than it was earlier. I am standing (comfortably) telling my story, your request, my story. I could not have written what I have without you, but then you know where the words come from, what projections of personality and passion that cause them to rise into consciousness. In this circumstance I take you at your word to be (at least) a pretend Angel. Without this sense I cannot have the base authenticity of timelessness in which to gather my thoughts. Consistency may be the hobgoblin of little minds, but in this case, consistency provides base, as it were, on which to stand.

         While telling the story in you own fashion do you see yourself facing me directly? – Amorella

         1526 hours. I was just thinking on this. I certainly am not on the top of a pillar (I erased this and replaced with ‘base’.) This may appear arrogant but I envision you directly in front of my sight, within the distance of two feet, a little more than an arm’s length, thus for my psychological comfort I cannot suddenly attempt to reach forward to touch what does not physically exist.

         You watched the national news and completed more of “The Roosevelt’s” on PBS. You also completed Chapter Five of book two. Add and post. - Amorella

          [2202 hours. I encounters some problems with number set spacings below.]

*** ***
FIVE  ©2014, rho, GMG.Two
Resolution

            The Supervisor has a little saying:
                                    Ring-a-ring o'rosies
                                    A pocket full of posies
                                    "A-tishoo! A-tishoo!"
                                    We all fall down!

                                    We rise from clay
                                    On judgment day
                                    Be we dead or still alive.



The Dead 5

            “There is talk among the Living that reality is not as it seems,” says Merlyn. “And, there has always been talk among the Dead that reality is not as it seems.”
            Socrates grins saying, “All the more reason to keep questioning. We know how it is being Dead, but otherwise nothing more than the experience.”
            The two sit on a stone-imaged bench across Eleusis Street from The Mikroikia at the corner of Lyceum, to their left, down Eleusis several blocks is the Temple Gate at the River Styx where, during the first Rebellion, the focus was on building a bridge across to return to Earth. To Socrates and Merlyn’s right Eleusis Street stretches several city blocks up to Mother’s. Minds can change more easily in such a previously orthodox setting. During the Rebellion it was thought that Mother’s was north as in the North Star, and south, somewhere across the Styx were the motions of the stars and Earth. Think of this as the classical region in HeavenOrHellBothOrNeither. Everyone has their favorite place to meet their friends. Merlyn and Socrates prefer the dark curtained wordless humor set in timeless Greek style.
            “We must breathe the Golden Rule to survive the complete lack of physical existence. Only with the mind do we set the social order. Our minds are free but we are not free to unbind them,” comments Socrates.
            “This is true for form to exist,” replies Merlyn in agreement. “We Dead are without the physics but we are not gods.” He smirks, “The ancients conjured gods and goddesses out of the air.”
            “We do not have a definition of Reality until we have a definition of G---D,” states Socrates. “And, our definition of dead appears to be without physics. The Dead wished to build that bridge to return to physics; to the Earth.”
            A dark humor infests the conversation as it lies on a line. “Mario, told me once that the bridge was designed by minds and hearts not physics. That was his explanation. He said the distance of each span was to be forty-one feet out with an imagined stone base, wood frame and concrete. The bridge is to be ten feet above the water,” declares Merlyn. “His friend Thales said the work should be wide and low off the water, a military bridge. Human religion thus conjures an argument between Poseidon and Zeus, as Poseidon never liked to follow his brother’s orders. That is what had been told.”
            Socrates shakes his head and adds, “Such talk still provides blasphemy in one time placed culture to another.”
            “Were it as such then, but here, as always, the individual reigns,” replies Merlyn, “and our marsupial humanoid cousin spirits rightly call this place, HeavenOrHellBothOrNeither.”
            “The humane spirit has the choice to reign.”
            “For what ends, Socrates?” Both laugh in the thought.
            “To be a bridge,” says Socrates with clarity.
            “The new people on Earth speak a lot about physics. Some cannot tell the difference between the science and poetry.”
            “Both are observable, Merlyn.”
            Merlyn smirks, “One day we will not be able to tell the difference between a marsupial humanoid’s spirit and a Homo sapiens.” He stands with a request, “Let’s walk, as it were, down to the Temple Gate and observe the River.”
“The gate façade replicates the Temple of Asclepius. Twelve sixteen foot wide stone steps from river beach up to the rectangular base stone floor. The front wall, closest to the town, is sixteen rectangular stone blocks high, each cut block twelve inches long, ten inches high and eight inches thick. The front wall consists of four blocks in from the outer west corner to the arched entrance. The same four blocks in from the outer east corner to the arched entrance. The height of the wall is ten blocks. The eleventh block begins the arch. Four blocks up from the eleventh ends the arch and three more blocks up to the top of the wall sets the architrave. A simple concrete frieze tops the architrave with a small centered relief of Asclepius the Healer, the bearded god of medicine holding a serpent-entwined staff,” states Socrates. “This then set the stage for the mighty bridge to freedom, to return to the hallowed ground that bore us.”
“And the bridge was never built,” comments Merlyn’s ghost.
“Never built beyond a few spans,” answers Socrates’ spirit who silently wonders on an analogy to their present existence.
Merlyn, reflecting Socrates’ quiet state, speculates on how this scene might be recalled to an analogy for those living in the modern twenty-first century.
Neither is amused about what point might now be made.
...


