Category: A Memory Or Two

His Parachute

11/15/2011

"So much is said," Allister said, "and, furthermore, so much happens and so much is done. How can we possibly remember it all?"

With so much already stored in his brain, Allister feared he would run out of grey matter for important things- the names of new friends or the location of buried treasure.

So, he took to wearing a parachute. The rip chord dangled loosely at his side, ready for a sudden pull should Allister come in contact with a piece of information that he did not need nor want to remember.

Here is just a sample of what Allister remembered:
(in no particular order (other than alpha-numeric))

-0 C or 32 F = water freezing.
-.367 = Ty Cobb's batting average.
-1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, etc, etc, etc, infinity.
-3 leaves = poison ivy.
-4 leaves = four leaf clover.
-8 glasses of water and an apple a day.
-100 C or 212 F = water boiling.
-100 Years War = 116 years.
-1215 = Magna Carta
-330-1453 = Byzantine Empire
-Aa, Bb, Cc, Dd, Ee, Ff, Gg, Hh, Ii, Jj, Kk, Ll, Mm, Nn, Oo, Pp, Qq, Rr, Ss, Tt, Uu, Vv, Ww, Xx, Yy, Zz
-Arbor Day (last Friday in April)
-Armistice Day (11/11/1918 at 11am)
-August 20th = Dad's Birthday.
-Banana Bread: Unsalted butter, 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (plus more for dusting), 1 teaspoon baking soda, pinch of salt, 2 large eggs, 1/2 cup canola oil, 1 cup sugar, 2 large very ripe bananas, confectioners' sugar (also for dusting).
-Bicycle (1839), Unicycle (Sometime Before), Tricycle (Sometime After).
-Cheetah accelerates from 0 to over 100 km/h (62 mph) in 3 seconds.
-Claude Joseph Vernet's Morning 1760.
-Dog wagging tail = good
-George Eliot = Mary Evans
-Greenland = ice.
-Henry VIII had six wives.
-The Hunchback Of Notre Dame does not end happily.
-Iceland = green.
-Marianas Trench = Deepest Part of Ocean.
-Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday
-Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown: St. Louis Cardinals (1903), Chicago Cubs (1904-1912), Cincinnati Reds (1913), St. Louis Terriers (1914), Brooklyn Tip-Tops (1914), Chicago Whales (1915), Chicago Cubs (1916)
-My candle burns at both ends; It will not last the night; But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends—It gives a lovely light.
-Nails on Chalkboard = painful. Chalk on Chalkboard = slightly less painful.
-North star is brightest.
-"Not all vampires are evil. Some are just thirsty." -Solomon Gates-
-Oxygen in, Carbon Dioxide out.
-Peregrien Falcon is fastest animal (325 km/h or 202 mph).
-Photosynthesis makes plants green. Photography makes people black and white (or sepia).
-Rattlesnake wagging tail = bad.
-Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet
-Red litmus paper turns blue under basic conditions.
-September 8th = Mom's birthday.
-Step forward with the left foot + Right foot step sideways to the right + Bring your left foot next to your right foot + Step back with the right foot + Step back sideways with the left foot + Bring your right foot next to your left foot = Waltz
-Van Gogh's left ear.
-Vowels- a, e, i, o, u (sometimes y).
-Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, JQ Adams, Jackson, Van Buren, Harrison, Tyler, Polk, Taylor, Fillmore, Pierce, Buchanan, Lincoln, Johnson, Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Arthur, Cleveland, B Harrison, Cleveland, McKinley, Roosevelt, Taft, Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover, F Roosevelt, Truman.
-What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore-- And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over-- like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags like a heavy load. Or does it explode?
-"Whatsoever begins in your heart is always possible." -Uncle Tugboat-
-"Worthwhile resolutions quite often seem impossible. But, before discarding them, remember that to grow they must begin in the heart." -Mr. Row-
- ? = Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, and Allister's birthdays.

But, the mind is a funny thing (as is wind resistance) and why it selects what it retains is far beyond human understanding (which seems a very strange thought). It also memorizes far beyond the speed of a parachute. And, time and time again, Allister would find himself faced with a piece of information he wanted to store inside his crowded brain (the laugh of a new friend, the final goodbye of an old one, or (of course) a treasure map). And his brain would spring forth a clean piece of grey matter from some deep and dark and assumedly-forgotten place just in time to wrap itself around the memory and bring it into his vault of conscience.

So, Allister did not need to be afraid of random knowledge or trivia. Instead, he put faith in his brain to know its own limits and gave his parachute to some wandering pilot.

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The Tree On His Back

6/29/2011

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One dark morning when Allister was no longer a child, he walked up the steps to the home where he had been a child and stood on the then-leaning porch.

The paint was chipped, the windows were cracked, and the interior was dusty and hollow. Gone were the giggles and the games and the questions about growing and sharing and being an adult.

Soon it would all be razed and concrete would cover the grass and his childhood steps. And that was life and progress and Allister had settled his heart to move on and give in to what was inevitable.

Because that was evolution and there was parking that needed to be done.

Allister looked out at the oak that had always stood so tall and so strong in his family’s front yard. He stepped down from the porch and stood beneath the oak’s many arms, high above him. And the old oak welcomed Allister as if he had never left. Because the oak had never left.

Allister climbed up a large bough, curled himself against the trunk high above the ground, and pondered. It was all too impossible to fight. The opposing forces were so strong and Allister felt so weak. So alone. He traced the carved initials of a pair of secret lovers whom the oak had carried high above and kept secret. And Allister thought how strange it was that the oak had once let both swings and nooses dangle from its branches. But, in the end, the oak had never learned to tie. It only knew how to hold.

And, so, the oak cradled Allister and sighed a warm and bark-y sigh so slight that it could have been mistaken for breeze. And the oak breathed in what Allister did not need and breathed out what Allister needed most.

And Allister did what he came to do.

He climbed back down to the oak’s base and grabbed hold of the largest root that poked a branchy knuckle above the ground. And Allister pulled until the root uprooted. He slung the uprooted arm over his shoulder and, with both hands, uprooted the next biggest root and draped it over the opposite shoulder.

Allister pulled with all his might and the tree loosened its grip on the ground and uprooted.

And some will say that this is impossible (as some tend to do), but when people are pushed to extremes, the impossible is more than possible.

The impossible is necessary.

(And, for those who fixate on the impossible, I ask you kindly to please stop reading here. There is a multitude of text to read, some proven and some contrived, that will reinforce your opinion of our limits and our predetermined ends. And you are most welcome to it. But, that is elsewhere. Beyond this paragraph is an openness that you are not welcome to tamper with. And some will say that we are dreamers, that we are not living in reality. But, beyond this paragraph is the understanding that the only difference in dreams and reality is the position of the eyelids. Beyond this paragraph, is a collective widening of the heart and opening of the eyes to what is more. What we have been given and what we are to protect. The opening of fourteen billion eyelids will make the dream real. But, it takes only the opening of two to begin. And you are not welcome to close the eyes of a dreamer. We are dreaming for you, too.)

And Allister, with the oak’s two strongest roots over his shoulders, pulled the tree away from the land of their youth, all the long and short and thin and thick wooden root tentacles dragging miles behind him.

Where did he take the oak? I do not know. I keep looking, believe me. And I will know it when I find it. You will, too. It’s that towering oak with a swing dangling from each and every branch.

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His Parachute

The Tree On His Back

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His Parachute

The Tree On His Back﻿

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The Tree On His Back

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