"Out of Egypt I called My Son.
He shall be called A Nazarene."
( Matthew 2: 15, 23)
I
WHEN GOD COMES into a developing Country, a Man there deserves a New Name. Not necessarily, d name, of a chef — Hold your Pen.
Life's not unfortunate, Time has not passed; it is still passing. Things, however, have changed...
In those days, perhaps a hand of cigarette or a limb of cigar, was enough, to stamp the air with so much fuss, or to pass the time ever so widely. Things, however, have thus changed...
People have arisen from the "Old Country", nowadays, like I have; what we do is this: smoke a Pen, let the flame burn in the heart, but leave the air lingering more abundantly — for our fellow men, to also, Breathe. There's no ash kept in the memory, the paper though, may end up as a classic.
" I'll construct a Text," said Mark Twain, in earnest.
Back in the day, he nursed a Connecticut cigar or a Tennessee cigarillo, quietly in his room. Perhaps a Missouri tobacco pipe, between his delicate lips. But this paraphernalia he kept aside or swept to the side, when he needed to pass the most valuable time of his Life.
"Is Shakespeare dead?" asked Mark Twain, with his eyes open.
Now, if you qualify as a gentleman, get a reading lamp up, and a sheet of plain white paper. If you have any thoughts, keep a felt Pen; closer. Don't write on your bedside table; not yet. Recline your head, and listen; to another man's charm. Take away the thornbush, from your central vision; let the flowerbed, of many nooks and crannies in your brain thrive.
"Is Literature dead?" ask I, with my English Language tastebuds intact.
Mark Twain, acting as an American News Writer, transformed into a Novel Writer, put together the bitter odds and sweet ends of his Life, to fully agree with himself.
If he claimed that the name, of Samuel Clemens, was an accident of American history, who then would qualify as a true celebrant of the World, an achiever of Human Stature, a Pop Culture Celebrity ?
Read — "Roughing It" ( 1872 ). Ask — "Huckleberry Finn" (1884 ).
Mark Twain was his destiny, as a Man of Letters.
[ ALPHABETICAL ORDER ]
II
IF I can begin with the Right Words, then Medicine is a healing Art. But should a human being fall ill, he becomes a patient, comes under the care of a Medicine Man. Well, something has gone wrong with the science of his delicate Body, and the physician has his orthodox methods; however, they are empirical.
"Cast your Bread upon the waters,
For you will find it after many days."
( Ecclesiastes 11 : 1 )
Long ago, Demitri Mendeleev manufactured a concise list of natural chemical elements, some of them were quite native to the well-disposed human earth, that is, the bodily constitution; they were prescriptive of well-functioning organs within a human Body. Mendeleev called his mental creation, "Periodic Table", but the elements were waiting to be combined Artfully, by the innovative mind of an Alchemist, who would turn them into an "Elixir", the medicine of endless Youth, Immortality.
However, the Medicine Man was the pioneer, the foremost alchemist to convert elements from the Periodic Table of general science into a Prescription ( Rx ). Where Mendeleev represented single elements by means of Letters, the physician recaptured their essence in shorthand, but in this case, as a mixture of elements, that is medicine, which brought an uncanny impact to bear on a patient's Body. However, the healing Art, the Prescription in Letters, gave due cognizance to the human Psyche. The Medicine Man's Art has been divinely granted the distinction, therefore, of being a Holistic Art.
[ LETTERS PANDEMIC ]
III
OPIUM poppy is on a botanical list, the modern table of plants created by the mind of Carl Linnaeus, but its active principle, morphine, is addictive. A leaf of Opium plucked by the hand of Allen Ginsberg could not make the Stars twinkle in his mental Sky. He needed to read, "Leaves Of Grass" ( 1885 ) by Walt Whitman. If anyone had asked Jack Kerouac, back in the day, he would have begun by saying, that's "Beat".
A stalk of Opium poppies still differs from a
stem of poems; the distance between them amounts to several kilometres of fun. But the latter possesses a purity in its enlightenment, which is akin to the psychic distance covered during the "March On Washington" ( 1963 ) — and, if you cannot travel the entire distance from the Place of Vanity to the Place of Holy, you cannot dare the many charlatans, or preach in a very clear language, like Dr Martin Luther King, Jr.