 

Brothers 5

             On Tuesday during the week before Christmas, Robert is on the back porch puffing on a thin mild cigar a neighbor had given hime. The temperature sets in the low sixties this particular afternoon in Riverton. Inside, Richard stands pouring himself a diet RC Cola from a two liter plastic bottle into a large Coke-a-cola glass.
            Connie gives her brother-in-law a quick kiss on the cheek saying, “That’s for being a dear and getting your own drink.”
            “Right,” replies Richard. “I know you always loved me best.”
            She giggles and whispers, “Wouldn’t you like to know?” as Cyndi walked in.
            “Is Connie trying to seduce you?” asks Cyndi nonchalantly.
            “You know how she is,” Richard comments while returning the two-liter bottle to the refrigerator. He adds, “Other than you being a half inch shorter, I can’t see two hairs of difference; you are clones of your mother.”
            You know I cook better roast beef,” murmurs Cyndi in an equally seductive tone.
            “I’m going to sit on the porch, no sense wasting this perfectly good day,” says Richard.
            “What happening?” asks Robert.
            “I was being toyed in the kitchen. I think it is a form of female harassment.”
            “I agree.”
            “What do you want to do about it?”
            “What can you do? Nothing. I don’t mind the flirting. It never leads to anything,” laughs Robert.
            “That’s the truth, surmises Richard. The two sit together quietly thinking private thoughts.
            Robert yawns, saying, “I could take a nap.”
            Richard also yawns and in a low voice, replies, “Me too.”
            “We didn’t used to be this way,” grumbles Rob.
             “Pick up a newspaper from a year ago and the ads are similar to this year at Christmas. Sales are built on holidays.”
            Robert adds, “We live in a cultural habit. The whole world is nothing but cultural habits.”
            “We have our women and our poetry Rob. What more do you want?”
            Robert chuckles, “Remember out mid twenties.”
            “Yeah,” answers Richard, We all go through the drinking. First, the excitement of the riding the first bike, then we were pumped for the driver’s license and then there was the first legal drink.”
            “Cultural habits and cultural rituals – rites of passage Rob.”
            “What was the difference two thousand years ago?”
            “Roman boys built miniature chariots and trained mice to pull them and had races. Nothing was really that different – take away electrical power and engines and we would be living pretty much like the Romans, that is our everyday life wouldn’t be much different.”
            Rob notes, “Health and survival rates would be.”
            “You got me on that. We both had childhood diseases in the forties and early fifties that would have killed us a hundred years earlier.”
            “We would have been born in 1842; who was President?”
            “FDR, of course.”
            “No, I mean in 1842.”
           
            Richard pulls out his iPhone and presses Suri and asks. She responds, “Checking on that  . . . the answer is John Tyler”.
            Richard presses Suri again, “Is William Henry Harrison President in 1842?”
            Suri responds, “Alright, here’s what I got: (1842 is after William Henry Harrison died)”.
            “She says he was dead by 1842. I didn’t know that.”
            Rob, who has been checking Wikipedia, replies, “Tyler was the first President to die in office. I didn’t know that either.”
            Richard stares at his cell. “Look at us. We just look stuff up we don’t know and here it is. Who would have thought we could do this when we were kids?”
            Robert shook his head as he placed the phone in his pocket. He says calmly, “We could not have known any of this. Who would have thought I would have become a surgeon?”
            “We played war games, mimicking what we understood of World War II; which was not really that much when we were ten years old.”
            “We took our bb guns down the basement, set up toy soldiers in various places near the far wall, and shot them down,” smiles Rob.
            “We pretended they were German but all we had were those green toy American soldiers. I tried to . . ..”
            “. . . modify the helmets with a soldering iron,” commented Richard and Robert in unison. They both laugh.
            “What are you two laughing about?” asks Connie from the kitchen.
            “Stocking presents you are going to buy for the grandkids?” adds Cyndi her more serious tone, “Is that it, fun Christmas presents to put in the socks?”
...


