52 Stories in 52 Weeks: ## 34 The Dance of Jason And Jacqueline.
By: Mr. George D. Patnoe., Jr.'s Ambidextrous Brain + Spiritual Mind.
Every weekday, Jason always walked the city’s streets in his pinstripe business suit, while he carried his hand made Italian black briefcase. The briefcase contained a small laptop computer along with copies of financial reports about and from companies all around the world. His job as a financial / investment analyst / adviser was a job he carried within his mind all the time, as well as in his briefcase. As an expert on international economics and finance, his job demanded that he know how every changing event in the world that might have an impact on the bottom line of the companies he watched. He was a busy man with little time for a personal life.
Every workday, He walked on the cement sidewalks after he left the subway or after he stepped out of his company’s shiny black limousine or a simple taxi just as the other millions of people who lived and worked in the cities around the world. Jason was a workaholic, just like the millions of people who lived for their jobs. The city presented Jason and his rich friends the pleasures and the luxury of the best night life, which included the opera, classical music concerts, and the ballet, along with the best seats to all sporting events. These are the nighty activities for the rich and he sophisticated minded, or the poor and simple minded, or to anyone who enjoyed the artists who loved to perform in front of crowds.
But a moment had arrived in Jason’s life when he realized that he might be missing something that money could not give him. After dealing and wheeling with billions of worldly dollars, Jason began to wonder if there were new experiences for him, away from the world of money. He wondered how so many people could not live for money; like the opera performers, and the classical music musicians, and especially the ballet dancers. Jason had seen children begin ballet training at the age of three or four years of age. Some of them went to ballet class to make their parents happy, while a few just dreamed of becoming world known ballet dancers. Jason never understood it. After all, a singer have their voices to sing with anytime they can, like in the car or in the shower. And the musicians could play their musical instruments when they were home or at the park, or even as street performers during their time off. But ballet dancers usually do not start dancing on the city streets just for the fun of it. Nor could they dance in their cars or in their showers, and probably not in their apartments.
One day, long after the financial markets had closed for the day, Jason asked the taxi driver to drive him to a new restaurant in the big city. As he stepped out of the taxi, he saw the restaurant’s gold frame door. He was paying the taxi driver when he looked up at the lit widows across the street from the new restaurant. There were the heads and bodies bopping up and down. He noticed the white, worn out door across the street. When he read the black painted words on the door, DANCERS ENTRANCE, he felt a different kind of hunger, a strange curiosity. Jason temporally put on hold his hunger for food, and his curiosity for the new Italian restaurant. Instead, he walked across the street and opened the door. He walked upstairs as he wondered why he was walking up the stairs to watch the ballet dancers practicing their steps and dance movements.
The stairway enclosed Jason’s sense of vision, but he heard the music engulf his ears, and his mind. Confronting his ears were the seeming drum beats of feet jumping up and down over and over again. Jason walked into the waiting room, only to see it empty of people, but not of the trophies the school’s dancers had won over the years. He looked through the glass to observe the dancers practicing their dance movements, over and over again in their black dancer’s clothes. But unexpectedly, the music stopped and everyone clapped their hands. Jason did not want to get caught within the onslaught of dancers who were leaving for the night, but he realized that if he walked down the stairs, he would be caught in their moving sweaty mass anyway. So he moved over to a corner as the sweaty dancers left the room, ignoring Jason. He watched them disappear down the stairs.
He waited for his moment to escape, but the instructor walked out before his could escape her.
‘May I help you?’ asked the instructor.
‘I was just curious about the class.’ the sly Jason replied.
‘We have beginning classes for adults.’ She explained the rates and schedules for adults.
‘Well, maybe, but say; what are doing for dinner? The taxi dropped me off in front of the new restaurant across the street. Would you like to join me?’
The instructor looked at Jason black pinstripe suit and briefcase as she reached out her hand
to introduce herself to Jason. ‘My name is Jacqueline, and your is?’ ‘Jason is my name. I will take that as a yes to dinner.’ ‘Sure.’ Jacqueline said, as she grabbed her ballet bag and her coat.
The restaurant served authentic Italian food, with the most expensive wine that Jacqueline’s mouth had ever slipped in her whole life. Jacqueline was sensing a possibility of some fun away from the ballet world; a world she had devoted her life to ever since she was a little girl. They small talked about life in general, including some of the generalities of the business/financial world and that of the ballet world. But soon, the generalities of money and dance transformed into the softer arena of romance. After a few glasses of red wine, the two worlds collided into the soft mood of the Italian love music. Their worldly differences melted into nothingness as the soft love music carried their worldly hearts and loved into a new direction; that of the love dance.
After a few friendly laughs, Jason unexpectedly stood up and reached out his hand to Jacqueline, ‘Would you give this non-dancer the honor of a dance?’ ‘Sure.’ said a smiley Jacqueline. As Jason and Jacqueline silently danced to the soft music, they both knew that the wine had gone to their heads, but not to their hearts. Somehow, a special moment had arrived between two lonely people in the big city. Separated from the love of money and the love of dance, the two lonely people had met as if by a strange destiny. But it did not matter how they had met, since they were dancing the very old dance of all romantic people. As they danced, Jason silently recalled a song’s lyrics. "Before this dance is though, I think I’ll love you too. I am so happy when you dance with me." They ended their dancing session at the restaurants’ closing time. Jacqueline walked across the street, to her apartment above her dance studio, Jason waved a taxi as he remembered that his work day began very early in the morning. The world of money does not stop for people who love to dance.
The next day, the two city people woke up in their own beds, in their own lives, with their memories. The world of international monies and the world of international dance steps guided the two throughout the day. As Jason worked throughout the day, he kept singing to himself, "I am so happy when you dance with me, along with the other lyrics to the Beatle’s song, "I’m Happy Just To Dance With You."* But Jason remembered the hours of the adult class, so during his rather short lunch break, he ordered some dance clothes, (tights) to be delivered to his office before the closing bell of the Stock Markest. He looked at his gold Rolex watch to so as to not miss the first minute of his first ballet dance lesson. He knew that if he did not like his first dance class, he could always leave the dance studio and walk across to the street to eat at the new Italian restaurant. It seemed like a simple plan, with two simple options.
Jason entered the dance studio after he had changed from his business suit into the black tights that all beginners wear. Beginner ballet students wear tights so the instructor can watch how the knees are positioned, along with other positions of the body. Jacqueline welcomed Jason into the dance studio with, ‘Students, we have a new student today. His name is Jason. Lets all welcome Jason with a round of applause.’ The class clapped for a few seconds before Jacqueline yelled, ‘Ok Jason, just follow along with the class. Just listen to me and follow the person in front of you. Now, lets do a four count of the five Demi-Plie Positions. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four.’ Jacqueline yelled out to the class, after she turned on the music with a remote control in her hand. The special ballet practice music for the studio was off and on as she clicked the remote control buttons.
Jason follow along, just by watching the other students in the mirrored room. Mirrors covered the three walls, so Jason’s eyes could follow anyone as he held onto the black bar that was wrist high, all along the mirrors. Plus, Jacqueline could watch anyone she wanted to see. There was no escape from the instructors eyes. Jacqueline carried the remote control to the music box; so the music was constantly on and then off, with every command that she yelled out to the dance students. The students moved in harmony with each other, like a military group of men who knew what the drill instructor was going to yell out, all performing the same exercises, over and over again.
Jason’s attention was no longer on his potential dinner date. Instead, every fiber in his unexercised body was concentrating on performing every ballet movement as perfectly as he could manage to do without feeling to much pain; even though the five Demi-Plie Positions were simple enough to do. ‘Ok, a four count of Grand Plie. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. One, two three, four. One, two, three, four. Ok great. A four count of Port de bras. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. Ok, great. Now, a four count of Battement Tendu Simple. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. Ok, great. Now, a four count of Battement Tendu Jete. One, two, three, four; for a four count. Ok, great. Now, Grand Battement Jete for a count of four. One, two, three, four; for the count of four. Ok, great. Now, Grand Battement Jete Pointe, for a count of four. One, two, three, four; for a count of four. Ok, great. Now, Grand Battement Jete Pointe for a count of four. One, two, three, four; for a count of four. It went on and on and on. Like a military commander yelling out his commands to his soldiers. Jason felt like he could learn it soon enough.
After an hour, Jason was sweating like he had never sweated before, his heartbeat was faster too, along with some heavy breathing. ‘Lets take a five minute break.’ Jason walked over to his water bottle and he sat down on the clean wooden floor. Jacqueline walked over to him to ask him, ‘How are you holding up for your first class?’ Jason looked up at Jacqueline with a smirk. ‘Fine, just fine. How about dinner after class? Now that I am hungrier than I was before.’ Jacqueline remarked, ‘Well, I do not usually date a student, but since we have already dated, I can make an exception.’ She winked at Jason. ‘See ya after class.’
‘Ok, now. Lets get it together class.’ Everyone quickly walked back to their exact places in the seemingly military line up for ballet students. Ok, great. Now, Battement Soutenu for a count of four. One, two, three, four; for a count of four. Ok, great. More and more as Jason worked his body as never before. Soon thereafter, Jacqueline yelled out, ‘Now, lets work on the simple step routine we worked on last week. Jason, just follow along. ‘Ok, great. Now............’ and so the class went on and on for the last hour of class.
Dinner for the two was quieter than their first dinner date. It was more like a dinner between a financial analyst and a ballet teacher, for the first hour. As they ate their food and drank their wine, Jason had realized that he had forgotten about the world of money for the first time in many years. ‘Wow, it was just like being on drugs or drunk, in the sense of total escapism. No. It was better than that because a person can still think about their problems when drunk or on drugs.’
Jacqueline laughed out loud. ‘I did not realize dancing was better than drugs or drunkenness.’
‘How can anyone think of anything when they are jumping up and down to music, with you ordering them to do this and to do that?’ asked a grinning Jason.
‘You are not supposed to think. You are supposed to feel the music within your soul as you move your body to the physical music that you are listening to. ’
‘You sound like a metaphysical philosopher.’ said Jason.
‘Well, some music does transcend the physical world. And some music does help the mind transcend into a different mental realm, into the realm of sound. When a person hears the musical sounds and they move their bodies to the musical sounds, a kind of harmony or oneness is reached between the mind, the body, and the human soul.’ preached Jacqueline.
Jason asked, ‘Why don’t you preach like that in class?’
‘Because most beginning students think dance is only physical, while the older dancers already know those facts. The beginners have to practice the steps over and over again; until they master the physical steps. But even then, as they are trying to master controlling their bodies’ movements, they are also practicing listening to the music as they move their bodies to the music. So their bodies become one with their minds; the minds that have become one with the music. After a certain time period, their inner being begins to form into a different creature, a creature that can dance to their musical soul. When that happens, people can dance to the physical music with ease because they are really only dancing to the music of their soul, their inner musical soul; that is after they have learned to control their bodies with dance movements.’
Jason took a slip of wine and then he said, ‘And what about dancing to the sound of love?’ He stood up as he reached out to Jacqueline to stand up too. She obliged his teasing request for a dance to the romantic music of the restaurant. They danced for some time, just as two people who were practicing for a bond between their two souls. Jason asked himself, ‘What happens when two soul filled dancers fall in love?’ He did not perceive that Jacqueline was asking the same question because he was thinking to himself, ‘Before this dance is through, I think I’ll love you too. I am so happy when you dance with me.’
The red wine exhilarated their minds. But not because they were not looking for love when they were not exalted into a sense of togetherness by the red wine. At closing time, they walked out into the empty street. Except for a few cars, the cool night winds that glided through the city’s cement sidewalks, the two souls were lightly glided to the city’s park. They walked into the city’s park; a park with its own sidewalks, with candle lit night lights glowing under the darkness of the night. A full moon was partly hidden by the tall maple trees, while the park’s redwood benches were open for all visitors.
The silence of the park began to enter their ears, causing them to leave behind the romantic music of the new Italian restaurant. They sat down on the park bench, holding hands as they looked through the silence of the park. New sounds began to fill their ears, and even their souls. The calm of nature’s night began to enter into their consciousness, just the silence of nature had entered all minds who were open to life on earth.
The stillness of the trees, bushes, flowers, grass, the pond, the stars, the universe, forced a sense of dreamy calm into the two souls. All of their lives, they were so busy either watching the up and down jumps of the global stock markets and earning reports of hundreds of companies or watching the hundreds and thousands and millions of jumps of the thousands of dance steps from the thousands of dance students, they that forgot to ‘take time to smell the roses.’ The roses in the park were still alive at night. Roses never really sleep like humans. No, they just hang out all day, waiting for a human to walk up to them with thoughts like, ‘My oh my. What beautiful roses they are. The red to white to bright yellow. My oh my. The scientists think that the whole universe has been around for 12-15 billions light years, and here we are, looking at the pretty roses on planet earth. How lucky we are to smell the roses, to observe the falling stars, to fall in love, to dance the dance of love.’ That seemed to be the cosmic message of that moment, a message money can never buy for anyone.
Jason held Jacqueline’s hand as the distant black shadow entered the scene. The dark shadow very slowly walked towards the couple. Jason looked at his watch, as he thought to himself, ‘Three am in the morning, on a weekend. Great, what kind of trouble are we in for now? If we get up and walk, I will looked like a panicky little wimp. If we stay, it could be an armed robber or even a murder. What should I, we do? On the other hand, I do not want to spoil the moment, especially if the shadow turns out to be a person taking a night walk.’
Jacqueline asked, ‘Do you want to go now?’
‘Lets wait a few seconds.’ was Jason’s reply.
‘Wait for what? He could be carrying a gun?’ remarked Jacqueline.
‘Maybe I am carrying a gun.’
‘Are you carrying a gun? And what would it matter? Do we want to wait around for trouble.’ Jacqueline said.
Jason replied, ‘If I used the word roses in a sentence, dance your way out of here.’
Jacqueline looked up towards Jason with uncertain eyes. She looked at Jason face. But he was looking straight ahead at the approaching black shadow. Jacqueline became convinced that Jason knew what he was going to do if the black shadow turned out to be trouble, so she relaxed her mind, at bit anyway. But she felt his body become tighter, harder, as his eyes began to beam tighter towards the target. His hand reached inside of his jacket, deep under his armpit. So deep in fact, that Jacqueline remembered movies with gun holsters under the armpit of cops. Jacqueline looked around to see if anyone else was approaching them, and to discover the path she would take in case she had to run for her life.
Jacqueline looked at Jason as he was leaving her behind in his thoughts. She felt more alone as Jason twitched his head, once to the left, twice to the right, and then it was straight again. The black shadow walked so slowly that Jason was allowed to stare at the outline lines of the shadow. Black coat, black pants with big pockets, black sneakers, and a black baseball cap. Even the shadow on the cement elongated the black walking shadow. Jacqueline felt Jason’s heat beating fast even though she was no longer holding his hand. She could smell his animal desire to protect her from danger. She like that, but she had never seen this side of Jason.
She had not seen his animal side of the financial adviser, but she was beginning to see her un-official man take charge of her future. She sat patiently as she felt more and more helpless as the black shadow inched his way forward. ‘What is he waiting for? Can not he walk any faster? What the heck is he looking for? He is walking straight towards us and why is he walking straight towards us? Is he going to rob us? Maybe at gun point? And what is going to happen if Jason pulls out a gun and starts shooting? Cops will be all over the place. I got to go to work tomorrow. Headline news: Two Lovers Get Shot In The Park at 3:15 am. The black shadow disappears off into the night.’
The black shadow was closer now, more like a human being. Jacqueline noticed Jason’s feet change their position, so to stand up fast. The black shadow was now moving his hand to his coat’s button. He snapped the button to let both sides of his jacket fly open. His face smiled, as he said, ‘Good evening folks. It is a nice night to smell the roses.’ A gold chain was clipped to his gold shield. The words, "TO PROTECT AND SERVE’ were as clear as the gun in his own holster. ‘Have a great night.’ The black shadow walked passed Jason and Jacqueline, off into the dark shadows of the city’s park.