"I Have A Dream", is in continuous participle; it is still bona fide prose, and the fame of words happens to linger in the blood that courses through the veins of many human hearts. But the words were ordained, crafted by a meticulous effort, engraved on tablets of history, by means of a Silver Tongue. Truth be told, there wouldn't be history, if former Black slaves of the colonies cannot sit in tandem with their former White slave owners.
Thus, if Walt Whitman smoked a Pen in New York, and gave America, "Leaves Of Grass" (1855 ) ; Langston Hughes took his own Poem to the Literary Renaissance (1920s ), saying, "I Too Am America". If someone had asked Williams Burroughs, back in the day, he would have begun by saying, that's "Beat".
If you gats to hold a microphone, Sing. But if you gats to hold a pen, Write. Let your saliva, or your ink, make a difference in the already established metre-form; take the quantum leap from the senses of the Body, and flow to the nerves of the Mind. But bring a holistic Salvation towards the only Soul of Man.
But if you choose to set the Opium aside, that only means you're no longer in need of a rush — and, that's not beef. What you may need, in its stead, is a quiet place of moonlight — and, a Trader's Ink. Someone needs to set the new rules, but obviously on White Paper, and that is Write, a Magnum Opus. Now, if anyone could ask Neal Cassady, this is the motto of "Beat".
If Herbert Huncke had claimed, in a moment of interior desperation, that he was beat; it was only because a Streetful of Opium poppies could not set his mind to genuine Freedom; it could not sustain the good habits of his Muse — and therefore, his Pen.
However, Allen Ginsberg set the records straight, he got his own interpretation right, and from the campus of Columbia University, he identified the former's statement as a misnomer. But Herbert Huncke still got his respect, as the originator of Beat Literature — and, to all intents as well as purposes, he was a Masterful Stroryteller.
If Herbert Huncke, and the Beat Generation, cultivated a vineyard with the hand, as Writers, then vintage was obviously pressed out of the ink borne by the Pen, and spread abroad by the Printing Press. But the people came out, to drink, from the Literary refinement of grapes, their tongues tasting the Letters derived from all the neighbouring Streets.
If Opium could sedate beat men into, Thinkers; then Prose as well as Poetry, could turn the whole world into their stage. But they played in concert, what was essentially metaphysical, all the while it was an on-going private Drama.
If someone had asked F. Scott Fitzgerald, he would have reminded him, or her, that "If you begin as an individual, you will end up as a type."
Modern Society, especially the developing world, does not seem to understand the course of an individual life, and its import on the progress of the generality. Unlike the American, other nationals but preferably Africans, seem deluded, to think not of the sanctity of the individual but of his curse. However, the Medicine Man knows, and with a certainty too, that if he has to deliver a pregnant woman of twins, he must handle them one after the other, and thus, with individualized care. Thereafter, he tests the babies' hearts, but still, it is one after the other, using, a stethoscope. And that's "Beat".
When human beings lay a claim on equality, what they bank on, what they essentially want to celebrate, lies so pristine within their individuality — people were created to be different, not merely by outward appearance, but also by innate gifting. Hence, as a people, we may not want to entertain diversity, but the choice is not sincerely ours to make, it is only a matter of divine stamp, the overwhelming script has already been written by Nature. But, we can still claim equality in our diversity, without necessarily stepping upon one another's Freedom.
Today, our primary endeavour is not to exist as a nation, but as a commonwealth of nations, pooling human-based resources ( to harness the land-based resources ) toward the expansion of a global Civilization.
If anyone had asked Frederic Bartholdi, the innovative French national who posted the gigantic Statue of Liberty on an island in New York Harbour, he would probably have enunciated his entire frame of action as, "Laissez-faire". That is, "Live, but also let others Live". This is the quintessential truth, about Creativity, the reason the Master-Mind of the Universe gave humanity diverse, yet individual
Gifts.