Grandma’s Story 5
The month is November in 941. The grandson of King Alfred the Great is King Edmund Atheling. Nine generations now separate Lord Thomas and Lady Hilda.
*
Lord Thomas            b. 0697            d. 0779
Lady Hilda                b. 0705            d. 0791
Anne                        b. 0733            d. 0796
Judah                        b. 0730            d. 0806

Sarah                        b. 0759            d. 0855
Robert*                     b. 0747            d. 0806
           
James *                    b. 0*785            d. 0862
Courtney                   b. 0790            d. 0863

Crosby*                      b. 0814            d. 0850
Farrah                        b. 0814            d. 0885

Parker *                     b. 0842            d. 0934
Selby                        b. 0862            d. 0951

Madison *                   b. 0888            d. 0956
Shandy                       b. 0890            d. 0943
   
Lyndon *                      b. 0916            d. 0979
Daisey                         b. 0925            d. 0999

Ackley *                       b. 0941
*
            Madison, 53, and wife Shandy, 51 are with their son, Lyndon, 25, and their daughter-in-law, Daisey, 16, who has recently given birth to her first son, Ackley. Here is one remembrance.
            Madison glances at his red-faced and screaming grandson and says to Lyndon, “We have to make sure the sheep survive the winter. We have beer fermenting for the holidays. There will be food on the table, but we have to stay clear of town and winter illnesses, particularly with the boy here. He’s healthy enough, but a sick child is easily a dead one, and he is our first of the next generation. We could use easily a couple more, son. ”
            “Mother,” adds Lyndon, “Four years ago we helped supply material and food for the king’s army. We have the king’s respect with these sheep and land of ours.”
            “Your King Athelstan is dead. Now you have a new king, Edmund Atheling, who is a mere lad of eighteen. What does he know about being king?”
            Madison’s voice sobers into arrogance, “I am proud to have served with both Alfred and Athelstan. We defeated the Celts and Scots as well as the Danes and Vikings. Athelstan of Wessex and Mercia was the first king of modern Britain, may God bless his soul and that of his father’s too.”
            “You wouldn’t let me serve in the Battle of Brunenburh,” whines Lyndon. “You fought for the king while I served with supplies.”
            Madison gruffly retorts, “You were barely twenty, boy. What did you know? You would have liked to have got yourself killed, then where would we be?” We are royally noted our service. We are likely for more land for more sheep.” He pauses for Shandy’s benefit, “We have to keep building this estate for your mother, for her security.”
            The baby continues whaling. Young Daisey lies in bed too exhausted to raise her voice. Daisey lived out such a farm life that she never needed to count beyond four.
.
            Grandma gives a knowing smile saying, “Now is time to see how things are with the Scots, that is with the descendents of Lord Thomas’ younger twin son, Jacob. Here is the Scottish bloodline.        
                           
Lord Thomas            b. 0697            d. 0779
Lady Hilda               b. 0705            d. 0791

Jacob                        b. 0730            d. 0783
Ruth                          b. 0735            d. 0783

Daniel                        b. 0761            d. 0840 [Frodisharg]
Treasa                       b. 0764            d. 0843 [Vigdisdottir]
                                   
Taliesin                     b. 0785            d. 0847
Grimildis                   b. 0795            d. 0873

Wilfred                      b. 0821            d. 0901
Daria                        b. 0826            d. 0903

Bairn                        b. 0877            d. 0931
Nairne                      b. 0885            d. 0948

Dana                        b. 0908            d. 0955
Douglas                    b. 0906            d. 0936

Corey                        b. 0936            d. 1003
Tully                           b. 0937            d. 1025

            It is 941. Cory is five; and sister Tully is four, and Dana, 33. Grandma Nairne is 56. Douglas died in the Battle of Brunenburh in 936. The women, Dana and Nairne continue Douglas’ business Merchandise. The two women run Merchandise in Glasgow with Ross, an able and trusted servant as their front man. The Glasgow enterprise expands to include boots and saddles, farm implements, horses and other sundries. Here is a remembrance.
            “You need not worry Mother,” replied Cory. “I want to be a soldier like my father, not a priest. I am learning Latin for reading the Bible myself. I won’t need a priest.”
            “Blasphemy,” says Grandma Nairne. “What are we going to do with this boy?”
            “Not to worry Mother,” replies Dana. “He is the little man of the house.” She spies both of her two children now under the large oak table. She teasingly asks, “What are you two doing under there?”
            Tully responds, “We talk to the voice in the corner.”
            Mother laughs, “Which corner is that?” she asks.
            “He’s always in the northeast corner,” responds Cory in an earnest honesty.