‘He took the words right out my mouth.’ Jason laughed.
‘What are you talking about? replied Jacqueline.
‘Remember I told you to dance out of here if I use the word roses?’
‘Oh, sure.’
‘So, lets dance our way out of here.’ Jason said.
He stood up and took her hand, ‘May I have this dance?’ Jacqueline smiled, stood up, and giggled.
Under the nights stars, with the trees, and the flowers, and the bushes, and the grass, and the roses, and even the unseen shadows all looking on the financial advisor and the ballet instructor, they danced their way out of the city park, into a future of destiny.
* The Beatles lyrics to: 'I'm Happy Just To Dance With You.'
(Lennon/McCartney)
Before this dance is through
I think I'll love you too
I'm so happy when you dance with me
I don't want to kiss or hold your hand
If it's funny try and understand
There is really nothing else I'd rather do
Cos I'm happy just to dance with you
I don't need to hug or hold you tight
I just want to dance with you all night
In this world there's nothing I would rather do
Cos I'm happy just to dance with you
Just to dance with you
It's everything I need
Before this dance is through
I think I'll love you too
I'm so happy when you dance with me
If somebody tries to take my place
Let's pretend we just can't see his face
In this world there's nothing I would rather do
Cos I'm happy just to dance with you
Just to dance with you
It's everything I need
Before this dance is through
I think I'll love you too
I'm so happy when you dance with me
If somebody tries to take my place
Let's pretend we just can't see his face
In this world there's nothing I would rather do
I've discovered I'm in love with you
Cos I'm happy just to dance with you
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Larry's Mirrored Glock 17
52 Stories in 52 Weeks: ## 33 Larry’s Mirrored Glock 17
By: Mr. George D. Patnoe., Jr.'s Ambidextrous Brain + Spiritual Mind.
Parking lots can do strange things to people. One moment a person can be sitting in a car drinking coffee and reading the newspaper; while a moment later, he could be pointing a gun at someone’s head to protect himself from a drug dealer or a car thief. But when the action begins, and the guns are being draw from gun hostlers to either protect and / or make an arrest, anything can happen, like seeing a gun in a mirror. Larry was always prepared for the action. Some arrests are easy and simple, while other arrests are dangerous and completely insane. In any case, every time a gun is drawn out if its hostler, the possibly of death and killing is in the air; because bullets wing and zoom through the air at very fast speeds. Many people would take that statement for granted, but a modern day bullet traveling faster than 1220 feet per second is nothing to laugh about, even for a second.
As was sometimes the case, Larry sat in his car for long periods just waiting for the criminals to enter the trap. On a cold winter night in late November, everything was still and slow, except for the winter’s cold and blustery winds blowing off the ocean. Larry sat in his car, taking slip from his warm coffee cup as the two radios ready for action. The car radio and the patrol radio.
The car radio played some soft classical music, on the very low volume, while the cold winter’s winds were blowing over the car. At night, the drab black and gray air could and would hide the dangerous men who wore black coats and black pants, just as if they wanted to hide within the dark and cold air, within their own thoughts of death. Only a few really stupid criminals wanted to play with death on cold, windy winter nights in New York, but some people loved catching criminals. The patrol radio was silent, except for the anticipation from the team.
Larry and the team were waiting for those dangerous men; no matter what form they would take. Larry sat in the movie theater’s parking lot, because it sat as an open arena for danger. Where dangerous criminals could walk or drive in from almost any direction from the surrounding city, even though a steel fence surrounded the building. The Sunrise movie theater was only a few feet from Jamaica Queens, New York. While the movie watchers were watching their movies in the 20 movie complex, they had no idea how many movie scenes had been played in the rear parking lot of Sunrise. The Sunrise movie theater was like no other movie theater in America. More car thieves had been caught in Sunrise’s parking lot, than in most parking lots in America. Mainly, because the team had the unique position to trap the car thieves like a spider catches flies. Yet, as the sun would rise in the morning, a new day bought a normal life of light to those on the team. But at night, everything changed as only darkness surrounded the theater and its parking lot.
It was one of those precognitive moments for Larry. Larry turned off the car’s radio because he felt a moment was arriving, a moment that the cold winds would drag in from Jamaica Queens, New York. The silence was nice, but it was strange. The silence changed from one form to another, as if the silence was calling out to Larry’s mind to be prepared for the arriving criminals. He listened to the winds, to the strange air, for just a moment. He knew it was arriving, but he did not know how it would arrive. It seemed to be arriving as if it was a ghost in the air, only this ghost would be in the form of skin and bones, if not two or three or more sets of skin and bones. People who might be carrying guns, like the TEC 9 semi-automatic machine pistol.
Larry’s car was positioned in the rear parking lot of the building, by the end of the theater. On the other end of the theater was a trailer where another team member was also looking out with binoculars. There was only one entrance for all cars to enter the parking lot and there was only one exit for the cars to exit the parking lot. They were connected to each other as one, under a street light. The drug dealers and car thieves who entered the entrance were unaware of the trap they were driving into, just as the fly that flies into the spider’s web. Car thieves were always in for a big surprise. Larry and the team loved catching car thieves; they might have done it for free if they had enough hours in a week to play those dangerous games. Those who had been caught in the team’s web, would never forget it. Even those who had walked into the parking lot trap had no idea what they were walking into; their moment of freedom before jail. The game had been played out countless numbers of times. The game of bad guys walking into the bears den, with only a very slight chance of escape, had been played out with every real life practice run.
Sunrise Theater is very long white brick building that was close to the Sunrise highway. It blocked the entrance and the exit that was on one end of the building, and every driver had to drive around the rear of the building to exit the parking lot. Then, they also had to pass the front of the building, which was another trap for the unsuspected car thieves. Plus, a tall steal fence surrounded the whole parking lot, forcing all cars to drive in one grand circle around Sunrise’s parking lot, being watched by the profession team. Once a stolen car or car thief was spotted, they were usually marked as car thieves long before they found the car they were going to steal.
Larry looked at his Glock 17, just to make sure it was still in its hostler. A silly thing to do really, but he knew the Glock 17 made a statement to any car thief that would see it in Larry’s hand. A Glock 17 is a modern day gun. It is modern because it is made from high tech polymer. It holds 17 bullets, plus the extra bullet clips that also hold 17 bullets. It is used by law enforcement all over the world. It is a modern day gun for many reasons. The cowboy guns were made out of heavy steel and they hold only six bullets. 17 bullets versus 6 bullets might not seem much to the common people; but in a real gun fight, especially against two or more criminals, more bullets are obviously better for all law enforcement personnel.
Then he checked his backup gun with a pat on its steel frame. It was one of those six shooters that was made out of steel and it held only six bullets. Of course, modern day bullets are very different the bullets of the cowboy day. Yet, the advantage to the old cowboy gun is that there is less of a possibility of the gun jamming up, or not shooting. He moved the hand radio closed to his body as he looked around the parking lot. He looked at the trailer that was located at the other side of the long parking lot. There was no action, but Larry hoped that the man inside was awake and not sleeping from the boredom of the Wednesday night. Weekend’s were always busier because there were more cars to choose from, but car thieves liked to steal cars on week nights too. Larry sensed that even the cold air was waking up to the action that would be soon arriving in its dry, crispy page. When the air started to predict the motions of the future, Larry knew that too. He sat up from his stalled sitting.
He looked up at the roof of the long building. He could not see the head of the lookout guy who was lying down on the roof, with a pair of binoculars in his hand. But he knew that he would be hardly sleeping, even as he was wrapped in his warm body suit. The cold winds would still tingle his face with the memories of opening the freezer for some ice cream in the summer time. The guy on the roof was handy to have around as a watch out. He could see almost everything on the ground, but he relied on people to listen to his every word when he spoke into the radio. The team were always waiting for any kind of real action, as they waited in a relaxed state of mind, for that constant stillness in their minds. It was a stillness of readiness. A mind full of calm stillness was needed when bullets were whizzing through the air. In one split second, bullets could be flying through the air, and everyone would know what to do. But being a wild, confused mind would not help the bullets hit their target.
Everyone had a radio. It was realized that a radio was almost as important as a gun and handcuffs. The radio could be silent for hours until a few words were uttered over the airwaves. When words were indeed sent through the airwaves, when the first sound of a human’s voice was blurted through the speakers, everyone stopped what they were doing and listened to very word. Usually, there was no time to repeat descriptions and commands.
Everyone was waiting for the unspoken danger that was arriving; although they could not sense it like Larry. Larry twisted in his car’s seat as his blood began to flow through his body. What is it? he asked himself.
Larry saw the gray and black colored car drive pass him. He looked at the two males who were dressed in their dark clothes, as they tried to hide their faces in the darken car. Larry slid down in his car seat, pretending to be a sleeping bum. There was nothing special about the car, until it drove around a second time. There were plenty of empty parking spaces on this Wednesday night, so what was these two dark individuals up to? Larry grabbed his radio to call it in, but the dark car left the parking lot. Larry was going to start his car, but he knew that the car’s lights would give him away, so he waited. While he prepared for the questionable but definite action that would soon take place, Larry saw the car drive by him a third time. He radioed in the fact.
‘Guys, a gray and black car has driven around three times.’ There was silence on the radio. No response? thought Larry. Larry pushed the radio button once again. ‘That means they have been in and out of the parking lot three times.’ Everyone woke up from their doubt.
‘Hey Larry, good call. The car is parked next to a car and they have their car hood open already. The other guy is working on the other car. Larry and the others knew that was a trick of car thieves. They would park next to a car that they wanted to steal, and open the hood of their car. One guy would pretend to work under his car’s hood so he could be a watch out for the other guy who was working on the car that they wanted to steel.
Larry knew that within seconds, the two men would be jumping into their unmarked cars and they would be circling around to the rear. The two cars in the front would be leaving the front of the building to trap the would be stolen car, if they were quick enough. One car would be going around one side of the building, while the other car would be going around the other side of the building; in order to block the car (s) from escape. Larry put his hand on the car’s key to turn it, but he waited. He knew that the car thieves might hear his car’s engine and he did not want to scare the guys away from their last moment of freedom. It was almost show time, but time changes when a gun is being withdrawn from it holster. A magical moment of the mind, of the brain. Everything is moving faster than ever, but the mind, the brain sees everything in slow time. Step by step action.
Larry saw one undercover car drive by him, and he still waited for a few seconds to turned the car’s key. He felt the moment and the turned the car’s key. The car started fast for a cold dark winter night. He put the car in drive, and he stepped on the gas pedal. He drove behind the undercover car, driving down the parking lot with a greed for speed, for part of the action. He secretly hoped that his partners would leave some fun for him. As he drove up to the scene, he watched one of his partners handcuffing the car thief. The other guy had somehow entered his car.
Larry drove up in front of the stolen car to stop only a few inches from the stolen car’s bummer. Larry hopped out his car and he stepped with both feet on the cold dark tar. The cold winds hit his face, but he was as warm as on a summer day because he was not aware of cold or warmth. He was aware of the moment. He starred at the scene as he analyzed what he had to do next. He saw people starring at him, but they too were a frizzy vision as his eyes concentrated on the one car what was not trapped. He did not feel the cold wind as he hand swung around to his gripe his gun, the Glock 17. His mind was far away from the cold, or even at death, as he grabbed the Glock’s handle. He quickly pulled the Glock out of its holster and swung it around in front of eyes.
His eyes never even blinked at the guy who was driving the car. Larry raised the Glock to eye level so he could look down its sights. He loudly yelled out, ‘Police! Freeze.’ Somehow, Larry knew that guy was not going to freeze. A moment of silence between Larry and the driver glared into each others eyes. A moment of questions. A pause in the game between a good guy and a bad guy. Larry sensed no danger as his vision expanded to the on lookers who were starring at him and the real life movie scene that was transpiring behind the Sunrise Movie Theater.
Larry knew what they were thinking. "Is he going to pull the trigger? Is he going to shoot that guy."
Larry noticed their fuzzy faces as they stood frozen in the cold air, starring at him. They were frozen not because of the cold winds, but because they knew they could not control Larry’s trigger finger. It would be Larry’s decision to pull the trigger of the Glock 17. As the seconds ticked on, they watched Larry’s statuesque body as it was frozen still, with the Glock 17 pointed at the car thief’s head.
Larry’s mind was not frozen as it raced through the numerous possibilities that might take place within the next few minutes. As his eyes looked through the Glock’s sights, his mind was racing with different concepts. His mind had split into two. ‘If I shoot his guy, think of all the paper work, and the possibility of a grand jury investigation. Not to mention a law suit by who knows who. Is this guy going to be stupid or what? Great, who might be taking video of this scene?’ These were lighting fast concepts of instead of real logical thinking. There was no time for a sit down with your mind when you have a gun pointed at someone’s head because he has a weapon of his own. A ton of steel car can not move as fast as nine millimeter bullet, but it was still a weapon when driven by a criminal who wanted to remain free of jail. Larry was not in the mood to jump over the car as he might in the summer time.
He saw the car thief’s smile widen as he backed up his stolen car and he rammed it into Larry’s unmarked car. Larry’s foot crossed over his other foot as he started to move this body to the side of the approaching car. A car which was now a weapon in the eyes of the driver and of Larry, because he did not freeze as he was ordered to stop. Instead, the car thief was driving the car just as if it was a trigger of a gun. Normal people would not argue with a gun, but criminals have been known to do anything to escape a jail sentence. The car’s bumper dragged along side of the car for two feet before it founds it way clear of the unmarked car.
Larry saw the car thief’s face as it looked serious enough, but then it was gone. Larry’s mind was not looking at a clear windshield, with no one to shoot at. The guy had ducked under the steering wheel as he stepped on the gas pedal. Larry knew that he could have pulled the trigger if the bullets would have hit a target, but since he was now looking at the clear glass of a car with no observable head, he had only one choice to save himself from the moving weapon. He stepped aside with the grace of a ballet dancer, even though his legs were trained as a martial arts expert for many years.
Larry’s Glock 17 was still pointed at the car as he looked at the car. As the car began to pass Larry, the car’s driver popped up his head, so he could drive the car. Maybe the car thief thought he was going to hit Larry, but Larry was really quick on his feet. The driver slower down the car to almost a stop; maybe to get a look at Larry’s facial expression. Larry was only an inch away from the car as he looked at the driver with the Glock 17 pointed straight at the guy’s head. Larry knew that he was out of danger, so he would have no legal status to pull the trigger. He also did not know how many people were watching the scene. There could be so many accounts of the shooting even if Larry cried self-defense. For some unknown reason, the car thief almost stopped the car for a couple of seconds, but seemed like minutes within Larry’s mind. Time slowed.
Larry quickly moved his body closer to the car’s window with the Glock 17 in the air. Larry looked into the driver’s window as the car thief gleamed a smile at Larry. Larry became increasingly conscious of his Glock 17. Larry moved his head closer to the widow to get a look at the car thief’s face. As if Larry was dancing on a stage as a ballet dancer, in one flowing ballet motion of his arm, the Glock 17 was also aimed an inch from the window, pointed only two feet from the car thief’s head. Larry’s eyes beamed into the car with the thrill of the hunter hunting the criminal. As the car so slowly crawled, next to Larry body, Larry moved his Glock 17 even closer to the window, almost touching the glass.
So there it was, the glare of the Glock 17 in the window. Larry looked into the car as he noticed the Glock’s reflection. The black Glock 17 that he held in his hand was reflected in the window’s glass mirror; just as if someone else was holding Glock 17. As he looked at the car thief, his eyes blinked over for just a second at the Glock’s 17 reflection, just before he blinked back to the guy’s face. He knew that if he had pulled the Glock’s trigger, he would have seen the bullet’ blasts exit the Glock’s barrel and he would have seen the bullets crash into the window’s glass. He would have heard the Glock’s blast in his ear before he would have heard the bullets hitting and breaking the glass window, just as he would have felt the glass hit his face, just as he would have seen the bullets enter the guy’s head, just as he would have felt the guy’s blood splashing on his face too. Bullets and glass in his face, as well as in his memory.