Now, who would set the Torch of Enlightenment aflame in the right hand of Liberty? It was an Immigrant Poet, but with an Immortal Pen in hand. The post, however, was of a unisex content, that's in terms of metres without any iambic trace of chauvinism or feminism. This was Espirit de Corps, the true Spirit of Liberty at Work, and that's "Beat".
"Keep ancient Land,
Your STORIED POMP."
IV
FOR THE HISTORY of the World is to be set straight, by the effort of Pioneering Pilgrims — America is a "New Beat". Britain, however, may retain itself as the "Old Country". It's part of the evolutionary process, and time brings its own changes. The face of old money might still remain as Queen Elizabeth II, but the spirit of new money has moved on, to a man like, Bill Gates.
However, Labour adds to Capital to establish Sense.
The context of a New World first came into being in the 17th Century A.D by means of Pulpit figures. These were enormously set apart, their ways were significantly different, from those men who had explored the New World in the earlier voyages of the 15th Century. The path chosen by the Pilgrim Fathers was not purely navigational as it was with Christopher Columbus, or Amerigo Vespucci. These Pulpit figures happened to be in the broadcast of the Mind of Man, but obviously before his encounters with serious Money, and by this token, they held the entire history of human Civilization to a real contest. They started by questioning the assumptions of those who preached the Bible, asking them why they held the Scripture with one hand of precept, while with the other hand of practice, they left sundry men as well as women in chains.
The only currency approved, by the false kingdom-men of the "Old Country", was a combination of Feudalism and Monarchy, and it was dated. But besides the established throne, there were thinking figures of that century who surmised with God, the Creator of the Earth and Man, that "Light" cannot be hidden forever under a bushel.
Therefore, they gathered, to establish a City Upon A Hill.
The sojourn of Man, of the Pilgrim Fathers, was a giant leap from a cul-de-sac, a blind alley, into an open vista. In other words, they desisted from following the preceptors of blind religion, thus choosing Reason and Spirit. It was a new age, but their wholesale enlightenment created, "A New Order of the Ages". It was an enterprise in freedom — Political and Socio-Economic Freedom.
And when bona fide society came, exemplified by Christian men, it was first in the name of God.
Before the Pilgrim Fathers set foot on New England soil, they walked, but on top of water like Jesus Christ. It was a miracle, but it occurred in a Man-made vessel, "The Mayflower" (1662). It was an educative action in itself; the Art of the Ship, as well as the journey on water, depicted an enthusiasm towards Capitalism. And frankly, these history-making figures were fed up of the garbed Sunday Pulpit, their minds were at opposites with the old-school pulpit men who seemed not to know the Power of God, and by its logical extension, the Rights of Man.
Thus, they became the pioneers of a new Spirit of Enterprise, the Rags-to-Riches Story, otherwise known as New Money. Besides, to buttress the social angle of Freedom, historians recorded their milestone voyage, including a Love Story — it was on deck, and it was Christ Love.
In the century present, there exist, many nations which base their actions on money, perhaps Old Money; but not America. The United States places most of its benevolent activities on "Principles". If we start on the basis of principles, then most Americans think like Archimedes — "Buoyancy". America, thus, displaces its own weight of fluid, as it was, on board "The Mayflower".
But the Pilgrim Fathers recognized first, that as inhabitants of the Ship, they possessed interior weights, which they harnessed together, favourably. The clear evidence was a historic, but ratified document called the "Mayflower Compact"(1620 ). It was signed before their occupation of the free space of the New World.
And if Archimedes shouted in a hoarse voice, 'Eureka', then the Pilgrim Fathers swore in clear tones, "In God We Trust". It is still there altogether, but in printed matter, for those who would not see with the biased eyes of mammon.
Today, the American still swears on the business trail, but the words are in reverence, "In God We Trust", and this oath regenerates its heart "Beat". This is the Spirit of laisse-faire, and capitalism, the spirit behind every U.S Dollar Bill.
By now, it should be understandable why America pulls its weight, from the Capitol Hill to the White House, then to the United Nations. It displaces its own dead weight, and thus did the Pilgrim Fathers buoy themselves upon water, in the Mayflower. They sailed through the high seas of mundanity, and human vanity, to reach land, in "God's Own Country".
