For within the pages of this French newspaper a serialized story ran from August 28, 1844 to January 15, 1846.  The story told the tale of a sailor falsely accused, torn from the arms of his beloved and imprisoned in an inescapable prison. In prison he meets an old priest who teaches him the lessons of life and before his death finally reveals the location of a treasure which is beyond imagination.

Of course the imprisoned innocent would escape, be rescued by a band of smugglers and find the fabulous treasure.   With all the wealth he would assume a secret identity and return home to bring vengeance or should we say retribution on those who were responsible for his imprisonment.

By now you know what story I write of: The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas.  This thrilling serial kept the reading public wanting more of this tale of revenge.

Edmond Dantes felt justified in bringing judgments on those who mistreated him and robbed him of his life and true love.  His revenge carried a high price for those in the story.

Perhaps, on this planet traversing the cosmos revenge plays an integral part.  Unfortunately, too many people who are cruelly treated do not escape from their prisons and find a treasure beyond imagination.  Too often the guilty live lives unhampered by the common cares of most of humanity.

However, we like the stories where justice is finally meted out in such a delicious fashion.  Perhaps, these stories touch some hidden vein of stardust within us.

After all we are the children of the stars.  Star treasure is beyond measure.

After all is said and done, what does the Count of Monte Cristo has to say at the end of the tale:

“Live, then, and be happy, beloved children of my heart, and never forget that until the day when God shall deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is summed up in these two words,—’Wait and hope.’—Your friend,

“Edmond Dantes, Count of Monte Cristo.”

Wait and hope.  Wise words to live by as we walk the road of life waiting for our star treasure.

However, how about forgiveness? Is there a place for forgiveness in the heart of one who has been done wrong?

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G. D. Williams       © 2012

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1184/1184-h/1184-h.htm

Recently, I was attending a lecture where the English speaker mentioned a woman by the name of Herta von Stiege.  At the age of 50 Herta von Stiege, CEO and founder of the Ariya Capital Group, climbed Mount Kilimanjaro with a party of 28 individuals.  Seven of the 28 were individuals with disabilities from Enham.

Enham: Founded as a rehabilitation centre for ex-servicemen returning from the First World War, Enham has helped disabled people find new lives, homes and employment in unique and innovative ways for over 90 years. The link is below.

Herta von Stiege wrote of her experiences in The Mountain Within. Additional information about this remarkable woman is listed below.

Every man, woman and child on this planet traversing the cosmos faces challenges—mountains within and without.  At times what lies before us seems impossible to face and to conquer.

I remember when I was in Hawaii on business a number of years ago that one of my colleagues got the brilliant idea to climb Diamond Head very early one morning.  Leaving the hotel on the beach we boarded the bus and headed toward Diamond Head.

It was a trek up that dormant volcano and old military fortress.  However, when the top was reached, the view of the early morning and the Pacific Ocean was beyond comprehension.  The ocean winds reminded one of what it meant to be alive. To be honest I don’t remember the downward trek being much of a problem because I had reached the summit of a beautiful reality which remained with me on the way down the volcano.

The same was true years before in Phoenix when we decided to watch the sunrise from Piestewa Peak on a cool early August morning.  The trek was arduous, but the view was spectacular.  If one does not climb the mountain, the vistas of reality remain in shadows of the valley clouds.

Whatever mountain you face this day, remember it takes the first step to reach the summit.  I will close this post with the following statement.

“The thing that I realized on the way to the summit and on the climb down was that we tend to focus on the external challenges, but the reality is that we all have a mountain within us to climb and to conquer. It may be something in our career, like being a perfectionist or speaking in public. It may be fear of failure or of making decisions when those decisions affect the lives of other people”. Herta von Stiege

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Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/06/herta-von-stiegel-mt-kilimanjaro-disabled-athletes_n_1182158.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/herta-von-stiegel/leadership-and-change_b_1099693.html

Enham

We explore opportunities with people, so they can live the lives they choose, by overcoming limitations and expanding possibilities. Through personal development, training, housing options and employment, we support people to exercise individual choice and control.

http://www.enham.org.uk/

Herta von Stiegel

Herta von Stiegel climbs mountains literally and metaphorically. From childhood in communist Romania to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro, the journey encompasses a ground breaking career in law, the financial world and the creation of Ariya Capital, her own successful equity fund in London and Africa.