The psychology of killing another human being would indicated that killing another human being is not a good memory to own before one leaves planet earth for heavenly adventures; especially when you had a mirrored movie of the kill to reinforce the memory.
Larry also saw his face’s reflection in the glass’s mirror, as his mind was raced in circles with so many concepts as time slowed down. Time did slow down within Larry’s mind. He felt as if he was soul searching faster than the speed of light. He had heard about the superstition of seven years of bad luck after breaking a mirror. What would be the superstition of watching yourself in a mirror as you pulled a gun trigger to destroy both the mirror and another human being?
Killing another person as you were watching yourself shooting a gun, and watching the bullet travel into the reflection that separated the kill? ‘Would I remember my own facial expression as I shot this car thief? Will I have nightmares about the reflections of the Glock 17 and it’s blast, the breaking glass and the flying glass, the noise of the blast and, the flying blood, the quick death of a sad looking car thief? Am I going to remember this moment for the rest of my life, or will I laugh it off, as some kind of joke; like the car thief deserved to die? Do I want to kill someone for driving a stolen a car? No, not really!’
He quickly looked into his own eye, into his own soul, just before he again looked into the eyes, into the soul of the car thief. An spontaneous moment when of two people on a dark, cold, windy night were separated by a mirrored glass of death. ‘What was the car thieve’s intention? Is he going to turn that car into me, to ram into me like the weapon it could be?’ Larry become more conscious of the car’s physical exertion. ‘Is it going straight or is he going to turn the car into me. Is he going to try to hit me with a Glock 17 pointed at his head, knowing he is facing a quick and sure death, or is he going to make the correct choice to drive straight?’
He increasingly felt his finger that was on the Glock’s 17 trigger, prepared to pull it if the car had even slightly edged towards Larry. He knew that he could have pulled with a slight ease of his finger, he had pulled on it many times before. When the car thief looked at the close up of the Glock 17 pointed at his head, only two feet away from his head, he quickly changed his smile to fear. The car thief realized that if Larry had to shoot the Glock 17, there would only be one winner, if indeed Larry would be a winner. As he kept his mind focused, a bullet would have hit the car thief’s head in less time than a blink of an eye.
The car thief understood that he would have been dead within one blink of his eyes, by one slight pull of Larry’s finger, but he must have thought more about living than dying. After Larry and the Glock 17 had sent their message to the driver, the car thief stepped on the car’s gas pedal. Time returned to normal as he drove off straight, leaving Larry with the Glock 17 in his hand.
But the chase was not over! Larry watched the team as they were warming up to the fact that the Glock’s 17 fancy bullets would remain in the gun, leaving the car thief to be chased through the city streets. The car thief was making a mad dash to freedom, so the chase was still on.
Larry heard the words, ‘Larry, Get in!’ He turned his head to see the open door of his undercover car. Larry was very surprised that a team member was driving his car, but he did not argue with the driver. Time had returned to normal, for only a few seconds, until the cars quickly raced faster and faster in the parking lot. The car chase was now on, as time slowed down again within the mind of Larry, just as the cars moved faster and faster through the city streets.
By: Mr. George D. Patnoe., Jr.'s Ambidextrous Brain + Spiritual Mind.
Parking lots can do strange things to people. One moment a person can be sitting in a car drinking coffee and reading the newspaper; while a moment later, he could be pointing a gun at someone’s head to protect himself from a drug dealer or a car thief. But when the action begins, and the guns are being draw from gun hostlers to either protect and / or make an arrest, anything can happen, like seeing a gun in a mirror. Larry was always prepared for the action. Some arrests are easy and simple, while other arrests are dangerous and completely insane. In any case, every time a gun is drawn out if its hostler, the possibly of death and killing is in the air; because bullets wing and zoom through the air at very fast speeds. Many people would take that statement for granted, but a modern day bullet traveling faster than 1220 feet per second is nothing to laugh about, even for a second.
As was sometimes the case, Larry sat in his car for long periods just waiting for the criminals to enter the trap. On a cold winter night in late November, everything was still and slow, except for the winter’s cold and blustery winds blowing off the ocean. Larry sat in his car, taking slip from his warm coffee cup as the two radios ready for action. The car radio and the patrol radio.
The car radio played some soft classical music, on the very low volume, while the cold winter’s winds were blowing over the car. At night, the drab black and gray air could and would hide the dangerous men who wore black coats and black pants, just as if they wanted to hide within the dark and cold air, within their own thoughts of death. Only a few really stupid criminals wanted to play with death on cold, windy winter nights in New York, but some people loved catching criminals. The patrol radio was silent, except for the anticipation from the team.
Larry and the team were waiting for those dangerous men; no matter what form they would take. Larry sat in the movie theater’s parking lot, because it sat as an open arena for danger. Where dangerous criminals could walk or drive in from almost any direction from the surrounding city, even though a steel fence surrounded the building. The Sunrise movie theater was only a few feet from Jamaica Queens, New York. While the movie watchers were watching their movies in the 20 movie complex, they had no idea how many movie scenes had been played in the rear parking lot of Sunrise. The Sunrise movie theater was like no other movie theater in America. More car thieves had been caught in Sunrise’s parking lot, than in most parking lots in America. Mainly, because the team had the unique position to trap the car thieves like a spider catches flies. Yet, as the sun would rise in the morning, a new day bought a normal life of light to those on the team. But at night, everything changed as only darkness surrounded the theater and its parking lot.
It was one of those precognitive moments for Larry. Larry turned off the car’s radio because he felt a moment was arriving, a moment that the cold winds would drag in from Jamaica Queens, New York. The silence was nice, but it was strange. The silence changed from one form to another, as if the silence was calling out to Larry’s mind to be prepared for the arriving criminals. He listened to the winds, to the strange air, for just a moment. He knew it was arriving, but he did not know how it would arrive. It seemed to be arriving as if it was a ghost in the air, only this ghost would be in the form of skin and bones, if not two or three or more sets of skin and bones. People who might be carrying guns, like the TEC 9 semi-automatic machine pistol.
Larry’s car was positioned in the rear parking lot of the building, by the end of the theater. On the other end of the theater was a trailer where another team member was also looking out with binoculars. There was only one entrance for all cars to enter the parking lot and there was only one exit for the cars to exit the parking lot. They were connected to each other as one, under a street light. The drug dealers and car thieves who entered the entrance were unaware of the trap they were driving into, just as the fly that flies into the spider’s web. Car thieves were always in for a big surprise. Larry and the team loved catching car thieves; they might have done it for free if they had enough hours in a week to play those dangerous games. Those who had been caught in the team’s web, would never forget it. Even those who had walked into the parking lot trap had no idea what they were walking into; their moment of freedom before jail. The game had been played out countless numbers of times. The game of bad guys walking into the bears den, with only a very slight chance of escape, had been played out with every real life practice run.
Sunrise Theater is very long white brick building that was close to the Sunrise highway. It blocked the entrance and the exit that was on one end of the building, and every driver had to drive around the rear of the building to exit the parking lot. Then, they also had to pass the front of the building, which was another trap for the unsuspected car thieves. Plus, a tall steal fence surrounded the whole parking lot, forcing all cars to drive in one grand circle around Sunrise’s parking lot, being watched by the profession team. Once a stolen car or car thief was spotted, they were usually marked as car thieves long before they found the car they were going to steal.
Larry looked at his Glock 17, just to make sure it was still in its hostler. A silly thing to do really, but he knew the Glock 17 made a statement to any car thief that would see it in Larry’s hand. A Glock 17 is a modern day gun. It is modern because it is made from high tech polymer. It holds 17 bullets, plus the extra bullet clips that also hold 17 bullets. It is used by law enforcement all over the world. It is a modern day gun for many reasons. The cowboy guns were made out of heavy steel and they hold only six bullets. 17 bullets versus 6 bullets might not seem much to the common people; but in a real gun fight, especially against two or more criminals, more bullets are obviously better for all law enforcement personnel.
Then he checked his backup gun with a pat on its steel frame. It was one of those six shooters that was made out of steel and it held only six bullets. Of course, modern day bullets are very different the bullets of the cowboy day. Yet, the advantage to the old cowboy gun is that there is less of a possibility of the gun jamming up, or not shooting. He moved the hand radio closed to his body as he looked around the parking lot. He looked at the trailer that was located at the other side of the long parking lot. There was no action, but Larry hoped that the man inside was awake and not sleeping from the boredom of the Wednesday night. Weekend’s were always busier because there were more cars to choose from, but car thieves liked to steal cars on week nights too. Larry sensed that even the cold air was waking up to the action that would be soon arriving in its dry, crispy page. When the air started to predict the motions of the future, Larry knew that too. He sat up from his stalled sitting.
He looked up at the roof of the long building. He could not see the head of the lookout guy who was lying down on the roof, with a pair of binoculars in his hand. But he knew that he would be hardly sleeping, even as he was wrapped in his warm body suit. The cold winds would still tingle his face with the memories of opening the freezer for some ice cream in the summer time. The guy on the roof was handy to have around as a watch out. He could see almost everything on the ground, but he relied on people to listen to his every word when he spoke into the radio. The team were always waiting for any kind of real action, as they waited in a relaxed state of mind, for that constant stillness in their minds. It was a stillness of readiness. A mind full of calm stillness was needed when bullets were whizzing through the air. In one split second, bullets could be flying through the air, and everyone would know what to do. But being a wild, confused mind would not help the bullets hit their target.
Everyone had a radio. It was realized that a radio was almost as important as a gun and handcuffs. The radio could be silent for hours until a few words were uttered over the airwaves. When words were indeed sent through the airwaves, when the first sound of a human’s voice was blurted through the speakers, everyone stopped what they were doing and listened to very word. Usually, there was no time to repeat descriptions and commands.
Everyone was waiting for the unspoken danger that was arriving; although they could not sense it like Larry. Larry twisted in his car’s seat as his blood began to flow through his body. What is it? he asked himself.
Larry saw the gray and black colored car drive pass him. He looked at the two males who were dressed in their dark clothes, as they tried to hide their faces in the darken car. Larry slid down in his car seat, pretending to be a sleeping bum. There was nothing special about the car, until it drove around a second time. There were plenty of empty parking spaces on this Wednesday night, so what was these two dark individuals up to? Larry grabbed his radio to call it in, but the dark car left the parking lot. Larry was going to start his car, but he knew that the car’s lights would give him away, so he waited. While he prepared for the questionable but definite action that would soon take place, Larry saw the car drive by him a third time. He radioed in the fact.
‘Guys, a gray and black car has driven around three times.’ There was silence on the radio. No response? thought Larry. Larry pushed the radio button once again. ‘That means they have been in and out of the parking lot three times.’ Everyone woke up from their doubt.
‘Hey Larry, good call. The car is parked next to a car and they have their car hood open already. The other guy is working on the other car. Larry and the others knew that was a trick of car thieves. They would park next to a car that they wanted to steal, and open the hood of their car. One guy would pretend to work under his car’s hood so he could be a watch out for the other guy who was working on the car that they wanted to steel.
Larry knew that within seconds, the two men would be jumping into their unmarked cars and they would be circling around to the rear. The two cars in the front would be leaving the front of the building to trap the would be stolen car, if they were quick enough. One car would be going around one side of the building, while the other car would be going around the other side of the building; in order to block the car (s) from escape. Larry put his hand on the car’s key to turn it, but he waited. He knew that the car thieves might hear his car’s engine and he did not want to scare the guys away from their last moment of freedom. It was almost show time, but time changes when a gun is being withdrawn from it holster. A magical moment of the mind, of the brain. Everything is moving faster than ever, but the mind, the brain sees everything in slow time. Step by step action.
Larry saw one undercover car drive by him, and he still waited for a few seconds to turned the car’s key. He felt the moment and the turned the car’s key. The car started fast for a cold dark winter night. He put the car in drive, and he stepped on the gas pedal. He drove behind the undercover car, driving down the parking lot with a greed for speed, for part of the action. He secretly hoped that his partners would leave some fun for him. As he drove up to the scene, he watched one of his partners handcuffing the car thief. The other guy had somehow entered his car.
Larry drove up in front of the stolen car to stop only a few inches from the stolen car’s bummer. Larry hopped out his car and he stepped with both feet on the cold dark tar. The cold winds hit his face, but he was as warm as on a summer day because he was not aware of cold or warmth. He was aware of the moment. He starred at the scene as he analyzed what he had to do next. He saw people starring at him, but they too were a frizzy vision as his eyes concentrated on the one car what was not trapped. He did not feel the cold wind as he hand swung around to his gripe his gun, the Glock 17. His mind was far away from the cold, or even at death, as he grabbed the Glock’s handle. He quickly pulled the Glock out of its holster and swung it around in front of eyes.
His eyes never even blinked at the guy who was driving the car. Larry raised the Glock to eye level so he could look down its sights. He loudly yelled out, ‘Police! Freeze.’ Somehow, Larry knew that guy was not going to freeze. A moment of silence between Larry and the driver glared into each others eyes. A moment of questions. A pause in the game between a good guy and a bad guy. Larry sensed no danger as his vision expanded to the on lookers who were starring at him and the real life movie scene that was transpiring behind the Sunrise Movie Theater.
Larry knew what they were thinking. "Is he going to pull the trigger? Is he going to shoot that guy."
Larry noticed their fuzzy faces as they stood frozen in the cold air, starring at him. They were frozen not because of the cold winds, but because they knew they could not control Larry’s trigger finger. It would be Larry’s decision to pull the trigger of the Glock 17. As the seconds ticked on, they watched Larry’s statuesque body as it was frozen still, with the Glock 17 pointed at the car thief’s head.
Larry’s mind was not frozen as it raced through the numerous possibilities that might take place within the next few minutes. As his eyes looked through the Glock’s sights, his mind was racing with different concepts. His mind had split into two. ‘If I shoot his guy, think of all the paper work, and the possibility of a grand jury investigation. Not to mention a law suit by who knows who. Is this guy going to be stupid or what? Great, who might be taking video of this scene?’ These were lighting fast concepts of instead of real logical thinking. There was no time for a sit down with your mind when you have a gun pointed at someone’s head because he has a weapon of his own. A ton of steel car can not move as fast as nine millimeter bullet, but it was still a weapon when driven by a criminal who wanted to remain free of jail. Larry was not in the mood to jump over the car as he might in the summer time.
He saw the car thief’s smile widen as he backed up his stolen car and he rammed it into Larry’s unmarked car. Larry’s foot crossed over his other foot as he started to move this body to the side of the approaching car. A car which was now a weapon in the eyes of the driver and of Larry, because he did not freeze as he was ordered to stop. Instead, the car thief was driving the car just as if it was a trigger of a gun. Normal people would not argue with a gun, but criminals have been known to do anything to escape a jail sentence. The car’s bumper dragged along side of the car for two feet before it founds it way clear of the unmarked car.
Larry saw the car thief’s face as it looked serious enough, but then it was gone. Larry’s mind was not looking at a clear windshield, with no one to shoot at. The guy had ducked under the steering wheel as he stepped on the gas pedal. Larry knew that he could have pulled the trigger if the bullets would have hit a target, but since he was now looking at the clear glass of a car with no observable head, he had only one choice to save himself from the moving weapon. He stepped aside with the grace of a ballet dancer, even though his legs were trained as a martial arts expert for many years.
Larry’s Glock 17 was still pointed at the car as he looked at the car. As the car began to pass Larry, the car’s driver popped up his head, so he could drive the car. Maybe the car thief thought he was going to hit Larry, but Larry was really quick on his feet. The driver slower down the car to almost a stop; maybe to get a look at Larry’s facial expression. Larry was only an inch away from the car as he looked at the driver with the Glock 17 pointed straight at the guy’s head. Larry knew that he was out of danger, so he would have no legal status to pull the trigger. He also did not know how many people were watching the scene. There could be so many accounts of the shooting even if Larry cried self-defense. For some unknown reason, the car thief almost stopped the car for a couple of seconds, but seemed like minutes within Larry’s mind. Time slowed.