Nothing is better than a children’s fantasy revealed
In the corner of a table, a room or a field.
It makes little difference where hangs imagination’s sign,
When it finds a quiet listener in a corner in its mind.
...



Diplomatic Pouch 5
            “Tell me about your trips to Los Vegas,” suggests Yermey. “I want to understand more about having luck and the beating the odds when playing the computer game you call Slots. I don’t understand the use of a personal attachment in the phrases. I sense that human beings can change the odds with their personal existence – that somehow when lucky sheorhe can beat the statistical odds. Where does this unrealistic perspective come from, and more to the point, why, in your modern age, does it still exist?
            Pyl breaks into a grin but quickly realizes Yermey is being serious. She takes a moment to re-listen to his words. First, Slots is a game. It is supposed to be fun, and part of the fun is seeing how lucky one is at the moment. Some people believe in luck but I do not. Life is circumstance. It is still fun. You walk into a casino and choose your slot machine and see how your circumstance is at the moment.”
            “So, this computer simulation promotes a sense of hope and destiny? Doesn’t living a life do the same thing without being artificially created like a game?”

            What is this man talking about, she thought. Philosophy and religion tied up in a computer simulator based on a game in which people hope to win big money. I wonder what Justin and Blake are up to? I understand why we are paired off but it appears Yermey is playing the odds here. She smiles.
            “Why the smile?”
            “Friendly mentioned to me about boxostats. Is it a game like Slots or is it what you people call ‘machinery’.
            Yermey chuckles, “What did she tell you about boxostats?”
            “I don’t remember, but it seemed to have to do with gambling. Why do you people want to know how we personally think about gambling? If it is taboo on Homeplanets let us know. We don’t want to offend anyone with our casual cultural propensities.”
             “Boxostats is a bio-chemical computer that reminds you of things you routinely do everyday. It can be adjusted to show your consistencies, personality traits and sudden addictions. For instance, if you suddenly appear to have a compulsive obsessive disorder, or an anxiety the device will show you. It is a drop of a gel-like substance you place on your body. We feel it is good to monitor one’s total health.”
            Pyl comments, “That’s interesting. A newly compulsive gambler would consciously become aware of this before it became addictive.”
            “Yes. We are responsible for our own well being.” He thinks, ‘Pyl realizes Ship does this sort of thing automatically, but I don’t want to get into a discussion that will lead to human rights and responsibilities. This is about our culture. We are interested in personal human primate traits but in this circumstance we are the gamblers bringing these primates home and HomePlanets is gambling their health safety and welfare that this is a good call; that as these Earthlings say, we will beat the odds. Surely there is a better way for the primates and us to have human contact without having human contact. Living-reality is a strange factor to consider.’           
            Pyl declares, “What is really on your mind Yermey?”
            “Pardon.”
            “I am married. My husband is here and so is my older brother, yet we two are attracted to one another.”
            Yermey blushes.
            “Cat got your tongue?”
            “I am not attracted to you sexually.”
            “Then how are you attracted to me?”
            “You are interesting.”
            “As a species or as an individual?”
            Immediately defensive, Yermey states, “What is this about, Pyl?”
            “Justin told me that Hartolite slid his hand into her pouch.” She laughs. “He didn’t know what to do. He thought she might yell, ‘rape’. Hartolite was suddenly out and out attracted to Justin and she attempted to something about it. That’s how I see it.”
            “I am surprised he told you,” responds Yermey while feeling strangely anxious.
            “Why?” She thinks, ‘I told Justin Friendly gave me permission to put my hand in her pouch. It doesn’t appear to mean anything more intimate than a solidly warm handshake between good friends.’
            “I don’t know,’ says Yermey. “We marsupial males play coy. We do not dominate the sexual scene nor do we wish to.”
            Pyl asks, “Do you feel sex is beneath your station?”
            He shrugs and answers, “We males are not that interested.”
            “Then why do you secretly wish me to be more intimate with you?” Pyl waits patiently as Yermey searches through five hundred years of personal experience and knowledge for one honest and heartfelt response to meet this immediate greater-than-life circumstance.
***