She did not have an easy start to her life. As a young 17 year old woman growing up in the repressive atmosphere of communist Romania she was made to demonstrate her leadership skills and courage by confronting the totalitarian system. She achieved the almost impossible by persuading the authorities to allow the family to emigrate to the United States, and to a new vision of possibilities.

 http://capperassociates.com/herta/herta_journey.html

THE MOUNTAIN WITHIN

http://www.themountainwithin.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRqt2wtIqzk&feature=related

Kilimanjaro: A Lost World

http://youtu.be/HGAdWJTxVsw

Tanzania National Parks

http://www.tanzaniaparks.com/kili.html

Astronaut Joseph Reardon passes through a time warp and finds himself two hundred years in the future (2148).  It’s a future where a mutant humanity is on the verge of extinction.  The earth is a barren waste.

He encounters a lonely anthropologist and archivist named Andro who shows him the collected works of humanity.  It’s a vast library of books which stretches beyond vision.

Reardon is told that one man, Bertram Cabot, Jr, will bring about the nightmarish world he sees.  Reardon’s decision is to attempt to find the time warp and reenter the past in order to prevent the calamity.  Andro accompanies Reardon on the trek, but for some unknown reason the astronaut dies when the time barrier is crossed and fades away leaving the mutant anthropologist to change the future.

Andro lands on earth of the past.  With his mental abilities he is able to cast a hypnotic spell to hide his true form.

As fate would have it, he meets Noelle, the future mother of the man who would bring about the destruction of the world. He falls in love with the beautiful young woman destined to be married the coming weekend to Bertram Cabot, Sr.

In elegant conversation in a mystic woods Noelle and Andro converse about the future.  Without the hypnotic spell she sees the man who she truly loves.  He is not a mutant from the future, but he is the man that she was destined to love.

As Cabot and the others chase them with guns blazing, Andro and Noelle reach Reardon’s starship and blast off leaving a bewildered Cabot wondering if Andro had saved humanity from his future son.  He stares up in the sky holding Noelle’s wedding veil in his left hand and a rifle in his right.

As the time barrier is breached, Andro suffers the same fate as Reardon.  He fades away as Noelle embraces the future they made without love.  Andro became the man who was never born because he changed the past. Loneliness like Andro’s would be her fate.

This simple story has all the vicissitudes of cruel fate.  Love is achieved and lost, be it in the present, past or future.

Perhaps some individuals are meant to be solitary souls wandering the spectrum of time searching for that elusive cosmic element known as love.  Wuthering Heights with its tragic lovers of Heathcliff and Catherine still roams the moors on this planet traversing the cosmos.

We should add Noelle and Andro to this list as they search for each other in time and space somewhere out there in the outer limits.  Loneliness among the billion stars is a journey, a solitary one.

How is your journey?  “Here, in the bright, clustered loneliness of the billion, billion stars, loneliness can be an exciting, voluntary thing, unlike the loneliness Man suffers on Earth.” What will be your fate in the uncharted tomorrows?

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G. D. Williams       © 2012

The Outer Limits:  The Man Who Was Never Born October 28, 1963

http://youtu.be/Upixi7mM9hE

When two young people meet for the first time, there’s a dance, emotional and mental.  They size each other up to determine if he or she is someone to whom a life-long commitment can be given.

Over time love develops like an aloe growing steadily and filled with essential juice.  Love finds expressions in myriad ways—a simple walk, a laugh, a flower, a snowflake which bounces from mitten to glove or a tear of joy gently wiped by a finger.

Belle and Scrooge (Old and Young)

So it was with Ebenezer and Belle, his beloved.  As they struggled in London of the early 1800s, wealth did not enrobe them.  They worked and survived the daily drudgery of life on this planet traversing the cosmos.

Belle noticed as time went on that her beloved Ebenezer changed from that happy boy that she knew to an aging man who sought his fortune at all cost. She saw his noble aspirations disappear like the sunset on the Thames.  His passion of youth turned to the passion of gain.