Larry quickly moved his body closer to the car’s window with the Glock 17 in the air. Larry looked into the driver’s window as the car thief gleamed a smile at Larry. Larry became increasingly conscious of his Glock 17. Larry moved his head closer to the widow to get a look at the car thief’s face. As if Larry was dancing on a stage as a ballet dancer, in one flowing ballet motion of his arm, the Glock 17 was also aimed an inch from the window, pointed only two feet from the car thief’s head. Larry’s eyes beamed into the car with the thrill of the hunter hunting the criminal. As the car so slowly crawled, next to Larry body, Larry moved his Glock 17 even closer to the window, almost touching the glass.
So there it was, the glare of the Glock 17 in the window. Larry looked into the car as he noticed the Glock’s reflection. The black Glock 17 that he held in his hand was reflected in the window’s glass mirror; just as if someone else was holding Glock 17. As he looked at the car thief, his eyes blinked over for just a second at the Glock’s 17 reflection, just before he blinked back to the guy’s face. He knew that if he had pulled the Glock’s trigger, he would have seen the bullet’ blasts exit the Glock’s barrel and he would have seen the bullets crash into the window’s glass. He would have heard the Glock’s blast in his ear before he would have heard the bullets hitting and breaking the glass window, just as he would have felt the glass hit his face, just as he would have seen the bullets enter the guy’s head, just as he would have felt the guy’s blood splashing on his face too. Bullets and glass in his face, as well as in his memory.
The psychology of killing another human being would indicated that killing another human being is not a good memory to own before one leaves planet earth for heavenly adventures; especially when you had a mirrored movie of the kill to reinforce the memory.
Larry also saw his face’s reflection in the glass’s mirror, as his mind was raced in circles with so many concepts as time slowed down. Time did slow down within Larry’s mind. He felt as if he was soul searching faster than the speed of light. He had heard about the superstition of seven years of bad luck after breaking a mirror. What would be the superstition of watching yourself in a mirror as you pulled a gun trigger to destroy both the mirror and another human being?
Killing another person as you were watching yourself shooting a gun, and watching the bullet travel into the reflection that separated the kill? ‘Would I remember my own facial expression as I shot this car thief? Will I have nightmares about the reflections of the Glock 17 and it’s blast, the breaking glass and the flying glass, the noise of the blast and, the flying blood, the quick death of a sad looking car thief? Am I going to remember this moment for the rest of my life, or will I laugh it off, as some kind of joke; like the car thief deserved to die? Do I want to kill someone for driving a stolen a car? No, not really!’
He quickly looked into his own eye, into his own soul, just before he again looked into the eyes, into the soul of the car thief. An spontaneous moment when of two people on a dark, cold, windy night were separated by a mirrored glass of death. ‘What was the car thieve’s intention? Is he going to turn that car into me, to ram into me like the weapon it could be?’ Larry become more conscious of the car’s physical exertion. ‘Is it going straight or is he going to turn the car into me. Is he going to try to hit me with a Glock 17 pointed at his head, knowing he is facing a quick and sure death, or is he going to make the correct choice to drive straight?’
He increasingly felt his finger that was on the Glock’s 17 trigger, prepared to pull it if the car had even slightly edged towards Larry. He knew that he could have pulled with a slight ease of his finger, he had pulled on it many times before. When the car thief looked at the close up of the Glock 17 pointed at his head, only two feet away from his head, he quickly changed his smile to fear. The car thief realized that if Larry had to shoot the Glock 17, there would only be one winner, if indeed Larry would be a winner. As he kept his mind focused, a bullet would have hit the car thief’s head in less time than a blink of an eye.
The car thief understood that he would have been dead within one blink of his eyes, by one slight pull of Larry’s finger, but he must have thought more about living than dying. After Larry and the Glock 17 had sent their message to the driver, the car thief stepped on the car’s gas pedal. Time returned to normal as he drove off straight, leaving Larry with the Glock 17 in his hand.
But the chase was not over! Larry watched the team as they were warming up to the fact that the Glock’s 17 fancy bullets would remain in the gun, leaving the car thief to be chased through the city streets. The car thief was making a mad dash to freedom, so the chase was still on.
Larry heard the words, ‘Larry, Get in!’ He turned his head to see the open door of his undercover car. Larry was very surprised that a team member was driving his car, but he did not argue with the driver. Time had returned to normal, for only a few seconds, until the cars quickly raced faster and faster in the parking lot. The car chase was now on, as time slowed down again within the mind of Larry, just as the cars moved faster and faster through the city streets.
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Mary And The Psychology Of Killing
52 Stories in 52 Weeks: ## 32 Mary And The Psychology Of Killing.
By: Mr. George D. Patnoe., Jr's Ambidextrous Brain and Spiritual Mind.
Sitting in a parking lot can do strange things to people. One moment a person can be lonely, and then they can meet someone. The next moment they are in love. A few moments later, they have to decide whether their love is worth the time and energy for a family life. Conversations in a parking lots can change people too. Mary learned how a conversation in a parking lot could change her decision to become a psychologist or a United States Marine after high school. Would she live long enough to fall in love and then start a family or would she die in a war? Was Mary changed by her short, yet profound conversation with the Soul Saver creature in a parking lot, or was she not?
Susy and Mary sat in a car, in the parking lot, during their last high school summer vacation. They were having their own conversation about dogs. The car was parked b y an animal shelter because they were thinking about adopting a pet dog. The Soul Saver had guessed that they waited in their car, in their parking lot, as they talked about their decision to adopt a dog, but he later learn they had never talked about their more important decisions about their futures after high school. They probably did not realize that there were bigger issues to talk about as they hung out in their car, in a parking lot. After all, they had sat in so many black tarred parking lots during those hot summer days, just like so many thousands of highschool students do all around America, that they sat in a daze, without thinking about their post highschool life; that is, until a Soul Saver talks them out of their daze.
Susy had driven the car in the parking lot so her car would face the lake. The animal shelter was behind them, with the unwanted dogs and cats and other animals needing some attention. Susy and Mary wanted to give her attention to some animals, but what Susy and Mary were really looking for was someone to give them some attention. Like many high school seniors to be, they knew, in the back of their minds, that their childhood’s were was almost up. Soon, they would have to grow up to face the hard cold, dog eat dog world. That their last free days of non-existent real world responsibilities were soon going to be over, in about 365 days.
Then, their high school games would be gone forever, over like when one dream world changes for another dream world. That is how the night dream world works, one scene for another scene, changed in a split second of time. In the night dream world, one scene can change into another scene with no seemingly rhyme or reason. When the real world dream world changes like the night dream world, people can get confused because their minds are out of tune with both dream worlds. The dream world of life and death.
Susy and Mary were in the middle of their day dreams that seem more like a night dream. As they sat in that parking lot, they were waiting for an answer, as if an answer would appear out of the clear blue sky. As they sat in their car, they were somehow wishing that an angel would appear just to give them some advise. Instead, a Soul Saver appeared in the parking lot.
The Soul Saver had parked his car in the parking lot for another reason. He was in the process of saving another lost soul, so he was a busy guy. The Soul Saver realized that there were trillions of lost souls who walked on the planet earth. It has been that way for millions of years as trillions of human souls walked on earth, caring more about the gold under the ground, instead of worrying about the Soul of their being. The lake was located in the middle of the busy metropolitan city, with cars passing the lake on its one long side while trains passed the lake on the other side. Everyday, thousands of people passed the lake without realizing the soul of the lake would help them find their own souls.
The Soul Saver understood that the lake was a place where people could open up their minds to new possibilities, both inside and outside their minds, by leaving their closed minds at their boxed lives of their offices and their homes. The Soul Saver learned that when people’s mind become enclosed onto itself because of the office walls, it was then that they needed the open space of nature, a space where the life of nature has a rejuvenating effect on the minds and souls of humans.
When the Soul Saver stepped up to his car, he heard a voice say, Hello,’ so he bent down to look at the voice’s face. He saw a young lady who was sitting in a red car. After the Soul Saver returned his hello, the two started up a conversation, in the parking lot.
‘Nice day today.’ said Mary.
‘It sure is.’ replied the Soul Saver.
‘What are you doing sitting here in the parking lot?’
‘We are thinking about adopting a dog.’
‘Are you ready for the responsibility?’
‘Do not know.’ said Mary.
‘You look like you are still in high school.’
‘Yea. One more year left.’ said Mary.
It was not what she said, but how she said it that bothered the Soul Saver. It was a look in her eyes that told the story. This young lady was already thinking about what she was going to do after she completed high school. What a way to spend her last summer vacation; worrying about what she was going to do after high school. The Soul Saver guessed that their parents were not helping them too much either. So many of America’s highschool students did not get much guidance from their parents for that big day when they were free from high school.
‘Are you guys ready for the real world?’ asked the Soul Saver.
‘Does that mean the world away from our high school life?’
‘What are you going to do after high school? Are you going to college?’
‘I want to major in psychology.’ said Mary.
‘Really?’ is what her driver friend Susy stated. ‘I want to major in psychology too.’
‘Wow. I did not know that.’ Mary turned around to the Soul Saver. ‘But I might go into the United States Marines Corps first. My whole family served in the Marines and it something I have always wanted to do.’ (Without a single thought about the consequences of that sloppy decision making process.)
The Soul Saver’s mind began to twitch a bit when he immediately realized the contradiction between studying the human mind and human behavior versus killing other human beings in a war; or being killed by another human being. The Soul Saver quickly added the two concepts together. The psychology of killing another human being. The psychology of killing any living creature, except for food. Where does the terrorist urge to kill another human come from? Surely not the physical blood pumping heart. From our partly human, partly animal brains?
Yet, would the animals create killing machines if they could, or would the animals be more peaceful than the humans? After hundreds of millions of years of human brain development, isn’t it a bit insane that some people want to kill other humans, for whatever reason? Terrorist enjoy killing, so America needs the United States Military to defend America from terrorists who love to kill. Yet, there are hunters in America who love to kill animals such as deer just for the fun of it. For the fun of it?
He looked at a person who wanted to study psychology, but who did not think about the psychology of the Marine Corps. The Soul Saver looked at the petite gal in the car. He realized that if she did complete the Marine boot-camp, she would probably see combat in Iraq. In which case her own psychology would change because she would be forced to kill other humans who were trying to kill her. Her psychological make could be so transformed that she might not ever begin studying psychology. On the other hand, she might become a good case study for a psychologist who was studying the transformation of a human mind after it killed other humans in war; for whatever reason.
The Soul Saver knew that he had only a few moments, if that long, to talk to the young lady about the differences between her two desires. The Soul Saver thought to himself that if she desired to become a psychologist, that she would off to a good start by analyzing her own mind before she decided to enter the military service to become a trained killer. After all, all worldly grownups know that is the reason the military tries to recruit the naive high school students.
The military wants the unthinking naive high school students who could be brainwashed to kill without thinking about life and death; whose parents did not teach them about the proper method of logical thinking for correct decision making.
‘Have you ever killed anyone before?’ ask the Soul Saver.
‘No. Who do think I am, some kind of high school killer?’
‘Well, what do you think will be the main word out of your mouth for six months of marine boot camp? I have friends who are marines and I have heard the recording that they gave to the recruits, to give to their families and friends.’
The driver of the car blurted out, ‘That is correct. I heard it too. Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill.’
Mary looked over to Susy and then back to The Soul Saver as she responded, ‘Well then?’
He responded, ‘Well then? What do you think a psychologist would state about other people killing other people?’ There was no other answer. ‘If you were a psychologist, what would you think if a patient told you he wanted to become a government killer; maybe even enjoying killing people, even if they were enemies of the state?’
The Soul Saver looked at Mary as silence filled the car. Even Susy the driver was thinking about the question. Mary stated, ‘I was going to join the marines so I could pay for college.’
The Soul Saver replied, ‘So you want to become a government trained killer so you can pay for college. What happens if you have to kill people while you are in a war? Then you could write on your resume, ‘Paid government killer’. The United States Marines Corps paid me to kill so I could go to college. I got lucky that I did not get killed, so now I can go to college. What do you think a psychologist or an employee would reply to that resume?’
Silence filled the car.
The Soul Saver looked into their car as he stated, ‘Have you met any of the marines who have experienced combat in Iraq?’ Mary answered, ‘Sure, I have a friend who just came back for Iraq. But he never talks about killing people.’
‘Do you wonder why he does not talk about war and killing?’ said The Soul Saver. ‘It is because killing a person and watching your marine buddies get blow up by bombs changes a person. Living with death everyday does something to your mind, to your psychic, to your soul. Do you know why soldiers do not talk about their kills in war?’
Mary looked at The Soul Saver and said, ‘Nope.’
‘It is because some things in life can not be described, even after they have been experienced. It is like when you lose a loved one to death. You feel pain, but you could not experience that pain to anyone. It is the same with war, death, and killing other humans. Why not just attend a community college and start taking psychology courses? Why not go into the air force or the navy where you probably will not see the killing?’ She did not say anything.
‘What do you think happens to a person’s psychic after they kill someone?’
Mary and Sue were looking up towards the clouds. They were beginning to realize that they were getting their first psychology lesson at the lake. But more importantly, they were thinking about the consequences of their actions on their human consciences. They were probably wondering how one man could make them think so much about a decision they would make a year from now. But the Soul Saver knew that maybe they would need a year to realize that they better think long and hard before they decided to become paid killers for the government, even if it was the United States of America.
The Soul Saver asked Mary, ‘See that guy over there, the guy with the white robe and long black beard and the wrapped around head piece. If you were ordered by another person right now, to kill him, without you asking any questions, would you do it. And I mean, RIGHT NOW.’ Mary looked at the guy and her eyes perked up a bit as she stated, ‘Not right now. Why would I?’
The Soul Saver said to Mary, ‘Lets see. Lets pretend that I am an undercover CIA agent and I know more about that guy than he knows about himself. Lets pretend that I know he has a bomb in that black bag and his buddy has another bomb. I told you that I need your help because I am going to kill the guy with the bigger bomb, but I need you to shoot the other guy with a gun that I will supply to you. Would you do it? RIGHT NOW.’
Susy looked at Mary and she laughed. Mary was not laughing.
Mary said, ‘I would need more proof.’
The Soul Saver responded, ‘Are you going to need more proof if someone in the Marines orders you to kill a group of men because they are enemies of the United States Of America?’
Mary sighed as she looked at the Soul Saver with dismay. The Soul Saver said, ‘I have one better for you. Lets pretend that the guy walks up to this car right now and kills your friend Susy. Would be able to stay emotionally balanced and calm enough to defend yourself as you watch your friend die in front of your eyes?’
Mary starred into the blue sky. She looked as if she wanted to cry. No words were spoken because the Soul Saver had dropped a few reality bombs on Susy’s dream of becoming a Marine. The Soul Saver said, ‘The recruiter will not ask you those questions when you sign over your life to the military, because if they did, you probably wold not join the Marines. Instead, they promise you nice looking clothes while they use the words ‘A few good men.’ But what they really mean to say is, ‘A few good killers of other men. Do not get me wrong Mary and Susy, the United States of America needs all of its military to defend us from the evil people in the world. But if you have plans on becoming a psychologist after the joining the marines, you might get kill being a marine, long before you ever take one psychology college course.’
‘Hey Mary, here is a question for you. Do you like sleeping at night?’
Mary turned her young brain to look at the Soul Saver as if he was asking a crazy question. So he asked it again. ‘Do you like sleeping without nightmares?’
Mary replied, ‘Of course, I like sleeping without nightmares. Who does?’
