This may indeed be the first recorded death of the BP Gulf Disaster. It is a photo of a bird clinging to the side of a boat offshore on May 9th, 2010.
It has no idea what has happened. All it knows is that something is changing it's life for the worse. It can not fly, it is suffacating in movement. It is at the side of a boat begging to be helped!
It is the closest thing a wild thing will come to prayer. Head up and begging.
One of the coolest things I own is an ancient Roman dice cube. It is cut from a piece of ivory. It has been certified by the curators of Christies Auctions out of London as a "BC Item". 200 years BC. I bought it over the telephone many years ago.
Why? I suppose it has to do with my fascination with Divination. One of the oldest forms of divination was rolling dice. It was also one of the most vague forms of Divination.
In it's most ancient form, four rolls of the dice were completed. Keep in mind I use the word "dice" anciently. Multiple rolls of a single cube was known as rolling dice.
I have always been amazed how tools that started out as a form of divination always seem to result in games of chance and gambling. I have in my life found that the most degenerate gamblers are also those who read Tarot, or divine with dice, or numbers, or even stars.
My research into "Divination With Dice" has led me to conclude that those who did such viewed life as being seperated into 6 different phases. They are:
1. Birth
2. Consistency
3. Growth
4. Maturation
5. Fulfillment
6. Renewal
Now to Divine with Dice requires a total of 4 rolls. The first roll would take you to a consideration of one of 6 aspects of life as described above. Life is full of the dualities, the ups the down, the light and the shadows. So the second roll of the dice would be the positive aspect of the situation again using the list above. The third roll would be the negative aspects of the situation. The final roll would be the "conduct required" roll again based upon the list above. Like all forms of divination things will be vague and left to astound the imagination.
So lets give this ancient dice rolling a try shall we? Lets look at the most trying situation facing us today. The oil spill in the Gulf. Our first roll would consider how it effects life. (I am now going to roll my overly expensive and ancient cube:
Rolling and tossing.....
1. Birth, this gushing is definately a new birth. It will lead to an entirely new way of viewing how life is to be lived in the Gulf Coast. Not every birth is joyful, but every birth leads us to a new way of thinking.
Now the positive sides of this Birth:
Rolling and Tossing.....
2. Consistency. This roll speaks of the positive. Survival is the most constent aspect of life. We also need to consider the consistency of screw ups. Humanities history is filled with them. The positive side of consistency can scream volumes about what we allow to be normal.
Now the negative or shadow side of this original roll of birth:
Rolling and Tossing.....
6. Renewal. Now this is somewhat frightening. The negative aspects of the Oil Spill in the Gulf is "renewal". Almost and so damn close to transition. "New and Improved" is substantially different than the weather tested "standard". Considering this is the shadfow side? "Renewal" will be painful.
Now our final roll, the "conduct required" roll:
Rolling and tossing.....
4. Maturation. Everytime we mature we lose the benifits and innocence of Childhood. I am mindful of the grandfather who enticed his child to jump from a height to be caught in loving arms. Then again to encourage a child to jump a second time to step away and allow the child to hit the floor. Explaining that when caught is how life should be, when hitting the floor is how life is. Maturity demands we think beyond innocence, we see things for what they are. When you are 14 nothing is like it was when you 9. Accept it.
So there is ancient dice divination. Vague, but definately thought worthy.
I love this photo. It is a picture of the newest Bank Robber to hit Western North Carolina. It was originally offered up to the public by the Law Enforcement Community to help identify him.
Look at his hand....you reckon he was unaware that he is giving the finger to the camera? I just love it!
Two thousand years ago when Jesus himself walked upon this planet, the only people he saw fit to physically beat the shit out of were the money changers in the temple. The bankers of his day. All these years later our bankers confirm that the human condition has not changed in 2000 years.
I recently lobbied my family to stop doing business with The Bank of America. It was a big deal. I have carried on a lifelong relationship with The Bank of America. My family carried on a generational relationship. This last March, my family shut it down, accounts from Arkansas to Maine and every state in between up the Eastern Seaboard. Trust me they felt it, it was a topic of discussion in boardrooms down in Charlotte.
I know this because of two things. One an executive VP from Bank of America called me. I enjoyed the phone call I got to rant to him about how his bank got tax payers to socialize losses while profits were still privatised. I got to tell him how his bank took over 200 billion from tax payers in the tarp bail out and than instantly raised credit card interest rate on those who could least afford it, while investing billions in China!
The second reason I know this is because every month since I and my family cancelled our accounts we all still get statements from the Bank of America that are both frustrating and comical. Seriously, I get a Statement on account number 0006 5491 43** (my deletion, gotta be careful). Everyone in my family gets the same account statement. Somehow 12 bucks gets metaphysically thrown into the account to keep it active but at the end of the statement the balance is zero? Hey the accounts have been closed for months now. Yet we are carried on somehow? These statements scream volumes about the integrity and business practises of the Bank of America.
I got to recently tell an executive VP from the Bank of America that he shouldn't be talking to me. That we no longer have a business relationship. He should be talking to someone from China, who might care about what he has to say. I got to hang up on him and I loved it. It was a multi 7 figure hang up. ROFLMAO.
If a family from the Northeast who just happen to have a vowel at the end of their last name was to conduct business like the Bank of America does? Well it would contribute to prison overcrowding. That is where these guys belong...it is why Jesus would beat them even today.
It is why I love an honest bank robber who flips them the bird while stealing from them like they steal from us.