Their contract of love became null and void because Ebenezer became a man she did not know.  The man before her was someone she did not like.  Like an uncared aloe the vital juice of the plant dried up leaving dead roots and lifeless branches.

When confronted with her evidence, Ebenezer chose not to refute her arguments.  Belle released him from his pledge of love so many years before.

Perhaps she saw a sigh of relief in her former beloved.  They parted.  As she walked out the door, Dickens does not relate what Ebenezer thought and did.

We know the fate which awaited Ebenezer.  Belle would marry a man named Tut and have a brood of children, especially an oldest daughter which was a mirror image of her when she was that age.  The Ghost of Christmas Past allowed Ebenezer to see this.  Ebenezer began to realize what he had lost so many years before when that door closed behind his beloved Belle.

By the end of the story Ebenezer regained those noble aspirations which Belle loved.  He once again became the boy she fell in love with in the dreary London town.

Did Ebenezer ever cross paths with Belle?  Dickens does not say, but since it is February, the month of romance and dreams, let’s briefly imagined this scenario:

Ebenezer reads in the paper about the death of Belle’s husband.  He has Bob send flowers to the funeral with a personal note.

Several weeks go by and as Ebenezer walks to his house, around the corner a stately lady catches his eye.  As he looks at her grace, he recognizes his beloved Belle.

She smiles as she walks toward him.  He pauses as she reaches him.  In her hand is the card which accompanied the flowers, which he wrote with his own hand.

The words cascade from his soul like a gentle waterfall.  His words were simple yet profound: “My dearest Belle, please accept my deepest condolences for the lost of Tut.  He was a finer man than I.  You chose wisely.  If there is anything that I can do for you and the children do not hesitate to let me know.  Yours always, Ebenezer…”

What happened next?  It depends on your view of romance and fate and second chances.

Does love truly die?  Is there no hope for its resurrection in the human heart?

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G. D. Williams       © 2012

http://www.stormfax.com/dickens.htm

http://broadwaytheatreblog.com/category/a-christmas-carol/

However, the public had another number from the film picked out—White Christmas.  Holiday Inn and White Christmas would always be linked.

Since it is a Valentine Song, it has a poignant undertone.  It is given to someone who does not seem to catch on that his special valentine to her is his heart.

He simply asks her to “Remember, it’s my heart.”  He freely offers it with a request “to be careful.”

Most of us have been in a place and time where we offered that special someone a valentine, our heart.  Unfortunately, the valentine was taken and crushed by the hands of the one.

Perhaps, on the road of life there will be many times when the heart is tossed to side of the path.  Sometimes, a stiletto heel is plunged deep into the center of the laying heart and is twisted.  The echo of fading footsteps does not alleviate the excruciating agony of the heart lying on the roadside.

Sometimes it is the Santoku hōchō.  In the hand of a master chef a heart can be diced and tossed onto the road in an instant.

If your heart has the wound of a stiletto or a heart diced by a kitchen knife, grieve for your loss.  However, grieving must cease as you rejoin the road of life.

Unless you are on the road you cannot reach your destination. For you it may be the month of March since romance is not an inn on the February road for you this year.

Tennyson’s In Memoriam he wrote

‘Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.

His meaning was different than our intended implication.  His words are apropos here nevertheless.

330

G. D. Williams       © 2012

Be Careful It’s MY Heart: Holiday Inn 1942 Bing Crosby

http://youtu.be/IG5-WJVEiRA

Whitney Houston

I just read the sad news that Whitney Elizabeth Houston ( August 9, 1963-February 11, 2012 ) died.  The world has lost a great person.

News Bits and Comments:

Music mogul Simon Cowell described Houston as “one of the greatest singers of all time”, and said he expected tonight’s Grammys to become a tribute to the “trailblazer” and “legend”.

He told Heart FM: ” … you have to remember a lot of the people who are going to be getting awards at the Grammys, they owe an awful lot of their success, I believe, to Whitney, because Whitney was a trailblazer. It’s a night she deserves to be remembered fondly.”

THE TELEGRAPH http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/music-news/9077403/Whitney-Houston-found-in-bath-with-prescription-drugs-nearby-latest-reports-claim.html

Born into a family of prodigious musical talent, she was for more than a decade one of the world’s most celebrated singers, possessed of a purity of voice and a diva’s grace that captured the hearts of audiences and influenced a generation of artists.