‘No person likes sleeping with nightmares, but do you think that a marine recruiter is going to ask you that question?’ asked the Soul Saver.
‘Why would he ask me that question?’ asked Mary.
‘Because he wants you to sign over your dreamworld to the boot camp drill instructors and the United States Government. They know that once you kill over and over again in a war, that you will eventually have nightmares. But they are not going to tell you that. Here is another question for you. How many men or women or children do you think you will have to kill before you start reliving those killing moments in your dreams. Can you give me a number? That would be a good question for a PhD. thesis in psychology, if you live long enough to get a PhD in psychology.
A case study on how many men or women or children does a person have to kill before they start having nightmares when they sleep. Is a male marine nightmares different from a female marines’s nightmares? After they have killed how many men and women and children? Maybe a women would have to kill a lower number of people before they experience nightmares of killing.’
Mary’s smile had long disappeared when she asked the Soul Saver, ‘Why are you asking me all of these questions? Why is this important to you when it is my life, my decision to go into the Marines?’
The Soul Saver looked up towards that clear blue sky as he took a slip of water out of his water bottle. The Soul Saver was pausing time for a moment before he blurted out of his mouth, ‘Mary, Do you know what angels are?’
‘Well not really. But I have heard about them in church.’
‘Have you heard about the soul, in your church?’ ask the Soul Saver.
‘Well, sort of.’ was all she could muster out of her mouth.
‘Well Mary, somehow angels are sent to earth to save people’s souls from making the wrong decisions before they make them. There are angels all around us and since I am really connected to at few to a few hundred of them at any given moment, it is not by chance that you and I are having this conversation. We have been given this rare opportunity to have this conversation about your decision to choose becoming either a psychologist or a paid killing marine machine.
Not only that, but you will be able to read it over as my 32rd story. Now, you will have a year to think over your decision of whether to become a psychologist or a marine, and to prepare your future as you think you should. But once you join the marines, your life belongs to the United States Government; and since we are at war with a bunch of really stupid but dangerous terrorists, you will probably go to war and see more death than you really care to see in your lifetime. Now, do you want to kill other people or possibly be killed or maimed, or would you rather help people in the best way you know how? And more importantly, do you want to kill or damage your own human soul? Or do you want to save your soul from making the wrong earthly decision?’
Susy the driver starred at Mary as Mary starred into the clear blue sky above the lake. Seagulls were flying and maybe she might have felt the wings of an angel touch her soul long before she stepped out of the car to look at the dogs in the animal shelter. But the Soul Saver knew one thing for sure. One earth year goes by really fast, but the memories that we create for ourselves can linger on and on as if time never existed. A innocent seventeen year old should be able to keep her conscience clear forever, if that is possible. But killing people for any reason would soon pollute her clear conscience, not to mention her future night dreams.
‘Here is an idea. Why not start taking community college courses before you think about joining the marines. It is cheap and you would learn something about psychology. And if you earn all of your degrees to become a real psychologist, you could open your own psychology practice by helping the soldiers who are arriving back from war with psychological issues.
Susy asked the Soul Saver, ‘What are you doing with your life?'
The Soul Saver answered, ‘My goal for this year is to write 52 short stories in 52 weeks.’
Susy replied, ‘Write a story about us.’
The Soul Saver said, ‘Maybe I will.’ Of course, the Soul Saver knew that the two young ladies would read his 32nd story in his 52 stories in 52 weekly blog, so he decided to reinforce his message to them by writing their conversation in the parking lot. Maybe they will make copies of this story and think it over. Or maybe they will laugh, but the Soul Saver hoped they would not laugh at becoming lady marines. The Soul Saver knew that America’s military was greatly needed for all kinds of real world reasons. There is no doubt abut that; especially after the terrorist attack on America’s World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the likely attack on the White House if Flight 93 had not crashed into the ground. ( Have the America people forgotten that those really stupid but dangerous terrorist almost crashed a plane into the White House? How would they have felt if the terrorist had succeeded in crashing a plane into America’s White House? )
But for some reason, the Soul Saver knew Mary was not meant to go into the Marines. As the Soul Saver stepped into his car and started his car’s engine, the two ladies exited their car and they started to walk up to the animal shelter. As the Soul Saver drove out of the parking lot, he saw the two gals walking up to the animal shelter to look at dogs. He knew that they were trying to save a dog so he yelled out the window to Mary, ‘Hey. Ask yourself this question. Do you want to kill people for a living or do you want to help people and save souls for a living?’
Enlightened Mary’s gleaming eyes glared into the Soul Saver's eyes with the correct answer.
DVD to watch: 300 (based on a true historical account of 300 warriors.)
By: Mr. George D. Patnoe., Jr's Ambidextrous Brain and Spiritual Mind.
Sitting in a parking lot can do strange things to people. One moment a person can be lonely, and then they can meet someone. The next moment they are in love. A few moments later, they have to decide whether their love is worth the time and energy for a family life. Conversations in a parking lots can change people too. Mary learned how a conversation in a parking lot could change her decision to become a psychologist or a United States Marine after high school. Would she live long enough to fall in love and then start a family or would she die in a war? Was Mary changed by her short, yet profound conversation with the Soul Saver creature in a parking lot, or was she not?
Susy and Mary sat in a car, in the parking lot, during their last high school summer vacation. They were having their own conversation about dogs. The car was parked b y an animal shelter because they were thinking about adopting a pet dog. The Soul Saver had guessed that they waited in their car, in their parking lot, as they talked about their decision to adopt a dog, but he later learn they had never talked about their more important decisions about their futures after high school. They probably did not realize that there were bigger issues to talk about as they hung out in their car, in a parking lot. After all, they had sat in so many black tarred parking lots during those hot summer days, just like so many thousands of highschool students do all around America, that they sat in a daze, without thinking about their post highschool life; that is, until a Soul Saver talks them out of their daze.
Susy had driven the car in the parking lot so her car would face the lake. The animal shelter was behind them, with the unwanted dogs and cats and other animals needing some attention. Susy and Mary wanted to give her attention to some animals, but what Susy and Mary were really looking for was someone to give them some attention. Like many high school seniors to be, they knew, in the back of their minds, that their childhood’s were was almost up. Soon, they would have to grow up to face the hard cold, dog eat dog world. That their last free days of non-existent real world responsibilities were soon going to be over, in about 365 days.
Then, their high school games would be gone forever, over like when one dream world changes for another dream world. That is how the night dream world works, one scene for another scene, changed in a split second of time. In the night dream world, one scene can change into another scene with no seemingly rhyme or reason. When the real world dream world changes like the night dream world, people can get confused because their minds are out of tune with both dream worlds. The dream world of life and death.
Susy and Mary were in the middle of their day dreams that seem more like a night dream. As they sat in that parking lot, they were waiting for an answer, as if an answer would appear out of the clear blue sky. As they sat in their car, they were somehow wishing that an angel would appear just to give them some advise. Instead, a Soul Saver appeared in the parking lot.
The Soul Saver had parked his car in the parking lot for another reason. He was in the process of saving another lost soul, so he was a busy guy. The Soul Saver realized that there were trillions of lost souls who walked on the planet earth. It has been that way for millions of years as trillions of human souls walked on earth, caring more about the gold under the ground, instead of worrying about the Soul of their being. The lake was located in the middle of the busy metropolitan city, with cars passing the lake on its one long side while trains passed the lake on the other side. Everyday, thousands of people passed the lake without realizing the soul of the lake would help them find their own souls.
The Soul Saver understood that the lake was a place where people could open up their minds to new possibilities, both inside and outside their minds, by leaving their closed minds at their boxed lives of their offices and their homes. The Soul Saver learned that when people’s mind become enclosed onto itself because of the office walls, it was then that they needed the open space of nature, a space where the life of nature has a rejuvenating effect on the minds and souls of humans.
When the Soul Saver stepped up to his car, he heard a voice say, Hello,’ so he bent down to look at the voice’s face. He saw a young lady who was sitting in a red car. After the Soul Saver returned his hello, the two started up a conversation, in the parking lot.
‘Nice day today.’ said Mary.
‘It sure is.’ replied the Soul Saver.
‘What are you doing sitting here in the parking lot?’
‘We are thinking about adopting a dog.’
‘Are you ready for the responsibility?’
‘Do not know.’ said Mary.
‘You look like you are still in high school.’
‘Yea. One more year left.’ said Mary.
It was not what she said, but how she said it that bothered the Soul Saver. It was a look in her eyes that told the story. This young lady was already thinking about what she was going to do after she completed high school. What a way to spend her last summer vacation; worrying about what she was going to do after high school. The Soul Saver guessed that their parents were not helping them too much either. So many of America’s highschool students did not get much guidance from their parents for that big day when they were free from high school.
‘Are you guys ready for the real world?’ asked the Soul Saver.
‘Does that mean the world away from our high school life?’
‘What are you going to do after high school? Are you going to college?’
‘I want to major in psychology.’ said Mary.
‘Really?’ is what her driver friend Susy stated. ‘I want to major in psychology too.’
‘Wow. I did not know that.’ Mary turned around to the Soul Saver. ‘But I might go into the United States Marines Corps first. My whole family served in the Marines and it something I have always wanted to do.’ (Without a single thought about the consequences of that sloppy decision making process.)
The Soul Saver’s mind began to twitch a bit when he immediately realized the contradiction between studying the human mind and human behavior versus killing other human beings in a war; or being killed by another human being. The Soul Saver quickly added the two concepts together. The psychology of killing another human being. The psychology of killing any living creature, except for food. Where does the terrorist urge to kill another human come from? Surely not the physical blood pumping heart. From our partly human, partly animal brains?
Yet, would the animals create killing machines if they could, or would the animals be more peaceful than the humans? After hundreds of millions of years of human brain development, isn’t it a bit insane that some people want to kill other humans, for whatever reason? Terrorist enjoy killing, so America needs the United States Military to defend America from terrorists who love to kill. Yet, there are hunters in America who love to kill animals such as deer just for the fun of it. For the fun of it?
He looked at a person who wanted to study psychology, but who did not think about the psychology of the Marine Corps. The Soul Saver looked at the petite gal in the car. He realized that if she did complete the Marine boot-camp, she would probably see combat in Iraq. In which case her own psychology would change because she would be forced to kill other humans who were trying to kill her. Her psychological make could be so transformed that she might not ever begin studying psychology. On the other hand, she might become a good case study for a psychologist who was studying the transformation of a human mind after it killed other humans in war; for whatever reason.
The Soul Saver knew that he had only a few moments, if that long, to talk to the young lady about the differences between her two desires. The Soul Saver thought to himself that if she desired to become a psychologist, that she would off to a good start by analyzing her own mind before she decided to enter the military service to become a trained killer. After all, all worldly grownups know that is the reason the military tries to recruit the naive high school students.
The military wants the unthinking naive high school students who could be brainwashed to kill without thinking about life and death; whose parents did not teach them about the proper method of logical thinking for correct decision making.
‘Have you ever killed anyone before?’ ask the Soul Saver.
‘No. Who do think I am, some kind of high school killer?’
‘Well, what do you think will be the main word out of your mouth for six months of marine boot camp? I have friends who are marines and I have heard the recording that they gave to the recruits, to give to their families and friends.’
The driver of the car blurted out, ‘That is correct. I heard it too. Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill.’
Mary looked over to Susy and then back to The Soul Saver as she responded, ‘Well then?’
He responded, ‘Well then? What do you think a psychologist would state about other people killing other people?’ There was no other answer. ‘If you were a psychologist, what would you think if a patient told you he wanted to become a government killer; maybe even enjoying killing people, even if they were enemies of the state?’
The Soul Saver looked at Mary as silence filled the car. Even Susy the driver was thinking about the question. Mary stated, ‘I was going to join the marines so I could pay for college.’
The Soul Saver replied, ‘So you want to become a government trained killer so you can pay for college. What happens if you have to kill people while you are in a war? Then you could write on your resume, ‘Paid government killer’. The United States Marines Corps paid me to kill so I could go to college. I got lucky that I did not get killed, so now I can go to college. What do you think a psychologist or an employee would reply to that resume?’
Silence filled the car.
The Soul Saver looked into their car as he stated, ‘Have you met any of the marines who have experienced combat in Iraq?’ Mary answered, ‘Sure, I have a friend who just came back for Iraq. But he never talks about killing people.’
‘Do you wonder why he does not talk about war and killing?’ said The Soul Saver. ‘It is because killing a person and watching your marine buddies get blow up by bombs changes a person. Living with death everyday does something to your mind, to your psychic, to your soul. Do you know why soldiers do not talk about their kills in war?’
Mary looked at The Soul Saver and said, ‘Nope.’
‘It is because some things in life can not be described, even after they have been experienced. It is like when you lose a loved one to death. You feel pain, but you could not experience that pain to anyone. It is the same with war, death, and killing other humans. Why not just attend a community college and start taking psychology courses? Why not go into the air force or the navy where you probably will not see the killing?’ She did not say anything.
‘What do you think happens to a person’s psychic after they kill someone?’
Mary and Sue were looking up towards the clouds. They were beginning to realize that they were getting their first psychology lesson at the lake. But more importantly, they were thinking about the consequences of their actions on their human consciences. They were probably wondering how one man could make them think so much about a decision they would make a year from now. But the Soul Saver knew that maybe they would need a year to realize that they better think long and hard before they decided to become paid killers for the government, even if it was the United States of America.
The Soul Saver asked Mary, ‘See that guy over there, the guy with the white robe and long black beard and the wrapped around head piece. If you were ordered by another person right now, to kill him, without you asking any questions, would you do it. And I mean, RIGHT NOW.’ Mary looked at the guy and her eyes perked up a bit as she stated, ‘Not right now. Why would I?’
The Soul Saver said to Mary, ‘Lets see. Lets pretend that I am an undercover CIA agent and I know more about that guy than he knows about himself. Lets pretend that I know he has a bomb in that black bag and his buddy has another bomb. I told you that I need your help because I am going to kill the guy with the bigger bomb, but I need you to shoot the other guy with a gun that I will supply to you. Would you do it? RIGHT NOW.’
Susy looked at Mary and she laughed. Mary was not laughing.
Mary said, ‘I would need more proof.’
The Soul Saver responded, ‘Are you going to need more proof if someone in the Marines orders you to kill a group of men because they are enemies of the United States Of America?’
Mary sighed as she looked at the Soul Saver with dismay. The Soul Saver said, ‘I have one better for you. Lets pretend that the guy walks up to this car right now and kills your friend Susy. Would be able to stay emotionally balanced and calm enough to defend yourself as you watch your friend die in front of your eyes?’
Mary starred into the blue sky. She looked as if she wanted to cry. No words were spoken because the Soul Saver had dropped a few reality bombs on Susy’s dream of becoming a Marine. The Soul Saver said, ‘The recruiter will not ask you those questions when you sign over your life to the military, because if they did, you probably wold not join the Marines. Instead, they promise you nice looking clothes while they use the words ‘A few good men.’ But what they really mean to say is, ‘A few good killers of other men. Do not get me wrong Mary and Susy, the United States of America needs all of its military to defend us from the evil people in the world. But if you have plans on becoming a psychologist after the joining the marines, you might get kill being a marine, long before you ever take one psychology college course.’
‘Hey Mary, here is a question for you. Do you like sleeping at night?’
Mary turned her young brain to look at the Soul Saver as if he was asking a crazy question. So he asked it again. ‘Do you like sleeping without nightmares?’
Mary replied, ‘Of course, I like sleeping without nightmares. Who does?’
‘No person likes sleeping with nightmares, but do you think that a marine recruiter is going to ask you that question?’ asked the Soul Saver.
‘Why would he ask me that question?’ asked Mary.
‘Because he wants you to sign over your dreamworld to the boot camp drill instructors and the United States Government. They know that once you kill over and over again in a war, that you will eventually have nightmares. But they are not going to tell you that. Here is another question for you. How many men or women or children do you think you will have to kill before you start reliving those killing moments in your dreams. Can you give me a number? That would be a good question for a PhD. thesis in psychology, if you live long enough to get a PhD in psychology.