The contest today, as always, is to find your true calling. It's not tied
to a specific physical route, but appears to be a matter of facts put together by a meticulous head, and a genuine spirit; the substance is always based on "Principles".
Therefore, an individual person, or corporate citizen, must possess substance by Origin; or re-possess substance by means of a Resurrection; either way, a firm claim must be made on one's intrinsic weight.
A substantial Nation bears its name, therefore, amongst other nations, by consisting of individual entities, both private and public citizens who lay a judicious claim to their respective weights.
[ TRADE FORMULA ]
FOR THERE TO BE SUFFICIENT evidence of a balanced scale, a nation must nourish all its righteous weights; and by favouring its individuals, a nation trains its eye on all of its citizenry. If you would like to express it as a "Gift", it's Ok. If you would like to extend it to a "Gift of Gab", it's Alright.
And if the nation desires to put a "Patriotic Garb" on every citizen, then it would be in order too, for it to permit a "Free Trade Pass" in every region. The end comes together, in one thing, but it is collectively called, "Gain".
[ GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT ]
And if the truth be told, let it be in the open, that a nation begins with one man. If he's a common man, it is often that he thinks there are no choices available to him, because they have been taken by others; but if he's an uncommon man, he often makes a choice for himself, inspite of none.
The message of the Pilgrim Fathers is not lost on the latter, because there are no limits to pioneering, except there be bureaucratic bottlenecks. Therefore, there are no limits to the exploitation of his God-given Rights. The only other constraints to pioneering, which the former, the common man, may not quickly recognize, are non-bureaucratic, and these are "Talents", as well as, "Principles".
If America stands tall, in the presence of God, with two feet like those of humans, it would be on Liberty Island where it is surrounded by ships bringing Immigrants who are looking to benefit from the genuine principles of Enterprise.
If there's a first principle about Life, then there's a second principle that guarantees the Best Life, and the latter entails a communion with the Master-Mind. If we must say it unequivocally, the Pilgrim Fathers were adventurers, and risk-takers, but Leaders of Thought — and, they seemed to be the first out of the "Old Country", to read the Bible the right way; the foremost to invent an intellectually-guided aristocracy, by favouring a "Diversity of Talents"; then of course a practical democracy, of "Ways and Means".
So, it was not enough for the Pilgrim Fathers to hold the Bible. It was not enough for them to handle only doctrines, or sectarian precepts. However, it would be deemed sufficient, even now, to meditate on the broader concepts hidden by the Biblical Letters, to read between the lines thereof, and think about why the Creator made man in the first place, then woman in the second place. Mean while, there was already a Garden of Eden, prepared as a place, of comfortable Living.
We're in the Information, Communications, and Technology ( ICT ) age, and we should consider the Bible first, as Information, coming from the Master-Creative. We can hold the Scripture, its form, as if it were a "Tablet" out of Silicon Valley, and think about its "Content" as the primer on all our millennial conversations. In it, are principles, still underlying our political, social, and economic "Freedom".
There were many of such premises, as well as promises, that the Pilgrim Fathers appropriated from the Scripture, to set America on its path of Freedom. Aside from the spiritual assignment of the pulpit, it was also considered their earnest duty, to cut the worldly chains off people in the "Old Country".
Hence, America is a poet's nomenclature. It is not the unsung appellation of one nation, but the celebration of A Melting Pot of Nations. All its ornaments, are derivable, but from its plurality of people, the "United States".
It refuses to be a weightless country.
Ralph Waldo Emerson referred to it from long ago as, "Man Thinking". Therefore, the young American has the inclinations of a scholar, but with due recognition of all his innate "Talents". And if he would start out as a Bible Scholar, it's not out of place.
Nontheless, there's a Real World inside the Scripture, waiting to be unravelled by Earthly Man. It involves human characters, therefore, it is a mundane world; but as human beings also possess spirit, it is also, an immortal World. However, Man has been granted the Holy Spirit, to lead his Mind, into the secrets borne by the Universal Soul in all its vastness — and, ramifications. This comes first as the soul of the individual, then the soul of the nation, then the soul of the universe.