But today’s Grammy’s ceremony in Los Angeles will become a memorial and a wake for the 48-year-old, who was found dead in her Beverly Hills hotel room just after 3.30pm on Saturday local time . Tributes flowed from fans and music royalty as news spread of her death.

THE AUSTRALIAN http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/arts/death-of-a-diva-the-lonely-end-of-soul-siren-whitney-houston-who-lost-her-way-her-voice-her-life/story-e6frg8n6-1226269185137

“Whitney Houston was not only an amazing artist but also a beautiful person. She was so smart and her knowledge and appreciation for the musical art form was remarkable,” Motown founder and R&B legend Berry Gordy said in a statement.

Houston was inspired to sing as a child by soul singers in her New Jersey family, including mother Cissy Houston and cousins Dionne Warwick and the late Dee Dee Warwick. Her godmother was Aretha Franklin.

FRANCE 24 http://www.france24.com/en/20120212-singer-whitney-houston-found-dead-aged-48-bobby-brown-music-grammy-awards

For a decade and a half, she ruled the charts: 170 million albums sold, including seven back-to-back multi-platinum ones.

Numerous No. 1 hits, including the biggest-selling U.S. single of all time, “I Will Always Love You.”

Emmys, Grammys, Billboard Music awards. Dozens of them.

CNN http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/12/showbiz/whitney-houston-death/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

At her peak, Houston was the golden girl of the music industry. From the middle 1980s to the late 1990s, she was one of the world’s best-selling artists. She wowed audiences with effortless, powerful, and peerless vocals that were rooted in the black church but made palatable to the masses with a pop sheen.

Her success carried her beyond music to movies, where she starred in hits like “The Bodyguard” and “Waiting to Exhale.”   MSNBC http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/46355482#.TzfQXFGlOSo

Photo Array of Miss Houston:

THE SUN http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/Photos+Whitney+Houston+1963+2012/6139626/story.html

Special Grammy Tribute By Jennifer Hudson

http://www.grammy.com/news/special-grammy-tribute-to-honor-whitney-houston

COMMENTARY:

On this February 12th the song of earth is hushed by the passing of Miss Houston. Tears fill our eyes as we remember the beautiful songbird which brought so much happiness and joy to so many of us.

This talented individual graced this planet traversing the cosmos for only 48 years.  Her life reflects a summary of the men and women who struggle to reach fame and success.

With all that comes with fame and fortune trouble accompanies the individual.  This was the case with Miss Houston.  Her troubled life was the fodder of numerous tabloid articles and pictures.  Unfortunately, her tragic death will feed those rags of indiscretion and insensitivity.

Perhaps, Miss Houston will find a dance partner in the cosmic ocean where she will find love and acceptance.  With that voice of a songbird there will be a place for her voice which graced so many on this planet traversing the cosmos. Perhaps, at night if we listen carefully to the cosmic harmony, we will hear a new star song named Whitney.

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G. D. Williams       © 2012

I Wanna Dance With Somebody

http://youtu.be/eH3giaIzONA

Whitney Houston: I Look To You

Traditions associate the song with King Henry VIII.  King Henry was many things, but a poet, a songwriter, a rejected lover?  Not likely.

Greensleeves tells the poignant story of love rejected.  The rejection broke the heart of the singer of songs.

However, his love for Lady Greensleeves held his heart prisoner.  It was a captivity from which the man could not escape.

He had offered her the world, his world, but for some unwritten reason she cast him off discourteously.  Such cruel treatment!  Such harshness!

The enraptured spell of love could not be broken.  His only wish was that before he closed his eyes in the dreamless sleep of death, she would grant his one simple request—to love him.

Love given freely, but not reciprocated is a silent, wasting death of the heart. The promises of love, the reaching out of the soul are human emotions which play out in the songs and poetry on this planet traversing the cosmos.

How is it with you this day in February?  Are you a prisoner of love?  Are the roses fading fast as the sun sets in the West?

Love is a treasure.  However, many travellers on the road of life briefly encounter the lily of the valley, the rose of Sharon, the song of songs in their travels.