A case study on how many men or women or children does a person have to kill before they start having nightmares when they sleep. Is a male marine nightmares different from a female marines’s nightmares? After they have killed how many men and women and children? Maybe a women would have to kill a lower number of people before they experience nightmares of killing.’
Mary’s smile had long disappeared when she asked the Soul Saver, ‘Why are you asking me all of these questions? Why is this important to you when it is my life, my decision to go into the Marines?’
The Soul Saver looked up towards that clear blue sky as he took a slip of water out of his water bottle. The Soul Saver was pausing time for a moment before he blurted out of his mouth, ‘Mary, Do you know what angels are?’
‘Well not really. But I have heard about them in church.’
‘Have you heard about the soul, in your church?’ ask the Soul Saver.
‘Well, sort of.’ was all she could muster out of her mouth.
‘Well Mary, somehow angels are sent to earth to save people’s souls from making the wrong decisions before they make them. There are angels all around us and since I am really connected to at few to a few hundred of them at any given moment, it is not by chance that you and I are having this conversation. We have been given this rare opportunity to have this conversation about your decision to choose becoming either a psychologist or a paid killing marine machine.
Not only that, but you will be able to read it over as my 32rd story. Now, you will have a year to think over your decision of whether to become a psychologist or a marine, and to prepare your future as you think you should. But once you join the marines, your life belongs to the United States Government; and since we are at war with a bunch of really stupid but dangerous terrorists, you will probably go to war and see more death than you really care to see in your lifetime. Now, do you want to kill other people or possibly be killed or maimed, or would you rather help people in the best way you know how? And more importantly, do you want to kill or damage your own human soul? Or do you want to save your soul from making the wrong earthly decision?’
Susy the driver starred at Mary as Mary starred into the clear blue sky above the lake. Seagulls were flying and maybe she might have felt the wings of an angel touch her soul long before she stepped out of the car to look at the dogs in the animal shelter. But the Soul Saver knew one thing for sure. One earth year goes by really fast, but the memories that we create for ourselves can linger on and on as if time never existed. A innocent seventeen year old should be able to keep her conscience clear forever, if that is possible. But killing people for any reason would soon pollute her clear conscience, not to mention her future night dreams.
‘Here is an idea. Why not start taking community college courses before you think about joining the marines. It is cheap and you would learn something about psychology. And if you earn all of your degrees to become a real psychologist, you could open your own psychology practice by helping the soldiers who are arriving back from war with psychological issues.
Susy asked the Soul Saver, ‘What are you doing with your life?'
The Soul Saver answered, ‘My goal for this year is to write 52 short stories in 52 weeks.’
Susy replied, ‘Write a story about us.’
The Soul Saver said, ‘Maybe I will.’ Of course, the Soul Saver knew that the two young ladies would read his 32nd story in his 52 stories in 52 weekly blog, so he decided to reinforce his message to them by writing their conversation in the parking lot. Maybe they will make copies of this story and think it over. Or maybe they will laugh, but the Soul Saver hoped they would not laugh at becoming lady marines. The Soul Saver knew that America’s military was greatly needed for all kinds of real world reasons. There is no doubt abut that; especially after the terrorist attack on America’s World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the likely attack on the White House if Flight 93 had not crashed into the ground. ( Have the America people forgotten that those really stupid but dangerous terrorist almost crashed a plane into the White House? How would they have felt if the terrorist had succeeded in crashing a plane into America’s White House? )
But for some reason, the Soul Saver knew Mary was not meant to go into the Marines. As the Soul Saver stepped into his car and started his car’s engine, the two ladies exited their car and they started to walk up to the animal shelter. As the Soul Saver drove out of the parking lot, he saw the two gals walking up to the animal shelter to look at dogs. He knew that they were trying to save a dog so he yelled out the window to Mary, ‘Hey. Ask yourself this question. Do you want to kill people for a living or do you want to help people and save souls for a living?’
Enlightened Mary’s gleaming eyes glared into the Soul Saver's eyes with the correct answer.
DVD to watch: 300 (based on a true historical account of 300 warriors.)
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Chuck's Visit To China
52 Stories in 52 Weeks: ## 31 Chuck’s Visit To China (Based On My First Visit to China)
By: Mr. George D. Patnoe., Jr's Ambidextrous Brain + Spiritual Mind.
The moment arrived as a surprise from the sky, an offer he could not refuse; although he knew the moment would arrived one way or another. Chuck had learned that life’s surprises were sometimes like gifts from the wind, although some gifts were expected and others almost guaranteed; while other gifts were totally unexpected. Surprise and anticipation filled the mind of Chuck as he thought about his request to visit China. He had read about China’s history in American books hat were written by Americans authors; authors that wrote about the history of China, but not about their own personal experiences in the land of China. Chuck had hoped that one day someone would write a story about their personal visit to the communist country called China.
After he received his American passport, Chuck walked into the Chinese Embassy in America. He begin the process of obtaining his Chinese visa for his trip to China. The Chinese representative who accepted Chuck’s paperwork asked Chuck what Chuck did for a living. Chuck said, ‘I am a writer.’ The smiling representative winked at Chuck before he asked Chuck, ‘Do you promise not to write about your adventures in China?’ Chuck smile and he winked back, ‘Sure, I promise.’ They both knew that a lie in the Chinese culture was not the same as a lie in the American culture. If they did not want known writers writing about their visit to China, they would not have given Chuck a Chinese visa for a long visit. Somehow, the question did not make any sense to Chuck, that until he actually visited China. Then he understood more.
Chuck had met a few Americans who had traveled to Chuck, but those few individuals never discussed of their visits to China. That surprised Chuck; like it was a code of silence that no person who visited China would speak or write about their adventures in China. But, Chuck was no ordinary person. He knew that one day, he would write about his visit to China, so educated and uneducated Americans would know how lucky they were to be born into America, a country with true intellectual freedoms. Chuck knew that one day, he would write about his trip to China, even if the Chinese government did not like or approve of his true story. After all, he was an American and as an American, he was born with the rights of freedom of expression, the freedom of free speech, the freedom to write whatever he wanted. He did not live in fear of the Chinese government. Plus, he had a responsibility to write truthful about his visit to China, and not some made up story.
As Chuck sat in the small flying airplane, he looked out the airplane’s window as he had before; with a sense of awe that he could look out an airplane window to view the grand county of America. Chuck understood a few things about America’s landscape because he had driven around America a few times, but he had only read about China’s landscape, along with looking at pictures of the Chinese landscape. He had met many Asian people, including a few Chinese people. Chuck knew that by flying over the land of China, he would still not understand the real China. That would be like looking at a map to try to understand any country just by looking at the shape of the continent and memorizing names of all the towns and highways. Even reading about the history, economic, and political aspects of China would only provide a very limited concept of China and its true culture. Chuck needed to experience what he could not read in books or see in pictures.
Chuck fell asleep on the plane as it flew over the ocean for thirteen hours during the night hours. He slept like a baby before his visit to China. He did not realized how good it was to sleep on a safe airplane, to prepare him for his nonstop adventures in China. When he woke up, he had a five hours to rest before the airplane flew into the Canton Airport in the Chinese city of Guangzhou. (an hour south of the ocean, close to Hong Kong.) As the airplane approached China, Chuck could see the thick moisture in the air, as the plane began its descent onto the Canton airstrip in Guangzhou at approximately 7:00 am. The rising sun provided the steamy air with a dim yellow color. The yellow steamy air was with thick with moisture and fear; but Chuck was prepared for the thick warm moisture that would surround his body and the thick air of fear that would surround his mind as he walked in and through China. Moreover, he knew how to sweat without fear. So Chuck looked deep into his soul to remember who he really was a person before he faced one single Chinese official.
As Chuck walked up to the passport booth, he noticed the guards who were dressed in their green military uniforms and who wore there dead looking faces. Chuck thought back to America’s passport booths without the green military uniforms. Ok, he thought, we are off to a good start in the land of communism, where the Chinese government tries to install fear into foreigners and the returning Chinese by reminding them that green military uniforms would welcome everyone into China with the military threat which was always in the back of very one’s minds, especially after student demonstration at China’s Tiananmen Square
When Chuck looked into the eyes of the passport acceptor and guards, he perceived that they were more afraid of Chuck, after Chuck waved a long American smile at them. Even a Chinese tiger can sense a fearless American adversary. Chuck’s Chinese visa was accepted, so Chuck walked through the booth, into a different world. The airstrip’s warm moisture was thicker than the air on the other side of the airport, as if even the weather would sent a message to all newcomers to China. But once a person was allowed to walk through the first wall of green military uniforms, the air changed just as it would for a movie.
His first step onto a Chinese sidewalk was a strange experience indeed. Since he had to wait for his driver to arrive with the van, Chuck had enough time to stop, stand still, and to look around.. Chuck saw the Chinese people going about their normal daily routines without the awareness that a foreigner, a total stranger had stepped into their world. Chuck thought about the first Star Trek television series, where advanced cosmic creatures enter an old historical town to be met with fear and misunderstanding. But that did not happed to Chuck, although Chuck might as well have been an alien from a different planet, just as he was from a different country. A different mind with different skin and bones. Chuck noticed how no one noticed him, as if he was an invisible person. Maybe they were just to busy worrying about their lives to worry about Chuck. Maybe the street people were brainwashed to not question anything or anyone, so they did not question Chuck’s presence on their street. People were peddling old bicycles up and down the street.
After Chuck’s driver packed his bags into the white van, they rode through the highways and side streets of Guangzhou. Chuck was surprised at the chaos in the streets. People pulling rickshaws and riding bicycles were crossing the streets without even looking at the cars to dodge the cars and motorcycles. Chuck remembered New York’s Manhattan beeping traffic. Chuck asked his driver, ‘Why are not you beeping your horn?’ The driver responded with, ‘It is illegal to beep your horn here.’ After Chuck recalled New York’ Manhattan’s beeping taxis, Chuck named the city, ‘The City Of Silence.’ It also seemed silent because no one seemed to be talking.
After a short rest at a friend’s apartment, Chuck boarded the train for the 15 hour train ride into the middle of China. (The town’s name is not mentioned for very specific reasons. Chuck is not afraid, but there are people who still have to live in China.) Sitting in first class traveling sleeping room, Chuck felt as if he was in a real life movie. He felt like an American spy who was traveling in a communist country whose government would treat him as a spy under the correct political conditions. Chuck wondered how many Chinese people thought Charlie was an undercover CIA agent for America. Probably all of them who cared to think such thoughts, especially the Chinese governmental people. Chuck looked outside the train’s windows for extended moments at a time. There are long periods of silence on a fifteen hour train ride. China’s green countryside grass and fields were the same everywhere along the railroad tracks.
Chuck saw town sign after town sign for every small town during each train stop; signs that probably would not be on the Chinese maps in America. Chuck drank tea on the train as was everyone else. Eventually, fifteen hours later, the train stopped at a relativity small town in China. Chuck was very happy to see smiling faces on the Chinese people who met him at the train station, but he knew they knew nothing of him and that he knew nothing of them. They treated Chuck very well, serving him food and drink and letting him take a shower before he slept for the night.
Outside the building, Chinese men were wheelbarrowing cement up a ten story building. Even though some places used huge construction cranes to move building supplies, some places used men. Chuck felt sorry for them, until he realized that they were all earning a wage for their back breaking work employment. Maybe physical labor was all they could do to earn money for their families. In every town, new buildings were being constructed for everyone to live in. Chuck guessed that every Chinese person loved their new apartments. After resting for a couple of days, Chuck was invited to a huge party with five huge round tables.
The tables were surrounded with nice families, with educated people who held good jobs in China. There were also babies, and toddlers, and children. The mothers were taking care of their babies and toddlers and children, just like they would in America. The babies were sitting in their highchairs as the mothers were feeding them Chinese baby food. The toddlers were giggling while they ran around the tables just as they would in America, with their mothers trying to control them. The men were all smoking cigarettes as if they were fish drinking water.
The men were also drinking beer out of three inch glasses. Chuck tried to warn the smokers of the dangers that smoking causes to their lungs, but they just laugh at him. Inwardly, Chuck was laughing at their three inch tall glasses of beer because America’s men drank beer out of much taller glasses. American beer drinkers would laugh at the Chinese beer drinkers, because of the small glasses; but Chuck guessed that the Chinese beer drinkers did not get many DWI as the Americans.
In one quick moment of inspiration, Chuck blurted out in English, ‘What do you think of communism and socialism versus capitalism and democracy?’ Chuck observed a freeze frame of life. Every movement stopped, every sound was silenced. Even time froze in the room. Everyone froze as if Chuck had just asked a very terrible question. If it was a film editing room, it would have been a long pause of the film, while Chuck, the film’s director, was starring at the frozen hand with a cigarette that was froze in mid air. Only the smoke floated in the air. The mothers who were bent over as they cared for their children were frozen too, stuck in their bent over position. Chuck could not believe his eyes or his ears. The room had become absolutely still and silent.
So he asked again, ‘What do you think of communism and socialism versus capitalism and democracy?’ Not one person moved, except the children, who had no idea what was happening. Chuck turned around to a Chinese translator and he quickly said, ‘Repeat the question for me in Chinese.’ The Chinese translator repeated the question in Chinese, and the room remained completely silent as the Chinese people remained still and silent. Was this a joke on him or what? But no, they were serious about not talking. So Chuck raised his hands into the air and he said, ‘Well, so much for that question.’
‘Action!’ is what the director called out to the still life moment. Everyone returned to their normal actions that they were performing before the question was asked. Chuck starred into the realm of disbelief because he thought that no American would believe him if he told them the story of the freeze frame moment of Chinese fear. But hopefully they would believe it! After the party, Chuck left the party just as he would in America; expect for one big difference. The moisture of communism was lingering in the air.
Later in the week, Chuck took a nap for a hour. When he woke up, he was informed that he would be taking a fifteen hour train ride to Beijing. He smiled as he realized that he his unplanned adventure was being planned for him without any effort on his part at all. The train ride was identical to the first train ride; with a first class sleeping room, with green fields out the windows. Beijing is a modern city with lots of cars and some modern day malls. Chuck’s acquaintances wanted to visit a brand new nine story mall in the center of Beijing, so he was obliged to follow the Chinese crowd into the mall. Before Chuck entered the mall with his Chinese associates, he turned around to face the street. He stood still, pretending to be an American statue for freedom.
He blew a long conscious breath of America’s freedom into the city of Beijing. There, he observed the street’s activity. He watched two worlds pass each other like ghosts in the night. Brand new BMWs were passing old men who pulled the rickshaws as they ran down the street next to the BMWs. Two generations of Chinese people were passing each everyday in the land of moderation and transformation. The old and poor would die next to the rich and young. The old China was changing faster than ever because of America’s breath of capitalism.
Chuck knew that moderation and transformation were easier when people and their government wanted change, but he also knew that China’s transformation was being forced partly by America’s mass media blitz of global commercialism. The old timers in government had no choice but to open their minds to America’s breath of capitalism. Chuck could only imagine how China’s old dead leaders were turning over in their graves as they looked down on America’s capitalistic influence over the world. Some people went along with the change, while others watched it happen, like the old man with his rickshaw. Chuck also realized that that rickshaw man might never walk into the brand new nine story mall. But if he did, he probably would never be able to buy anything in the mall anyway. Nine mall floors of America styled clothes and electronics; everything except America’s freedom. America’s freedom can not be bought at a mall.