"One's Self I Sing,
A single, separate person...
What I assume,
You shall also assume...
For every particle belonging to me,
As well belongs to you...
Sing me the song,
That comes from the soul of America...
( Walt Whitman )
MICROSOFT™ IS AN ENTERPRISE ; and if you would please your curiosity one step further, it's Technology. Nontheless, the enterpriser is a Man, by the name of Bill Gates. The Work Ethic is only a matter of personal perception, in this case, an idea is begotten by an individual, and assisted to take shape as a commercial citizen. Likewise, the company's products are made user-friendly, that is, adapted to the user of a Personal Computer ( PC ).
Thus the individual is the fundamental unit of the Work Ethic,
and therefore, any Work Place.
But when a new beat starts in the workplace, it is driven by intangible principles, that is, before it is converted into material products which attract the marketplace, with a price range that eventually translates into money. But then, money cannot speak for itself, it requires Man to think on its behalf. And if they be Godly men, so be it. Man must make an honest Living, by means of his Earthly Calling.
Some men have mastered letters, and some men have mastered numbers. There are others too, and women too, who seek to master both. But in every case, let Freedom Ring!
[ INCOME PER CAPITA ]
However, money's natural rights of passage have been dented on the by-ways of trade, by the lukewarm bureaucrats of government, acting in conjunction with their delinquent counterparts of the statecraft. The progression is usually born at the federal reserve bank, where it is printed; then it is bred in offices, and expanded by the commercial activities of stores, some extending far beyond local borders. But money must get to the household, it must reach the respective members of the family. It is a continuous participle of the people's Standard of Living.
The Spirit does not have a sole possession over human life — and the Soul is arguably where the human entity meets, in unison, that is Spirit cohabiting with the Body, here on Earth. And, Man's nourishment is in two parts, one part being achieved by means of Material Things. Some of which are the results of Artistic Creativity.
But, instead of merely manufacturing goods, let us also shore up services. In the same place where we nurture our gold mining ways, and our oil drilling manners, we can also flow with qualitative "Content", and ultimately think in terms of Platinum-winning Trademarks.
Apart from a mental immersion in public work, there's also the need for a fingertip feel of one's private niche. As a creative, if anyone decides to depict the texture of an individual citizen, let him also delve into the national psychic space, demonstrating its Pop Statistics, manifesting the Cross-Country user-friendliness of its Products.
The Congress happens to be a long walk towards freedom, same as 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Both of them constitute pillars of American hope, to each Citizen, including the Capitalist. But the Supreme Court must keep a legal watch over the former two. From the Capitol Hill to the White House, dixie man's legs require a long walk, however, this is with a great dose of grey matter between his ears.
In America, various ethnicities have chosen to converge into a Nation-State, and the president recognizes that he is first of all, an individual, but of course on duty for All. With all respects due, he is primus inter pares, first amongst equals. Therefore, all citizens must lend him their ears, including the other members of the Executive, the members of the Legislative and Judicial arms, plus the members of the Fourth Estate, that is, if they must truly help him, as patriots.
In AFRICA, it should be the same, or better.
For example, a Budget is the most important instrument of governance. It is a country's bill of lading, as well as its bill of receipts, both of these instruments are carefully arranged on a Script that is usually perturbed by astronomical numbers. But as the president pays attention to his speech, he shows equal patriotic homage to the Letters.
On the national platform, the budget delivery is not an everyday rhetoric, and it deserves the president's undivided attention, more than other participants may give respect to his labelled clothes, or properly-laced shoes. It's an oral recitation, and for Christ's Sake, he must be prepossessed by its literary "Beat". It should be an annual delicacy in the people's hearing, digestible as Kentucky Fried Chicken bones at Christmas, without any modicum left to give stress to capitalism in the New Year.
If the budget portends an abundant inward flow of exchange currency, it would be another delicious Christmas in the offing, and that's to the hearing, every citizen's "Beat".
[ TRADE SURPLUS ]
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