Greensleeves was all my joy
Greensleeves was my delight,
Greensleeves was my heart of gold,
And who but my Lady Greensleeves.

During this month of romance may your Lady Greensleeves be kind to you with gentle kisses of love.  For love rejected is like sands in the hourglass racing away into the yesterdays of broken promises and dreams.

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G. D. Williams       © 2012

Loreena McKennitt

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5sSrYzzIKw&feature=related

Gregorian

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHhA70sLjPI&feature=related

Celtic Bagpipes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Y8OY2JRric&feature=related

Celtic Harp Orchestra

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jut6_z-Oykg&feature=related

Celtic Woman

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rrMojC-DJg

Amy Nuttall

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33Ja6ZcdS8w

Charles John Huffam Dickens was born February 7, 1812 in Portsmouth, England. He was the second of the eight children of John and Elizabeth Culliford Barrow Dickens.

Charles had an insatiable appetite for reading.  Life was great until his father’s unwise spending placed the family in crushing debt. The debtors’ prison Marshalsea in London would become the new home of the Dickens’ family, except for Charles who was working at the age of twelve and his sister Frances who was at the Royal Academy of Music.

Fortunately, a relative of John’s died leaving him a large sum which paid his family out of Marshalsea.  However, Charles had to continue his arduous job at the boot-blacking warehouse. It was his mother’s decision.

This decision did not endear his mother to him.  His view of John as weak would last until his father’s death.  Of course his father would be a major source of discomfort and annoyance for Charles as his fame increased.

Charles met and fell in love with Maria Beadnell, his first love. Unfortunately, Maria and her parents decided that Charles was not the type of husband which would be suitable for a banker’s daughter.  She boated off to Paris leaving Charles heart-broken.  Charles’ heart was scarred for the rest of his life.

In 1836 he would marry Catherine Hogarth, daughter of George Hogarth—editor of the Evening Chronicle.  Ten children would result from this union which lasted until 1858.  By then Charles had fallen out of love with Catherine and was enamored with a young lady of the theatre, Ellen Ternan.  Because of his standing in the community and the dread of scandal, he kept the affair secret.

Charles died on June 9, 1870 at the age of 58.  Contrary to his wishes for a simple funeral and burial, he was interred in the Poet’s Corner in Westminster Abbey.

From the Tale of Two Cities:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

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G. D. Williams       © 2012

Beginning February 7 you can watch the program on line.  The link is listed below.

Quote by Dr. Bryan Walls:

Peter Still and Seth Concklin, as well as Harriet Tubman and William Still himself, underscore the deeper significance of the Underground Railroad freedom movement. It was about radical justice and equality for all. Blacks are equal to Whites, women are equal to men, and all races and faiths deserve freedom and mutual respect.

Instead of asking, “If I help the enslaved and oppressed what will happen to me?” Good Samaritans of that historical period turned the question around and asked, “If I do not help the enslaved and oppressed what will happen to them?” They have sent a message to us today about the importance of compassion, mutual respect, and reconciliation.

http://www.pbs.org/wned/underground-railroad/stories-of-freedom/peter-stills-story/

Peter Still was six years old when he was separated from his parents and siblings.  He held to the promise that one day he would be reunited with his family in Philadelphia.

He saved and eventually for $5000 he purchased his freedom from his master.  Leaving his wife and children behind with the promise of his return to get them, he headed to find his parents.  He met William Still and discovered that he was a younger brother.  The story appeared in the Philadelphia Freeman where Seth Concklin read about the Still Family.

Seth Concklin was a Quaker who vehemently opposed slavery. He volunteered to retrieve Peter’s family. He died in the process of rescuing Peter Still’s family from their Alabama master. He got them to Indiana where he felt they would be safe, but it was not to be.  Arrested and shackled Seth drowned in chains on the way to Alabama.

It has been the reality on this planet traversing the cosmos that there always been masters and slaves.  Sacred texts refer to the institution.  The history of nations is a sad commentary of the enslavement of men, women and children.

The slave trade of Africans to the British Empire was an evil unmatched in the annals of human progress on this earth.  People ripped from their villages, homes and families just because of their tribal association and skin color.

