oh virginia where art thou
truth or dare
Standing on a highway I look for a sign. In one direction is what we call the future. It already exists. We just haven’t experienced it yet. Turning I look in the opposite direction or what we know as the past, something that has already happened, has been experienced, but dwelling forever in the immediate once you get over the hurdle of time. History, the narrative of past events that shapes our beliefs and persuasions is readily and continuously being manipulated. Dwelling in shadow, shade, silhouettes, and misty illusion a cimmerian message is what we are given……’control the past and you control the future. Control the present and you can control the past’. Control the narrative, written or spoken, and you can shape the destiny of an individual or nation.
We imagine. For some it’s Alice in Wonderland, an immersive mind, hypnotic, mesmerized, spellbound, with rote memory, and mindless parroting. Or maybe it’s Dorothy and Toto unmasking the Wizard of Oz staring at the wall in the back of the theatre. The narrative we are given of the past, present, and extending into the future....a lie….all of it. What we value, the price we are willing to pay to obtain it, is the amount of our life we voluntarily exchange for it. We make our choices but we cannot control the consequences of our decisions. We are taught history even if it never happened, creating our own myth and illusion carefully crafted from the cradle to the grave, a tapestry of events fabricating a mosaic in our mind. What do we know of anything except in our minds. Hence whatever happens in your mind is all that truly happens. ‘War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength’, we never walked on the moon and Elvis ain’t dead. Just give me the fax folks, just the fax, cause it’s all in your head. Told enough times a lie is now perceived as the truth.
And so we have been taught that in the year 1587, governor John White led Sir Walter Raleigh’s third and final expedition to the new world and Roanoke Island. He was accompanied by 115 souls including his daughter Eleanor Dare, pregnant and in her third trimester. While the dimensions of the ship Lyon are not known, in 1620 the Mayflower carrying ‘the pilgrims’ housed the passengers in a space 58’ by 24’ at the widest. It is hard to conceive, pun intended, that any man would bring a pregnant wife or daughter in her last trimester on such an arduous journey jeopardizing her life and that of the child. And then as in the case of John White, the father and grandfather, to leave shortly after the birth of the child, Virginia, named after the virgin queen or so it has been written. After much delay to return three years later on the very date of your grandchild’s birthday, kinda pulls on the heart strings, only to find the village totally vacated. There was no sign of struggle or haste. Everything was in its place. They had simply disappeared…vanished…forever! The only secret token, the word Croatoan inscribed on a tree.
Forward over 400 years into the future, myth, superstition and obsession craft the search for the lost colony at Roanoke and the child Virginia Dare said to be the first English child born in the Americas. Of all the plausible evidence none is verifiable by researchers not willing to acknowledge anyone else’s discovery. And consider all the remarkable tools now at our disposal, is it possible no creditable or agreed upon authentication has been found. No DNA threads, no chards, and the inscriptions in stone by Eleanor proven to be a fraud. The obvious conclusion persists. It is all a historical hoax. Please consider the court in Queen Elizabeth’s the First reign. Like the race for space, the first astronaut in orbit and a man on the moon in the 1960’s the English coveted the new land in a match of might with the sultans of the sea, the Spanish and French, a challenge to Spanish colonial policy. This was a pivotal period in history featuring the predominant power of various European nations vying to secure their eminence in the future. Not to be forgotten are the Dutch and the extraordinary influence along the whole eastern seaboard of the Dutch East India Company, the richest capitalist corporation in the world. The lust for power and prominence and the acquisition of the wealth in this new land prompted Sir Walter Raleigh’s first failed attempt’s to colonize Roanoke. Ah, but enter Dr. John Dee renowned intellectual, astrologer, and occultist who devoted his life to the study of alchemy, divination, and the hermetic philosophy. It is considered possible that he and his allies in the unseen affected the sea destroying the Spanish Armada, so fierce and destructive this anomalous weather.
It must not be considered untenable that this supposed third attempt was a desperate hoax contrived by the oracles in the Queens court to gain political advantage and the birthright in the new land. It is possible that there is no plausible evidence of Virginia Dare because she never existed, except in the pages of antiquity. How many other elaborate hoaxes persist virtually unchallenged and repeated as true in the annals of revered historical text and sacrosanct in the fertile fields of your mind?
And thus our dilemma in life. As a grain of sand and single molecule of water we float our boat on a giant ocean, rudderless and without a sail. And we would never rock the boat if our voyage in life is about comfort and financial security as we amuse ourselves driven by the current and wind called oblivion. And gasp if we should awaken out of our slumber and realize we are afloat on a sea of lies….all the history we have been taught and robotically rehearsed and believed….all the generational scaffolding we are burdened with at birth…..all that we are profoundly lacking in our understanding of God, government, and authority……..your neighbor and the face in the mirror.
Not withstanding, I will embark on my boat and go out on the ocean and ride atop the waves with my oar in my hand. I will trust the sun to soothe me and I will trust the stars to guide me….my voyage across celestial waters to never never land. The whole mystery unmasked cause I ain’t gunna do this dirty work any more. All the chains that bind my fettered mind I will leave behind, and Kemo Sabe you can kiss my ass, cause I bought a boat and I’m going out to sea.
Launching from the land I say goodbye to rock and sand, just a Cowboy on a boat, Trigger, Virginia and me. Truth or Dare there’s always room to spare. Come join Virginia. Sit by her side. She has saved a special place just for you…..
‘Sail on Silver Girl, sail on by. Your time has come, all your dreams are on the way
‘It’s time to shine’