The Word Behind

Realists insist that there are truths beyond mental states, but only a truly enlightened person can know those with apodictic certainty.

David Putney
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Hello Montgomery, Alabama. The Vagabond wishes you a joyful day.
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25 years ago if anyone had asked me to search for realities beyond what I could see, hear and consider with my slightly above average but limited intellect I would have found the task boring and unimportant. Now, a quarter of a century later, I don't know if I can perceive the true reality behind things, but I do know there are enlightened people who know with certainly the true, self evident reality of things.

Human language is a great problem when trying to articulate and understand the unexplainable. We have to rely on the mythical, allegorical, metaphorical and parabolic that only point toward the reality. The ancient Greeks and Romans had gods for many natural conditions and many people worshipped those gods as real entities. And that has been a real problem throughout history, people worshipping the symbol instead of the reality behind it. But it is hard to see that reality, easier to anthropomorphize it.

A Jewish mystic wrote that if the universe is a tree then God is that which is behind the power which drives the sap. That light is not to minimize or even explain the divine, but to say that everything, the tree, the sap and the power are expressions, on many levels, of his God.

How many of us can look at a tree or a painting, or hear a piece of music and truly see and hear what is behind it, what it really means outside of seeing, hearing and thinking with human thought? Even the philosophy I love reading these days only leads to the door of enlightenment. And the truly enlightened ones speak to us in the clearest language of all, so clear that it is practically impossible to understand.

The way to enlightenment is to search for the invisible, look into and through everything until behind it you find the word that tells you with certainty what it truly is, the word that can't be spoken. "And the Word was God" Saint John said.

My vagabond journey goes on, and if I never achieve enlightenment I, at least, enjoy the scenery along the way.

DB - The Vagabond
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The Ball Game
a story in 7 parts

Part 7

Jimmy played for the Hawks another few years and then was traded to Denver where he played for a while . Denver traded him to Tucson who traded him to Jacksonville for another few years. He played very well for all those teams, but he was now in a swapping game. When the Jacksonville season was over Jimmy was a free agent. On a hunch he called the front office of the Brooklyn Hawks and was delighted when they offered him a contract to come back. When he once again put on the Hawks uniform he never played so well.

The years wet by. Brooklyn won some and lost some. Jimmy was getting older, he just passed his 40th birthday and he was quite wealthy now. He bought a real house for his mother in a quiet neighborhood. At first she didn't want to move out of her apartment, but he fixed it up nice and hired some servants to take care of things, so she moved in.

Jimmy was thinking of retiring from baseball and taking some adult education courses, maybe getting the college degree he never got. Then he thought he might go into science as his father had done.

Speaking of his father, Jimmy hadn't seen or heard from the nice man in the lab coat and glasses for many years. Sometimes, when he was in a tight situation he would ask "Dad. What should I do?" But he didn't get an answer and had to cope with things on his own.

Then one year the Brooklyn Hawks came out on top of the league and entered the World Series against the Savannah Cougars. The series opened in Brooklyn where the two teams split a game a piece. in Savannah they also split one apiece, the Hawks barely winning the second game which went into extra innings. Back in Brooklyn the Hawks won the first game. It was now three games to two in favor of the Brooklyn.

When they battered up for the sixth game Jimmy was very concerned. They needed to win this game or it would be back to Savannah where anything could happen.

When they got to the top of the ninth inning the score was Savannah 4, Brooklyn 2. The Cougars got two hits, putting two men on base. Then a relief pitcher came in and held Savannah to two fly balls easily caought and one strike out, retiring the side with no runs.

Savannah also brought in a strong relief pitcher at the bottom of the ninth. The first Brooklyn hitter reached first base on a ground ball. The second batter struck out. On a pitch to the next Brooklyn batter the Savannah catcher bobbled the ball and the runner on first stole to second base. The next batter hit a clean short fly ball into the outfield which dropped in front of the outfielder, sending the runner to third base and giving the batter a hit.

There was a man on first, one on third, the score was 4 to 2 Savannah and one out when Jimmy stepped up to the plate. Eventually the count on Jimmy was three balls and one strike. The pitcher was waving of signals from the catcher while Jimmy swung the bat back and forth.

All of a sudden he heard the familiar voice "Jimmy." He looked around for the man in the lab coat and glasses but could see him nowhere. Just then the pitcher wound up and threw the ball. Jimmy watched it come directly toward him, slowly, gently, gracefully, like a bubble on the breeze. But it was too high and too far inside, well out of the strike zone. Jimmy thought if he let it go past him he would walk to first base, then the bases would be loaded for the Hawks best hitter and there would still be only one out. He let the ball float gradually to him and as it did he saw it dip toward the plate. When it reached him it was waist high and the catcher was already reaching for it. He stepped back out of its way and drove his bat into it with a mighty swing. He saw the ball warp slightly as it connected with the bat. Then it took off and flew at great speed into center field. The fielder backed way up the catch it but it flew past him into the bleachers.

There was an enormous roar from the crowd, The Brooklyn bull pen emptied out onto the field. The runner from third came in. The runner from first quickly rounded second and third and he came in for the tying run.

Jimmy tossed his bat aside and trotted around from base to base. Rounding third base he had a big warm smile on his face, because he was the winining run, because the Brooklyn Hawks had just won the World Series, because there was a mob of his teammates ready to pounce on him with hugs and hand shakes as soon as he crossed home plate and because he knew that his father still loved him.

The End

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SPRING QUESTION

NASA has planned to send a two man mission on an 18 month trip to the planet Mars. It would take 6 months for the astronauts to get there and after 6 months of exploration another 6 months to return.

Should they do it and why, and if not, why not?

dbdacoba@aol.com

2 answers so far

I eagerly await your answer.

DB
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