Today, glimpses of history tell the remarkable stories of the men and women who risked everything for freedom in a nation founded on the principles:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

It would take decades for these words to apply to the black man.  These decades would be soiled with the blood of many people who sought this reality for all people of this nation. The revolutionary war will not end until all men, women and children in this country are free and equal.

Equality is not just a noble aspiration.  It is required of a great civilization to grant all of its citizens their unalienable rights and to protect and nourish those rights which are part of the cosmic order.

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G. D. Williams       © 2012

Seth Concklin

http://tom-calarco.suite101.com/seth-concklin-a-forgotten-hero-of-the-undergrou-a218000

http://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/727

While Concklin’s tragic death was a personal matter for William Still, the story had broader implications. Still believed the vicious attack on Concklin illustrated the depth of human depravity in the same way that Concklin’s effort represented the height of selfless sacrifice.

On one level, Still no doubt wished to memorialize a man of “noble and daring spirit,” while on another he wanted to acknowledge the white abolitionists who willingly risked their own lives to free the unjustly enslaved African-Americans.  SARAH SMITH DUCKSWORTH

http://www.plexuspublishing.com/Books/ugrr/foreward.pdf

Jerome Solon Felder and Mort Shuman wrote this song.  It was first released in 1960 by Benjamin Lee King and The Drifters.

The Drifters

In 1969 Jay and the Americans rereleased the song.  The buying public made it a gold record for the group.

Jay And The Americans

Return to those old days when a guy and his girl would visit the local fountain shop to share a coke with two straws.  If someone pulled a nickel from their pocket and inserted it into the jukebox, perhaps this song would begin the 45 rmp circuit.

After a while, a short while, the guy and his girl would get up and begin a slow dance.  As they dance their heartbeats would tend to blend. They would become lost in the moments of the music, the magic moments which would last until the end of time.

This magic moment
So different and so new
Was like any other
Until I kissed you
And then it happened
It took me by surprise
I knew that you felt it too
I could see it by the look in your eyes

In the month of romance may you find your magic moment on this planet traversing the cosmos.  For in the final analysis on the cosmic scale of time truly it is only for this moment, this magic moment that love can be found.

Sweeter than wine
Softer than a summer’s night
Everything I want, I have
Whenever I hold you tight

This magic moment,
While your lips are close to mine,
Will last forever,
Forever, ’til the end of time

325

G. D. Williams       © 2012

Jay And The Americans

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpePWo56zm4

The Drifters

http://youtu.be/Ul041CSNJto

Benjamin King 2007

http://youtu.be/REX3utKvqd4

Many people felt like refugees in their own country during the late 1940s, 50s and turbulent 60s.  One of these refugees was James Mercer Langston Hughes.

Mr. Hughes was born February 1, 1902 in Joplin, Missouri to Caroline Mercer Langston and James Nathaniel Hughes. He would not have an idyllic childhood.

For you see the Hughes were a black family living in the Midwest of the United States at the turn of the 20^th century.  Caroline was a school teacher.  His father was a storekeeper who had been denied his dream of being a lawyer.  He was not allowed to take the bar examination because he was black.

Sometimes after struggling for acceptance and dealing with unrealized dreams and hopes a person does desperate things.  James, Senior left his family and his country behind as he sought acceptance in Cuba and eventually Mexico where he became a cattle rancher.

Caroline struggled to find work.  The younger James lived with various relatives and friends during his formative years.

It would be in Cleveland Ohio living with his mother and stepfather, a steel worker, that the young James would discover the poetry of Carl Sandburg.  This and other contributing factors, such as his maternal grandmother Mary who instilled the oral traditions of the African Americans, set the young man on his way to find his own destiny and his own voice based on his experiences.

After high school graduation he went to Mexico to reunite with his father.  His father wanted the young man to pursue engineering at an international university.  He did not see much promise in his son attending a university in the USA.  The older James wanted his son to have opportunities which were denied him in the USA because of racism.

The younger James wanted to go to Columbia University to become a writer.  His father reluctantly relented so long as he would study engineering also, which he could use outside the USA without a problem.

Unfortunately, the younger James found Columbia University to be a hostile place because of the color of his skin.  In 1922 he dropped out with a B+ average to seek solace and acceptance in Harlem.

