In the beginning....
A few years
ago and on a Seaxe and Sorcery board far, far away I made a post and that post
caused others to post and before we knew it people where opening up and sharing
like they had never done before. I wanted to use that post to launch my Tower
at the Edge of Reality blog.
I have re-read over it a couple of
times and thought long and hard about should I update it or edit it. The answer
I came to was NO. The post deserves to stay intact as a memorial to who I am
and how I felt at the time. Oddly I have changed little since I wrote this
document, I am I hope a little smarter and a little wiser but I think this
document more so than any other I have ever written gives people a true insight
into who I am and what I am about.
Please have a read and know this as
I turn 40 I have very few regrets and those I do I understand I cannot go back
and change. I have tried to make up for them and ensure that similar situations
do not occur and if I dwell on those events I even begin to feel my inner
demons of doubt and regret begin to surface. However we all need to live with
our pasts and try as best as we can to forge a future we can at least live with
if not be happy with.
My son and daughter are becoming
skilled story tellers in their own rights, my daughter even started reading
about Pippi Longstockings and ask if I would sit down and watch the movie with
her. As you will see from the post I made all those years ago this was quite a
big thing for me. I am lucky I live a life on the edge of reality, able to
function in both the real world and the land of dreams and imagination.
I carry my own wonderland around in
my head and to be quite honest for the most part I enjoy doing so. So with no
further ado please read my post and I hope it will set the scene for the rest
of my posts on this blog. A blog which my son is helping me to create as I
currently only have the technological skills of a scholar born in the 19th
Century!
Warning
this post is quite long but please read, I think you will enjoy it.
Greetings
and well met friends and strangers alike,
Yesterday
in a very quiet moment and for those of you who do not know me my life has very
few quiet moments I watched a film called "Big Fish". When the
film ended I sat their in my chair and I must confess began to cry. The
film and in particular the content matter had hit a nerve. Over the years I
have rarely cried at a movie or TV program but this one like the Saturday club and
Catholic boys moved me. In fact I can be more specific than that the main
character moved me, not the younger of the two the son was in fact a drip until
the very end when he finally got the point, I refer to the character named Ed
bloom a big fish in a small pond. The man was a story teller and he wove into
his amazing life even more amazing facts and fictions and the two blended and
created a reality all of their own.
When
the film finished I went to my desk and took out a list, the list is in a Black
n Red Index book i have carried with me since I was 10. In it I keep things I
consider of value for example the Hierarchy of Devils, Pig Pen Code and the Odd
fact or fiction from places I have been to or would like to go to e.g.
Atlantis. My list is quite long but the top five run like this My Grandfather,
Merlin,
Doctor Lou,
Pippi
Longstockings and now Ed Bloom,
who has gone in between Pippi and Dr Snuggles.
All
of these great people, yes I know some of you think that they are not real and
some people like Wayne my brother who refuses to admit that Spiderman/Peter
parker and Optimus Prime are real or people like Joshua my son who do not
believe I went to school with Marvin the Robot and Yoda would agree with
you. However seen as I know for a fact they are real I shall
continue to write with that assumption.
I
put my Grandfather first because he was truly a man of mystery and a Wizard in
the true sense of the word. His magic was a perfect blend of Brown, Green, Grey
and Blue all understated and just there around him all the time as if they
where normal. He was a story teller of the highest caliber and he was a man of
unlimited imagination. It was my grandfather who first introduced me to fairies,
gnomes, pixies and goblins. He had them living in his garden and through a
whole in the back fence their was a corridor that led directly to the fey
realms and Tir Nan Org. I still see some of those fey to this day not a
day older although I have aged quite a bit. It was my grandfather who
introduced me to Dragons and Pterodactyls, he had two of each who guarded his
house against intrusion. In fact the only time he ever got broken into was when
he had lent them to me to help stave of nightmares. He had encounters ghosts
and specters and he had battle with the boogie man and won. My grandfather had
known Merlin and Captain Nemo and he was a great man. one day with a little
luck and some magic of my own I will be as great.
Merlin
and his friend Doctor Lou come next both of these men have inspired me for
years and both are great meddlers and do good not in an extraverted way they do
not force their will upon others they direct, advice and guide and allow others
to make their own choices. Both are great workers of Magic one from the West
the other from the East and I am proud to be one who seeks to be as skilled as
they. These two great men are the Kinds of Wizards a King or an Emperor would
give a realm to have at their sides and both men are wise and compassionate beyond
measure.
Like
so much in my life I first met Pippi Longstockings I was 10 years of age.
She had odd stockings on was stronger than the hulk and had a sense of wonder,
imagination and adventure that most of us only dream off. Her smile was
infectious and along with her father and friends she had many adventures. I
have often wished I was as brave as her. Ceit is now joining me at the computer
at this point and has informed me that she two likes Pippi. I think if I
had not met Keri I might well have one day sought out Pippi and asked her
to marry me! I must admit in some ways Keri reminds me of her although a far
more serious grown up version. Like the others she can tell a good story and so
Pippi can weave her magic as well as any sorcerer or mage.
Now
to Ed Bloom the man who made me cry, Ed was a special man with a special life
who used stories to lighten the lives of those around him. His son thought they
where all lies and so ignored his father for three years then his father starts
to die, Cancer. He decides to find out the truth about his father and slowly
discovers that truth is sometimes stranger than fiction. At his fathers funeral
all the people his father had told stories about turned up and retold their
stories of Ed. it is a shame that sometimes great people have to die before
those closest to them realise they are great.
Well
what was the point of this post, simply put it was to share a part of myself
with you my friends, many of you allowed me to read your tarot and some have
allowed me to read the cards and cast the stones to get an even greater insight
into you. I think that this is a way of me returning some of the confidence you
guys have shown in me. I enjoy Seaxe not only because it is a place where
reality and dreams blend but because it has become a place of hope, optimism and
fun. It gives us all a chance to escape the real world and as the stick in the mud’s
have vanished and the lolly gaggers have faded from sight we have been left
with a truly caring group of individuals. Some of us still make the mistake of
thinking the rules are more important than the fun and some still conflict with
others over silly or daft things. however it is my belief that we are building
a group which promotes Honour, Loyalty, Integrity, Honesty, Respect, Fairness,
Gratitude, Hospitality, Generosity, Reverence (for each other), Reciprocity,
Responsibility, Resourcefulness and Interdependence. We all show these
qualities to one degree or another and each of the people on my list not only
promote these qualities but they also exude these qualities.
Well
thank you for listening and I hope you will all add to this post, it would be
so cool if every single member of the group added something of their own to
this. So please all merry meet and merry part, take care and blessed be.