A few days later, Chuck and a Chinese acquaintance rode in a a brand new red VW taxi for a day, complete with a chauffeur. He was a nice chauffeur. The first visit was to the Great Wall of China; early in the morning, before the sun heated the air and before the crowds started to show up. The sun was waving over the land, just like the Chinese flags that waved in the wind, all along the brick walls of the Great Wall of China. Chuck liked the flags as a nice welcome to the Great Wall of China. As Chuck walked up to the first steps to the Great Wall of China, they were the normal size steps that anyone could step on, one step at a time. When Chuck approached the first section of the Great Wall of China, he noticed that it took more effort to use his legs muscles because the wall’s floors took many increases in its angle. It was like walking up angled ice, only this was stone and brick and cement. Walking on the Great Wall of China looked easier in pictures.
It felt as if the Great Wall of China was pushing up at Chuck’s legs. Could the Great Wall of China feel China’s transformation from the old to the new? Higher and higher along the steep incline stone floor, Chuck watched happy Chinese people visiting their pride and joy momument. Chuck looked at the modern day Chinese who walked the wall’s stone floor as he thought about the people who built the wall. How many people died while they were building this three thousand mile freaking huge wall compared to how many people died for American’s freedom for political and religious and scientific thought and ideas? Numbers did not matter, did they?
Did the modern day Chinese think about their dead ancestors who built the wall, or did they forget their past? Did Americans think about the men who died for their individual freedoms to think, read, write, and voice the truth. Chuck thought that most Chinese and Americans took for granted their individual histories, just as they took for granted their individual yet connected futures. Yet, both the smart Americans and smart Chinese secretly knew that the success to their individual and connected futures would be to overcome the great cultural walls that separated the Chinese from the Americans, and the Americans from the Chinese, without a war.
Chuck thought that most Chinese could care less about the meaning of the Great Wall, or even about America! But every Chinese person wanted a better job and a better life for their families, just like the Americans. The Great Wall of China was a huge symbol that there was a great wall that separated the Chinese people from the American people, but that invisible wall was being slowly broken down by the advancement in global communications. Global communications were allowing information about America’s capitalism and freedoms to pass through the wall of communism.
Chuck, the fearless lord of light, walked on the Great Wall with the enlighten spirit of America’s freedom in his soul. He knew it too. He carried America’s individual intellectual freedom and human rights as he walked on the floor of the Great Wall. He breathed America’s dream with every breath he took. In a moment of inspiration, he walked up to the wall’s edge and he looked out into the forest. The powerful wind was blowing the leaves on the trees as if they wanted a response from Chuck. Chuck blew a long breath of America’s freedom’s into the winds of China. He hoped that his one breath of freedom would change the course of China’s freedom faster than any computer. He hoped that the winds of China would take that breath of freedom into the lungs of very Chinese person until the every Chinese person breathed without fear from communism.
After walking up and down on the Great Wall of China for a couple of hours, Chuck and his Chinese acquaintance stepped back into the red VW getta taxi, and the they drove away from the Great Wall. The taxi started to enter the highway and immediately Chuck saw something weird. A Chinese cop car was on the side of the road with the radar gun upside down, pointed towards the mountain at a 45 angle away from highway. The two poorly and sloppy dressed cops waved their hands to signal Chuck’s driver to pull over. The driver stepped out of the car and he talked with the police. When the driver returned, he showed Chuck the speeding ticket.
Chuck’s said, ‘You were not ever going slow. How could they ticket you for speeding. And the radar detector was pointed in the wrong direction. Are you going to fight it in court? The driver responded, ‘What court. Even if I went to court, I would lose because the cops get a bonus for every ticket they give out.’ Chuck replied, ‘Wow, in America, we are allowed to go to court and fight unfair tickets.’ The driver said, ‘Because I was friendly with those two cops, I got off easy. The other taxi driver behind me received double the fines and double the points on his drivers license because he was angry and yelling at the cops.’ Even though China tried to copy America’s great malls, they had not yet copied America’s legal system.
After another fifteen hour train ride back to the middle of China, Chuck and his acquaintance visited their other acquaintances and said their good-byes. Chuck again boarded the train for another fifteen hour train ride back south to Guangzhou, where he had to board the airplane. After Chuck entered their first class room on the train, Chuck saw an older man do something strange. He turned his head to the side to look out the door and he slyly showed his police badge to Chuck. Chuck fearlessly thought to himself, ‘My oh my, this should be fun. But he will not get away with his intimidation. Let see what he does next. I guess it is show time; meaning a moment when the games of life became a bit more serious because the danger level had risen.’
Chuck watched the guy playing with his black leather wallet, with the gold badge waving from side to side, moving one way and then another. Chuck thought to himself, ‘Is he a moron cop or something?’ After a few hours of watching the undercover play with his gold cop badge, trying to intimidate Chuck, Chuck started to play his own game with the Chinese undercover cop. Chuck started to eat some American chocolate, but he did not want to be "rude" to the cop. So he yelled, ‘Hey, want some American chocolate?’ The undercover cop looked at Chuck like he though Chuck was a bit crazy. Actually, Chuck was feeling a little bit crazy because he knew that he was going to enjoy playing mind games with the Chinese undercover cop. Chuck ordered some tea for everyone because he knew the Chinese just loved their tea. The cop put his badge away so he could handle his tea. It was going to be a long train ride for the Chinese undercover cop.
Chuck’s acquaintance knew what he was up to, so she just smiled every time Chuck spoke to the cop; because the cop was getting anger and anger at Chuck’s fearless conversations with him. After a few hours on the train, Chuck sarcastically said to the silent cop, ‘Hey, you a cop or something?’ The cop looked at Chuck as if to say, ‘You must be a wise ass or something because only a blind man could not see that gold badge that I was waving at you for the first two hours on the train. Why are you not afraid of me?’ was the look in his eyes.
Chuck grabbed his mini-DVD recorder and he sat down next to the Chinese undercover cop. ‘Hey, do you want to see my brother and his family in America?’ Without waiting for an answer, Chuck turned on his mini-DVD player and the Chinese undercover cop started to watch the movie. He begin to be interested in the movie when he saw Chuck’s brother’s two story house in California, USA. And his kids, and the boats at the yacht club and that was only the beginning.
The undercover cop smiled and then giggled at the kids as they played with their American toys in the white painted living room, on the white leather sofas. When the DVD American movie was finished, Chuck quickly drew the undercover cop’s face as a portrait, when the cop was not looking. Just before the train stopped, Chuck handed the undercover cop the portrait. It was signed, ‘Americans live without fear. Chuck, the American.’ The cop smiled as he left the train.
Chuck’s last day were spent hanging out in a five star hotel on the edge of the ocean. Chuck recalled his trip to China. He had seen and experienced so much of China in one month that the Chinese people who helped him along the way could not believe it. They told Chuck that he had seen and experienced more of China than the Chinese people. Chuck had eaten authentic spicy foods in the North, West, and South of China, in its valleys and on top of its mountains. He had visited the Chinese temple (s) where he had met a very old Chinese monk. The old monk had written a saying for Chuck, but no modern day Chinese person could read it because the Chinese characters were so old. Chuck had visited Chinese parks; one with drug needles in a side forest. He had visited Tiananmen Square, where a student’s mini-revolt ended with military tanks surrounding defenseless students. He visited the Christmas lit town of Shenzhen, where it was also illegal to beep your car horn. Needless to state, Chuck had experienced so much of China, it would take a book to record it all. Maybe some day!
When Chuck entered the airport on that hot, muggy Sunday evening, he was hungry, tired, and a bit homesick; mostly for American coffee, ice cream, pizza, and books. But most of all, Chuck wanted to drink some clean water. Chuck did not see any book stores in China, not even at the airport. While standing in line at the Chinese airport, after he had checked in his bags, Chuck waited for his turn to go through the last checkpoint booth. He could see the airplane that was going to fly him to America. Chuck needed to fill out a green piece of paper to inform the Chinese government that he was going to America, even though he had the official plane ticket in his hand. He dropped a pencil and he said, ‘POOP!’ When he looked up at the booth, the old man that was sitting there before he dropped his pencil was not there. A young lady was sitting in the chair.
The old man entered the lobby from a side door, and he some something in Chinese. Chuck’s acquaintance told Chuck that the old man said that Chuck said a bad word. ‘Chuck looked that the old man and then he turned his head towards the airplane. Chuck’s mind raced to America as he turned his head towards the old man. Chuck spoke in the Chinese language, with a weird psychotic voice, with a funny tilted face; ‘I am sorry for saying a bad word.’ The old man was so surprised the Chuck could speak Chinese that he became speechless. The old man said the he was going to check Chuck’s record and Chuck said, ‘What record? For saying one word. I am an American and Americans do not live in free, especially from speaking the truth. In America, we have rights of freedom of speech and if you think that one bad word is a crime, then remember this!’ Chuck blew a long winded breathe onto the old Chinese man. The old Chinese man asked Chuck, ‘What was that for? Chuck responded with, ‘That was the breath of America’s freedom that all Americans live by; and that hopefully one day soon, so will the Chinese people!’
The old man was so mad that he turned around and he exited the lobby. Chuck looked around him and the other Chinese people were still standing at a soldiers attention. Chuck asked himself, ‘So, this is what all Chinese have to put up with every second of their lives? Living in fear from speaking a single word; knowing that if they speak one single wrong word that the government does not approve of, that it will go on their record as a crime. After a month of traveling up and down the land of China, after eating real Chinese foods and after meeting so many kinds of Chinese people, Chuck realized that the common Chinese people had many common traits as the American people. The had jobs and families and they had a love for their country, but they missed out on America’s freedoms. Instead, they lived in fear every second of their lives.
Before Chuck boarded the airplane for his long flight back to America, he looked back to the land of China as he thought to himself, ‘Thank God for America. Thank God Almighty you lucky Americans. Thank God everyday that you live in the land of freedom. Thank God.’ Before Chuck boarded the airplane, he turned around for one last time. He again blew one long breath of America’s freedom into the Chinese winds; but by now, China was becoming more Americanized than ever!
By: Mr. George D. Patnoe., Jr's Ambidextrous Brain + Spiritual Mind.
The moment arrived as a surprise from the sky, an offer he could not refuse; although he knew the moment would arrived one way or another. Chuck had learned that life’s surprises were sometimes like gifts from the wind, although some gifts were expected and others almost guaranteed; while other gifts were totally unexpected. Surprise and anticipation filled the mind of Chuck as he thought about his request to visit China. He had read about China’s history in American books hat were written by Americans authors; authors that wrote about the history of China, but not about their own personal experiences in the land of China. Chuck had hoped that one day someone would write a story about their personal visit to the communist country called China.
After he received his American passport, Chuck walked into the Chinese Embassy in America. He begin the process of obtaining his Chinese visa for his trip to China. The Chinese representative who accepted Chuck’s paperwork asked Chuck what Chuck did for a living. Chuck said, ‘I am a writer.’ The smiling representative winked at Chuck before he asked Chuck, ‘Do you promise not to write about your adventures in China?’ Chuck smile and he winked back, ‘Sure, I promise.’ They both knew that a lie in the Chinese culture was not the same as a lie in the American culture. If they did not want known writers writing about their visit to China, they would not have given Chuck a Chinese visa for a long visit. Somehow, the question did not make any sense to Chuck, that until he actually visited China. Then he understood more.
Chuck had met a few Americans who had traveled to Chuck, but those few individuals never discussed of their visits to China. That surprised Chuck; like it was a code of silence that no person who visited China would speak or write about their adventures in China. But, Chuck was no ordinary person. He knew that one day, he would write about his visit to China, so educated and uneducated Americans would know how lucky they were to be born into America, a country with true intellectual freedoms. Chuck knew that one day, he would write about his trip to China, even if the Chinese government did not like or approve of his true story. After all, he was an American and as an American, he was born with the rights of freedom of expression, the freedom of free speech, the freedom to write whatever he wanted. He did not live in fear of the Chinese government. Plus, he had a responsibility to write truthful about his visit to China, and not some made up story.
As Chuck sat in the small flying airplane, he looked out the airplane’s window as he had before; with a sense of awe that he could look out an airplane window to view the grand county of America. Chuck understood a few things about America’s landscape because he had driven around America a few times, but he had only read about China’s landscape, along with looking at pictures of the Chinese landscape. He had met many Asian people, including a few Chinese people. Chuck knew that by flying over the land of China, he would still not understand the real China. That would be like looking at a map to try to understand any country just by looking at the shape of the continent and memorizing names of all the towns and highways. Even reading about the history, economic, and political aspects of China would only provide a very limited concept of China and its true culture. Chuck needed to experience what he could not read in books or see in pictures.
Chuck fell asleep on the plane as it flew over the ocean for thirteen hours during the night hours. He slept like a baby before his visit to China. He did not realized how good it was to sleep on a safe airplane, to prepare him for his nonstop adventures in China. When he woke up, he had a five hours to rest before the airplane flew into the Canton Airport in the Chinese city of Guangzhou. (an hour south of the ocean, close to Hong Kong.) As the airplane approached China, Chuck could see the thick moisture in the air, as the plane began its descent onto the Canton airstrip in Guangzhou at approximately 7:00 am. The rising sun provided the steamy air with a dim yellow color. The yellow steamy air was with thick with moisture and fear; but Chuck was prepared for the thick warm moisture that would surround his body and the thick air of fear that would surround his mind as he walked in and through China. Moreover, he knew how to sweat without fear. So Chuck looked deep into his soul to remember who he really was a person before he faced one single Chinese official.
As Chuck walked up to the passport booth, he noticed the guards who were dressed in their green military uniforms and who wore there dead looking faces. Chuck thought back to America’s passport booths without the green military uniforms. Ok, he thought, we are off to a good start in the land of communism, where the Chinese government tries to install fear into foreigners and the returning Chinese by reminding them that green military uniforms would welcome everyone into China with the military threat which was always in the back of very one’s minds, especially after student demonstration at China’s Tiananmen Square
When Chuck looked into the eyes of the passport acceptor and guards, he perceived that they were more afraid of Chuck, after Chuck waved a long American smile at them. Even a Chinese tiger can sense a fearless American adversary. Chuck’s Chinese visa was accepted, so Chuck walked through the booth, into a different world. The airstrip’s warm moisture was thicker than the air on the other side of the airport, as if even the weather would sent a message to all newcomers to China. But once a person was allowed to walk through the first wall of green military uniforms, the air changed just as it would for a movie.
His first step onto a Chinese sidewalk was a strange experience indeed. Since he had to wait for his driver to arrive with the van, Chuck had enough time to stop, stand still, and to look around.. Chuck saw the Chinese people going about their normal daily routines without the awareness that a foreigner, a total stranger had stepped into their world. Chuck thought about the first Star Trek television series, where advanced cosmic creatures enter an old historical town to be met with fear and misunderstanding. But that did not happed to Chuck, although Chuck might as well have been an alien from a different planet, just as he was from a different country. A different mind with different skin and bones. Chuck noticed how no one noticed him, as if he was an invisible person. Maybe they were just to busy worrying about their lives to worry about Chuck. Maybe the street people were brainwashed to not question anything or anyone, so they did not question Chuck’s presence on their street. People were peddling old bicycles up and down the street.
After Chuck’s driver packed his bags into the white van, they rode through the highways and side streets of Guangzhou. Chuck was surprised at the chaos in the streets. People pulling rickshaws and riding bicycles were crossing the streets without even looking at the cars to dodge the cars and motorcycles. Chuck remembered New York’s Manhattan beeping traffic. Chuck asked his driver, ‘Why are not you beeping your horn?’ The driver responded with, ‘It is illegal to beep your horn here.’ After Chuck recalled New York’ Manhattan’s beeping taxis, Chuck named the city, ‘The City Of Silence.’ It also seemed silent because no one seemed to be talking.
After a short rest at a friend’s apartment, Chuck boarded the train for the 15 hour train ride into the middle of China. (The town’s name is not mentioned for very specific reasons. Chuck is not afraid, but there are people who still have to live in China.) Sitting in first class traveling sleeping room, Chuck felt as if he was in a real life movie. He felt like an American spy who was traveling in a communist country whose government would treat him as a spy under the correct political conditions. Chuck wondered how many Chinese people thought Charlie was an undercover CIA agent for America. Probably all of them who cared to think such thoughts, especially the Chinese governmental people. Chuck looked outside the train’s windows for extended moments at a time. There are long periods of silence on a fifteen hour train ride. China’s green countryside grass and fields were the same everywhere along the railroad tracks.