In 1923 he went to West Africa and Europe which motivated him.  Returning to the USA he worked various jobs until he enrolled in Lincoln University, a black college in Pennsylvania. One of his classmates was Thurgood Marshall who was destined for the Supreme Court.

After graduation in 1929 he continued to write.  He visited the Soviet Union which would be a problem for this young man down the road.  The label “Communist” would haunt him from that time onward.

In 1953 he faced the dreaded Senate Permanent Sub-Committee on Investigations and Senator Joseph McCarthy.  He denied that he was a “Communist”, but he found that he was tainted with suspicions which made life difficult. He did what he could to avoid any Communist entanglements, which cost him friends and support.

Langston Hughes, poet, playwright, writer, novelist, children’s writer, and a leading advocate of what it meant to be African-American, was a remarkable man.  Mr. Hughes had prostate surgery which resulted in complications.  He died May 22, 1967 at New York’s Polyclinic Hospital.

Listed below is his poem Refugee in America:

There are words like Freedom
Sweet and wonderful to say.
On my heart-strings freedom sings
All day everyday. 

There are words like Liberty
That almost make me cry.
If you had known what I knew
You would know why. 

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G. D. Williams       © 2012

References

http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/83

http://www.redhotjazz.com/hughes.html

http://www.kansasheritage.org/crossingboundaries/page6e1.html

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/langston-hughes

The Weary Blues

http://youtu.be/KyqwvC5s4n8

I, Too

http://youtu.be/4CUKyVrhPgM

Dreams

http://youtu.be/EpjFS3CQkKE

Mother To Son

http://youtu.be/-E2ZPnRYnfw

The 6 Men Who Has Played James Bond 007

Science fiction in the 60s and 70s picked up this theme where individuals were reduced to mere numbers on a computer card.  Perhaps, the most famous number was 007 which was assigned to James Bond.  In the film series and novels James Bond always reminded people that his name was “Bond, James Bond.”  I am sure this was intentional even though MI6 gave him a number, he reminded a unique individual.

M-5 The Ultimate Computer

Star Trek The Original Series dealt with this concept in a number of fine episodes.  Perhaps, the most famous was The Ultimate Computer which aired on March 8. 1968.  The M5 computer was the ultimate form of artificial intelligence which was designed to replace humans.  Captain James T. Kirk is confronted by his own fear which Commodore Wesley stated,” Our complements to the M5 unit and regards to Captain Dunsell. Wesley out.”

Mr. Spock had to explain to Dr McCoy who Captain Dunsell was. “ Dunsell, Doctor, is a term used by midshipmen at Star Fleet Academy, it refers to a part which serves no useful purpose.”  

http://youtu.be/NgO_y57_078

The Prisoner

In the United Kingdom a television series premiered on September 29, 1967 and ran until February 1, 1968.  In the summer of 1968 it appeared on American television.  The name of the series was The Prisoner.

There is a strong connection between this series created by Patrick Mcgoohan and his previous spy series—Danger Man ( Secret Agent in the USA ).  In essence a secret agent resigns from the service and is kidnapped, sent to an isolated village which is a prison and his identity is reduced down to a number- Number 6.  In the opening scene Number 6 declares as he does in all 17 brilliantly written episodes, “I am not a number. I am a free man.” To which Number 2 responds by laughing.

Is John Drake of Danger Man the same person as The Prisoner? Perhaps, but the sheer creativity behind The Prisoner is unmistakable with clues pointing back to Danger Man.  In the spy business the only way to truly resign is to die.

John Drake: Danger Man

In 2012 do you feel like a number?  Do you believe society as a whole has reduced a human being to a number?  At work do you know your fellow workers?  In your community do you know your neighbours?

We all have numbers which identify us to various agencies, organizations and people.  Have many numbers are associated with your identify? This includes phone, house, apartment, post office box, work, driver license, auto license, banking, credit card, government number, passwords for internet sites, military assignment, etc…

Have we become Number 6 in 2012 without realizing that our name means little in the cyber world in which we exist?  The cyber world is the Matrix of reality for those who are plugged into its ever ending flow of information.

Ponderings on this cold, snowy 30^th day of January, 2012…

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G. D. Williams       © 2012