Childhood was better

Fifty years ago today, my mother picked me up early from the first grade. I can't remember why. But I do remember being with her that day at American National Bank in Bowling Green, Ky. I stood beside her while she made a deposit at the teller window. An announcement was made over the bank’s loudspeaker. Immediately afterwards, the room exploded with loud, harmonious wails of torment. All the women around me cried and screamed and grabbed onto one another. About twenty feet directly behind me was another roll of teller windows, parallel to the ones where we stood. I turned to see a lady collapse. She beat the floor repeatedly with her clutched fist, and screamed, “No, no, no.” 
I looked up at my mother. She gazed around the room, herself fighting to hold back tears. I asked her what had happened; she didn’t answer. I grabbed her dress, jerked it hard to get her attention, and asked, “Is the world ending?” 
My family was not churchgoers, so I’m still surprised I asked that question. I suppose there is some innate fear or knowledge in all of us that the world, or at least our world, can suddenly come to an end. The fact that I thought the world was ending the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated shows how much our world has changed. I cannot imagine this kind of reaction to any assassination today. Even during 9/11, I did not witness this kind of hysteria. We think we’re progressing with all the technological advancements in social media, but the only thing we’re making advancements in is our ability to desensitize ourselves to murder, death and mayhem. We have an illusion the world is a better place. But the way I see it is that it has simply grown from its adolescence to adulthood. 
I was a child before the announcement was made that day in the bank. I became a man when I watched that lady fall to the floor. Childhood was better.

WANT

I want to live in a world where the rich never rule
child labor laws don't exist
nor morals discussions
nor oaths
nor vows
nor prayers
nor contracts
nor lawyers
nor politicians
nor power
nor weakness
nor envy
I want to live in a world where everyone does what they want
and what they want is for everyone
daylight and darkness delight in one another
giving and sharing are not foreign
I want to live in a world
a world without want
want killed the poem
want killed the world
I want to live in a world
a world without want
want killed the world
want killed the poem
Want is death
Death wants
Want

                              By Mitchell Plumlee ( c ) 2013

But what then?

Loyalty is a trait that eludes me. I do not understand it. I live in fear of those who give their allegiance to any government, faith, school, team, tribe, job, political party, military, etc. If they are loyal to their institution and I am not, logic would dictate that they will turn on me if I threaten to teardown their institution; hence, all the religious and political wars throughout the ages.

Loyalty is nothing more than fear seeking support. If one is totally free, then they need not be loyal to anything but themselves. But since most are unable to totally live off the land individuality is almost impossible to achieve nowadays. I suppose the only way to escape "loyalty" is to die. But what then?

Insanity's in season

Insanity's in season and there's no rhyme or reason,

If you're not patriotic you'll be tried for treason

Drink the Koolaid and eat the Last Supper

Proudly display NRA on your bumper 

Give your life history to buy a sinus pill

But if you want an M16 just pay the bill 

Buy into the fear or they'll label you as queer

Load up the guns if the government comes near

Give the constitution your holy allegiance 

But then defend only the parts you agree with

Subscribe to talk radio and send 'em your tithe 

So they can tell you you're David fighting Goliath  

Love your country but hate the president

Kiss your Bible and swear to kill the socialist 

Claim love for your neighbor but refuse him a hand

If he starves to death then that was God's plan 

It's hard to be alive when everyone's crazy

If you disagree they'll just say you're lazy  

Say you're from America the land of the free

And vow hatred to anyone who disagrees 

Everyone is free to do as they choose

As long as what they do agrees with you

                                By Mitchell Plumlee, April 18, ( c ) Copyright 2013

Telephone Lines

     The telephone lines swooped between each pole then steadily rose again, over and over. Sitting in the back of my mother's station wagon, I fixed my eyes on one line and watched it sink to its lowest point then rise to the next pole, over and over. The steady rise and fall was hypnotic. In all the world, it was one of my favorite things to do, and I got to do it all the time because my mother was always driving somewhere. I counted the seconds between each pole, one thousand one - one thousand two - one thousand three. Three seconds was the limit. It might've been longer if I were in the back seat of someone else's car, but I was in my mother's station. The speed limit on interstate was 75 mph, but she said everyone was allowed ten more miles per hour, so 85 mph was her minimum speed. Ninety-five was her average. She was in the passenger lane, or the "fast lane," as she called it. She always drove in in the fast lane.
     Suddenly, the seconds between the poles slowed down to five seconds.
     "Get off the road if you can't drive, buddy," my mother yelled.
     Just a few feet behind us, maybe a car length, in the right lane was a semi.
     "You're not gonna block me in," my mother said, leaning closer to the steering wheel. A smile came across her face. Her eyes started to glisten as she shoved the gas pedal to the floor.  The station wagon's engine roared. She hit the metal dashboard with the palm of her right hand. "Come on, Old Betsy, you can do it."
     I looked up at the telephone lines and tried to count the seconds as we veered closer to them, but I was distracted by the semi's horn blowing, then I turned to see the speedometer when my mother shouted, "Whoo, one hundred and five. GO BETSY." She glanced over at the man in the green car. "Where'd you get your license, Buddy, Sears & Roebuck?" Before I could look back to the phone lines, we had already darted back in front of the "knucklehead." I looked out of the big back window. The front of the car quickly disappeared.
     "Knuckleheads like that cause wrecks on the highway," my mother said. She turned and looked at me in the backseat. "Always remember, don't ever hit the brake unless you have to. Put the pedal to the metal. That'll get you out of a jam nine times out ten."
     I went back to watching the telephone lines, one thousand one - one thousand two - one thousand three.
   

Love, be with me

There's got to be something I can do to bring good fortune back my way. I'm so tired of bad things happening; tired of financial trouble and worrying all the time. I found this book, Every Man A King or Might In Mind Mastery, by Orison Swett Marden, copyright, 1906. The opening chapter has a poem:

We build our future, thought by thought,
Or god or bad, and know it not - 
Yet so the universe is wrought.
Thought is another name for fate,
Choose, then, thy destiny, and wait - 
For love brings love, and hate brings hate.
                                         --Ella Wheeler Wilcox

I want so much to dwell on good thoughts, I really do. Every time I think I'm going to be able to do so, something bad happens, usually because I did or said something stupid. I want the world to forgive me for the stupid things I've said and done. I want to forgive everyone for the stupid things they've said and done. Jesus said, "Forgive and it shall be forgiven you." Inner peace is summed up in that simple sentence. All my troubles have come from not forgiving others; then in turn, they don't forgive me. I desperately want to be a better man. I want to love all and to be loved by all, especially those with him I've had conflict. There must be a way; there simply has to be a way. There's not much dispute about the ageless wisdom of Christ, even non-believers marvel at his philosophy. He said, "The Kingdom of Heaven is within you." That means it is possible to have peace on earth. The path to that peace is found in forgiveness and love. I want to love. Surely I can learn to love. Love, be with me.

The memory of you

Someone please tell me, where I was back when,

I can't seem to remember if it was now or then

But we had a good time, that I do recall, 

We had a good time through it all 

There were faces that quickly came and went

They weren't ungracious, but they didn't pay the rent

Now someone please tell, what I'm supposed to do

I get so lost in the memory of you