Chuck saw town sign after town sign for every small town during each train stop; signs that probably would not be on the Chinese maps in America. Chuck drank tea on the train as was everyone else. Eventually, fifteen hours later, the train stopped at a relativity small town in China. Chuck was very happy to see smiling faces on the Chinese people who met him at the train station, but he knew they knew nothing of him and that he knew nothing of them. They treated Chuck very well, serving him food and drink and letting him take a shower before he slept for the night.
Outside the building, Chinese men were wheelbarrowing cement up a ten story building. Even though some places used huge construction cranes to move building supplies, some places used men. Chuck felt sorry for them, until he realized that they were all earning a wage for their back breaking work employment. Maybe physical labor was all they could do to earn money for their families. In every town, new buildings were being constructed for everyone to live in. Chuck guessed that every Chinese person loved their new apartments. After resting for a couple of days, Chuck was invited to a huge party with five huge round tables.
The tables were surrounded with nice families, with educated people who held good jobs in China. There were also babies, and toddlers, and children. The mothers were taking care of their babies and toddlers and children, just like they would in America. The babies were sitting in their highchairs as the mothers were feeding them Chinese baby food. The toddlers were giggling while they ran around the tables just as they would in America, with their mothers trying to control them. The men were all smoking cigarettes as if they were fish drinking water.
The men were also drinking beer out of three inch glasses. Chuck tried to warn the smokers of the dangers that smoking causes to their lungs, but they just laugh at him. Inwardly, Chuck was laughing at their three inch tall glasses of beer because America’s men drank beer out of much taller glasses. American beer drinkers would laugh at the Chinese beer drinkers, because of the small glasses; but Chuck guessed that the Chinese beer drinkers did not get many DWI as the Americans.
In one quick moment of inspiration, Chuck blurted out in English, ‘What do you think of communism and socialism versus capitalism and democracy?’ Chuck observed a freeze frame of life. Every movement stopped, every sound was silenced. Even time froze in the room. Everyone froze as if Chuck had just asked a very terrible question. If it was a film editing room, it would have been a long pause of the film, while Chuck, the film’s director, was starring at the frozen hand with a cigarette that was froze in mid air. Only the smoke floated in the air. The mothers who were bent over as they cared for their children were frozen too, stuck in their bent over position. Chuck could not believe his eyes or his ears. The room had become absolutely still and silent.
So he asked again, ‘What do you think of communism and socialism versus capitalism and democracy?’ Not one person moved, except the children, who had no idea what was happening. Chuck turned around to a Chinese translator and he quickly said, ‘Repeat the question for me in Chinese.’ The Chinese translator repeated the question in Chinese, and the room remained completely silent as the Chinese people remained still and silent. Was this a joke on him or what? But no, they were serious about not talking. So Chuck raised his hands into the air and he said, ‘Well, so much for that question.’
‘Action!’ is what the director called out to the still life moment. Everyone returned to their normal actions that they were performing before the question was asked. Chuck starred into the realm of disbelief because he thought that no American would believe him if he told them the story of the freeze frame moment of Chinese fear. But hopefully they would believe it! After the party, Chuck left the party just as he would in America; expect for one big difference. The moisture of communism was lingering in the air.
Later in the week, Chuck took a nap for a hour. When he woke up, he was informed that he would be taking a fifteen hour train ride to Beijing. He smiled as he realized that he his unplanned adventure was being planned for him without any effort on his part at all. The train ride was identical to the first train ride; with a first class sleeping room, with green fields out the windows. Beijing is a modern city with lots of cars and some modern day malls. Chuck’s acquaintances wanted to visit a brand new nine story mall in the center of Beijing, so he was obliged to follow the Chinese crowd into the mall. Before Chuck entered the mall with his Chinese associates, he turned around to face the street. He stood still, pretending to be an American statue for freedom.
He blew a long conscious breath of America’s freedom into the city of Beijing. There, he observed the street’s activity. He watched two worlds pass each other like ghosts in the night. Brand new BMWs were passing old men who pulled the rickshaws as they ran down the street next to the BMWs. Two generations of Chinese people were passing each everyday in the land of moderation and transformation. The old and poor would die next to the rich and young. The old China was changing faster than ever because of America’s breath of capitalism.
Chuck knew that moderation and transformation were easier when people and their government wanted change, but he also knew that China’s transformation was being forced partly by America’s mass media blitz of global commercialism. The old timers in government had no choice but to open their minds to America’s breath of capitalism. Chuck could only imagine how China’s old dead leaders were turning over in their graves as they looked down on America’s capitalistic influence over the world. Some people went along with the change, while others watched it happen, like the old man with his rickshaw. Chuck also realized that that rickshaw man might never walk into the brand new nine story mall. But if he did, he probably would never be able to buy anything in the mall anyway. Nine mall floors of America styled clothes and electronics; everything except America’s freedom. America’s freedom can not be bought at a mall.
A few days later, Chuck and a Chinese acquaintance rode in a a brand new red VW taxi for a day, complete with a chauffeur. He was a nice chauffeur. The first visit was to the Great Wall of China; early in the morning, before the sun heated the air and before the crowds started to show up. The sun was waving over the land, just like the Chinese flags that waved in the wind, all along the brick walls of the Great Wall of China. Chuck liked the flags as a nice welcome to the Great Wall of China. As Chuck walked up to the first steps to the Great Wall of China, they were the normal size steps that anyone could step on, one step at a time. When Chuck approached the first section of the Great Wall of China, he noticed that it took more effort to use his legs muscles because the wall’s floors took many increases in its angle. It was like walking up angled ice, only this was stone and brick and cement. Walking on the Great Wall of China looked easier in pictures.
It felt as if the Great Wall of China was pushing up at Chuck’s legs. Could the Great Wall of China feel China’s transformation from the old to the new? Higher and higher along the steep incline stone floor, Chuck watched happy Chinese people visiting their pride and joy momument. Chuck looked at the modern day Chinese who walked the wall’s stone floor as he thought about the people who built the wall. How many people died while they were building this three thousand mile freaking huge wall compared to how many people died for American’s freedom for political and religious and scientific thought and ideas? Numbers did not matter, did they?
Did the modern day Chinese think about their dead ancestors who built the wall, or did they forget their past? Did Americans think about the men who died for their individual freedoms to think, read, write, and voice the truth. Chuck thought that most Chinese and Americans took for granted their individual histories, just as they took for granted their individual yet connected futures. Yet, both the smart Americans and smart Chinese secretly knew that the success to their individual and connected futures would be to overcome the great cultural walls that separated the Chinese from the Americans, and the Americans from the Chinese, without a war.
Chuck thought that most Chinese could care less about the meaning of the Great Wall, or even about America! But every Chinese person wanted a better job and a better life for their families, just like the Americans. The Great Wall of China was a huge symbol that there was a great wall that separated the Chinese people from the American people, but that invisible wall was being slowly broken down by the advancement in global communications. Global communications were allowing information about America’s capitalism and freedoms to pass through the wall of communism.
Chuck, the fearless lord of light, walked on the Great Wall with the enlighten spirit of America’s freedom in his soul. He knew it too. He carried America’s individual intellectual freedom and human rights as he walked on the floor of the Great Wall. He breathed America’s dream with every breath he took. In a moment of inspiration, he walked up to the wall’s edge and he looked out into the forest. The powerful wind was blowing the leaves on the trees as if they wanted a response from Chuck. Chuck blew a long breath of America’s freedom’s into the winds of China. He hoped that his one breath of freedom would change the course of China’s freedom faster than any computer. He hoped that the winds of China would take that breath of freedom into the lungs of very Chinese person until the every Chinese person breathed without fear from communism.
After walking up and down on the Great Wall of China for a couple of hours, Chuck and his Chinese acquaintance stepped back into the red VW getta taxi, and the they drove away from the Great Wall. The taxi started to enter the highway and immediately Chuck saw something weird. A Chinese cop car was on the side of the road with the radar gun upside down, pointed towards the mountain at a 45 angle away from highway. The two poorly and sloppy dressed cops waved their hands to signal Chuck’s driver to pull over. The driver stepped out of the car and he talked with the police. When the driver returned, he showed Chuck the speeding ticket.
Chuck’s said, ‘You were not ever going slow. How could they ticket you for speeding. And the radar detector was pointed in the wrong direction. Are you going to fight it in court? The driver responded, ‘What court. Even if I went to court, I would lose because the cops get a bonus for every ticket they give out.’ Chuck replied, ‘Wow, in America, we are allowed to go to court and fight unfair tickets.’ The driver said, ‘Because I was friendly with those two cops, I got off easy. The other taxi driver behind me received double the fines and double the points on his drivers license because he was angry and yelling at the cops.’ Even though China tried to copy America’s great malls, they had not yet copied America’s legal system.
After another fifteen hour train ride back to the middle of China, Chuck and his acquaintance visited their other acquaintances and said their good-byes. Chuck again boarded the train for another fifteen hour train ride back south to Guangzhou, where he had to board the airplane. After Chuck entered their first class room on the train, Chuck saw an older man do something strange. He turned his head to the side to look out the door and he slyly showed his police badge to Chuck. Chuck fearlessly thought to himself, ‘My oh my, this should be fun. But he will not get away with his intimidation. Let see what he does next. I guess it is show time; meaning a moment when the games of life became a bit more serious because the danger level had risen.’
Chuck watched the guy playing with his black leather wallet, with the gold badge waving from side to side, moving one way and then another. Chuck thought to himself, ‘Is he a moron cop or something?’ After a few hours of watching the undercover play with his gold cop badge, trying to intimidate Chuck, Chuck started to play his own game with the Chinese undercover cop. Chuck started to eat some American chocolate, but he did not want to be "rude" to the cop. So he yelled, ‘Hey, want some American chocolate?’ The undercover cop looked at Chuck like he though Chuck was a bit crazy. Actually, Chuck was feeling a little bit crazy because he knew that he was going to enjoy playing mind games with the Chinese undercover cop. Chuck ordered some tea for everyone because he knew the Chinese just loved their tea. The cop put his badge away so he could handle his tea. It was going to be a long train ride for the Chinese undercover cop.
Chuck’s acquaintance knew what he was up to, so she just smiled every time Chuck spoke to the cop; because the cop was getting anger and anger at Chuck’s fearless conversations with him. After a few hours on the train, Chuck sarcastically said to the silent cop, ‘Hey, you a cop or something?’ The cop looked at Chuck as if to say, ‘You must be a wise ass or something because only a blind man could not see that gold badge that I was waving at you for the first two hours on the train. Why are you not afraid of me?’ was the look in his eyes.
Chuck grabbed his mini-DVD recorder and he sat down next to the Chinese undercover cop. ‘Hey, do you want to see my brother and his family in America?’ Without waiting for an answer, Chuck turned on his mini-DVD player and the Chinese undercover cop started to watch the movie. He begin to be interested in the movie when he saw Chuck’s brother’s two story house in California, USA. And his kids, and the boats at the yacht club and that was only the beginning.
The undercover cop smiled and then giggled at the kids as they played with their American toys in the white painted living room, on the white leather sofas. When the DVD American movie was finished, Chuck quickly drew the undercover cop’s face as a portrait, when the cop was not looking. Just before the train stopped, Chuck handed the undercover cop the portrait. It was signed, ‘Americans live without fear. Chuck, the American.’ The cop smiled as he left the train.
Chuck’s last day were spent hanging out in a five star hotel on the edge of the ocean. Chuck recalled his trip to China. He had seen and experienced so much of China in one month that the Chinese people who helped him along the way could not believe it. They told Chuck that he had seen and experienced more of China than the Chinese people. Chuck had eaten authentic spicy foods in the North, West, and South of China, in its valleys and on top of its mountains. He had visited the Chinese temple (s) where he had met a very old Chinese monk. The old monk had written a saying for Chuck, but no modern day Chinese person could read it because the Chinese characters were so old. Chuck had visited Chinese parks; one with drug needles in a side forest. He had visited Tiananmen Square, where a student’s mini-revolt ended with military tanks surrounding defenseless students. He visited the Christmas lit town of Shenzhen, where it was also illegal to beep your car horn. Needless to state, Chuck had experienced so much of China, it would take a book to record it all. Maybe some day!
When Chuck entered the airport on that hot, muggy Sunday evening, he was hungry, tired, and a bit homesick; mostly for American coffee, ice cream, pizza, and books. But most of all, Chuck wanted to drink some clean water. Chuck did not see any book stores in China, not even at the airport. While standing in line at the Chinese airport, after he had checked in his bags, Chuck waited for his turn to go through the last checkpoint booth. He could see the airplane that was going to fly him to America. Chuck needed to fill out a green piece of paper to inform the Chinese government that he was going to America, even though he had the official plane ticket in his hand. He dropped a pencil and he said, ‘POOP!’ When he looked up at the booth, the old man that was sitting there before he dropped his pencil was not there. A young lady was sitting in the chair.
The old man entered the lobby from a side door, and he some something in Chinese. Chuck’s acquaintance told Chuck that the old man said that Chuck said a bad word. ‘Chuck looked that the old man and then he turned his head towards the airplane. Chuck’s mind raced to America as he turned his head towards the old man. Chuck spoke in the Chinese language, with a weird psychotic voice, with a funny tilted face; ‘I am sorry for saying a bad word.’ The old man was so surprised the Chuck could speak Chinese that he became speechless. The old man said the he was going to check Chuck’s record and Chuck said, ‘What record? For saying one word. I am an American and Americans do not live in free, especially from speaking the truth. In America, we have rights of freedom of speech and if you think that one bad word is a crime, then remember this!’ Chuck blew a long winded breathe onto the old Chinese man. The old Chinese man asked Chuck, ‘What was that for? Chuck responded with, ‘That was the breath of America’s freedom that all Americans live by; and that hopefully one day soon, so will the Chinese people!’
The old man was so mad that he turned around and he exited the lobby. Chuck looked around him and the other Chinese people were still standing at a soldiers attention. Chuck asked himself, ‘So, this is what all Chinese have to put up with every second of their lives? Living in fear from speaking a single word; knowing that if they speak one single wrong word that the government does not approve of, that it will go on their record as a crime. After a month of traveling up and down the land of China, after eating real Chinese foods and after meeting so many kinds of Chinese people, Chuck realized that the common Chinese people had many common traits as the American people. The had jobs and families and they had a love for their country, but they missed out on America’s freedoms. Instead, they lived in fear every second of their lives.
Before Chuck boarded the airplane for his long flight back to America, he looked back to the land of China as he thought to himself, ‘Thank God for America. Thank God Almighty you lucky Americans. Thank God everyday that you live in the land of freedom. Thank God.’ Before Chuck boarded the airplane, he turned around for one last time. He again blew one long breath of America’s freedom into the Chinese winds; but by now, China was becoming more Americanized than ever!
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About Me
- George D. Patnoe., Jr!!!
- United States
- When I was in college studying International Economics/Finance, I was also wondering how to develop a more powerful brain. So in 2001,I began a very specialized ambidextrous brain exercise program, for two hours per day,for many years. Those brain exercise began with me writing out words,mostly verbs, with both hands in different patterns.That developed into dual handed sentence writing to longer stories and dual handed drawing exercises.Details are for future books.I did these two hour brain workouts as a personal experiment to restructure my brain's neurons for the purpose of making my brain stronger for writing and language development; for logically creative storying writing.As far as I know, I am the only person in the course of history to have developed these ambidextrous hand/brain exercises.The purpose of these ambidextrous brain exercises is to strenghten both sides of the brain for language skills development, and to connect both sides of the brain together for language skills development. There is a very logical neurological reason for using two hands to write and draw as brain exercises. I also draw with both hands. 52 Stories is my testament!