The Land of Opportunity

Gunny’s EXERCISE IN SCENE SETTING, “a slice of life meant to be included in a future story,” coincidentally, happens in the story of my life. When I was a small child, I had an insatiable curiosity for the unknown. My education never succeeded in wiping it out. From my story:

“I knew that what I was doing was absolutely forbidden, but that’s me. At age five, I set out to see the world on the other side of Preston Road, the busy cross street a few doors from home. I waited for an opening in the traffic and dashed to the other side on my tricycle. Suddenly the environment turned serene. The homes were large, set in beautiful landscaping. Green terraced lawns rolled down to curving tree shaded streets. The cops found me hours later chatting with a yard man near the Dallas Country Club.”

“I grew up in Highland Park, Texas, an affluent suburb of Dallas. When I was a kid, my friends were members of the Dallas Country Club. I wasn’t. I always lived on the wrong side of Preston Road. It had a profound effect on my later life. I learned the truth from a psychic years later. I was sidetracked by material abundance, the very thing that made me feel insecure when I was a kid.”

For the umpteenth time I’ve begun rewriting the story of my life. The combination of the little things that made my life unique provides a little more perspective with every rewrite. I’m like the artist who thinks his painting could be improved with a few more brush strokes here and there. Dahlia of Dahilia’s Artistic Images Shoppe, coincidentally, critiqued my first piece. Already, I can see that I made the right move by joining writing.com. I’m looking forward to the help my new-found writing friends can give me.

To those people who say I’m a rock in the stream, say I: “you are being left in a cloud of dust.” We are leaving the Age of Pisces. Astrologers say, "Piceans are easily influenced. . . They must now learn to stand alone. . . The symbol of Pisces is two fish, one swimming upstream and one downstream. . . Piceans are unable to make up their minds."

I’m an Aquarian. Where are the Aquarians? I’ve yet to find them. Astrologers say, "Aquarians despise authoritarian or collectivist rule. . . Aquarians love new ideas, meeting new people and exchanging ideas. . .They love the beauty of nature, and luxury and comfort, but they are not greedy. . .They observe much. . .They are more intellectual than physical. . . Their main interest is in human problems, and in this vein tireless workers."

I’m working on “The Land of Opportunity,” Chapter 6 of Joe Smith, the Original. It asks you a question. I need to know if I’m beyond the reach of present day human understanding. Astrologer Jeanne Avery says, in reference to me: "He becomes the water-bearer by walking to the beat of a different drummer. He may be the person to bring back information that has been lost to civilization for centuries. He is a forerunner in setting style, discovering new methods, and showing the rest of humanity the way."

In Chapter 6, we bring into focus for examination symbols. Symbols tell us much about what goes to make the universe and our lives.

"Symbols, represented in the Statue of Liberty, a poem by Emma Lazarus is graven on a tablet within the pedestal on which the statue stands:”

The New Colossus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

“'Give me your tired, your poor . . . send these, the homeless . . . I lift my lamp beside the golden door'—America was the land of opportunity. No more, it’s the land of government entitlement and runaway spending."

"In the story of my life, you read about my departure, when I flew the coop. I was numerology’s ‘1’ the pioneer seeking an identity. I was led to the pairing, the ‘2,’ and henceforth to diversification, the ‘3.’ Universal consciousness, then realizing that stability was needed, brought forth a system of order, represented as ‘4’, my life was on course."

"The pressures of the work world and big city life bought about change and adventure, represented in numerology as ‘5,’ reminding me of the world’s most astonishing number, emblem of balance, the never ending, never repeating number 1.6180339887, called the Golden Ratio, Phi, graphically, a straight line, cut in extreme and mean, when as the whole line is to the greatest segment, so is the greater to the lesser."

"Everything reduces to numbers, or as in string theory, vibrations. The same as a violin string is the indivisible entity emitting vibrations, illustrating the extreme and the mean, the same as in string theory, and as illustrated in numerology’s number ‘6’, and in Chapter 6. Standing for the desire to bring harmony, truth, justice to the forefront—a sense of balance into its environment—do you get the connection with America’s Statue of Liberty? Read the paragraph again. Use your imagination. Do you get the connection with the “Higher Law” background of America’s Constitution? It all connects with the story of my life and the course of destiny."