Under The Olive Tree

Bring on the Russians!

Whether you prefer a white Russian or a black Russian - or perchance your vodka is served in a martini - or better yet straight with salt - or even more direct - “just give it to me straight!”

They say that Americans are - in the end - Americans - and when push comes to shove - it doesn’t matter - their faith, colour - or creed - they will stand and die - either for you - or with you.

And Russians are - in the final toast and shot - Russians.

But that’s not the worst of it - don’t forget the Viet Cong - and the Great March into madness.  Time will fail us to write verse and song of just a few who will light the stage that has been set before us.

The time is at hand.

What’s coming should be man’s greatest attempt to justify his existence - particularly because we are drifting more and more to the notion that we are somehow in charge of the greatest cosmic occurrence ever, and I mean ever!

If we fail; in this final endeavor - to conquer - then we will perish - and without a jongleur or minstrel to immortalize us in theater and song - even the most remote remembrance of our existence will vanish with us.

“Be not deceived - for God is not mocked.” - Paul the Vagabond

What is being swept away is the chaff of the threshing floor - it may have had a passing value - but now it is for the flames - and none of us can stay it. - And the fire will be unquenchable - and all of these will return to dust and ashes.

But as long as the stars remain - and the seasons change - and life springs forth - the sojourn will be the same - and the issues of life will not cease or be abated.

The proverbs and the prophets alike proclaim the same truths - our substance and sustenance are of the water, earth and air - and the breath of our souls is from God.

And now we are fallen into His hands - and who shall deliver us if we have transgressed His commandments - and scorned his statutes and his messengers?

The intensity of the purging of the chaff and the tares shall try men’s souls - and some shall fall upon the rock - breaking in their redemption.

But what of the Americans? - and the Russian bear? - and the apocalypse? - and the battle of Armageddon? -

“The system we were so proud of is crashing to the floor.”

Drinking Vodka with Galena and the Babushkas

Galena was a force to be reckoned with - she didn’t know how to quit - and she didn’t know how to control her passion in life - the Communist Party and its success; - and though she was past 70 years old - she had the drive and stamina of a 23 year old woman.

On Sundays Galena usually spent the day with her friends - this was the only group left that remembered everything from the first days of the Revolution - the People’s square - and the statue of Lenin - and Karl Marx street - the Babushkas were slowly - one by one - they were being left alone - their lovers and their friends were now in the graveyard - the one you could see if you rode the trolley from CMZ.

So on Sunday they gathered at Galena’s apartment to drink shots of vodka - and to weep for those who had gone into oblivion - for there was nothing in their understanding except the grave - and to return to dust - the heart and soul of the lover and child together had perished - and only vodka could ease the pain.

After a few shots - the grandmothers would reminisce about past Party victories - the heroes of labor who had extracted more coal on a single shift than anyone else in all of Russia - and they spoke of potato harvests, every fall - for six weeks - and then to see 90% of the harvest rot in the storage houses for lack of any facility to preserve the most basic food of their diet.

And they lamented - for their urns of sour cream were empty - not like the days of prosperity under Party rule - no - now they were suffering from the “free market” that had been a condition of the international bankers who had come to Russia to make a quick buck.

After all - the largest McDonalds in the world was in Moscva.

Still, the vision - however dimly viewed in the tumult and change that had so forcefully come upon them; was still pure in their hearts - so they toasted to the Revolution - and to Lenin - and to the Party - and to Mother Russia - but in their hearts they longed for the promise of the redemption - and the resurrection to life and the precious gift of being reunited with their lost loves - and they wept …

But amidst the shortages of sour cream, and borscht, and sometimes bread - and nearly always sugar - the vodka was always available. - So they toasted to their calamity - and they wept again for their lost loves and precious ones.

And then they filled the shot glasses again - and they examined each other closely as the vodka met their lips; and tossing their grey heads back - they drank - and they wept - and they drank again.

The Russian Graveyard

So many of the tombstones are decorated in that very Russian way - the star - sometimes the hammer and sickle - it reminds you of the Russian central intelligence offices - either those that adorn the capital cities of every Russian conquest - or the headquarters of the KGB itself - the tombstones were the same - and they had an air of finality - and remorse and regret - but in all of this they remain stoic and unapproachable.

I have had many experiences just once - once I was asked to conduct a funeral - and once I was a pall bearer.  It was for my grandfather - and so I am familiar with the cemetery of the believer - and the cemetery of the agnostic - and the atheist.

Your cemeteries echo the essence and depth of your life - for we can be no more in death than we have been in our daily affairs - save those lives that are given in sacrifice to the abolition of cruelty and hate - and of the subjugation of the human race.

The Russian graveyard held no enduring expectation - and once utilized - it was seldom visited - except on Sundays - and then only from afar - and with the aid and succor of vodka.

In a land that has no heaven - your daily life must draw on some other purpose and destination - and woe is unto you if your purpose and destination is yourself - or woe upon woe that you should embrace a cause or a purpose that has no meaning; if all is destined to fade into oblivion!

“Rise up and slay - because the twilight is upon us.” - Ossian

Claiming the Sun & the Stars

The great nations and peoples of the world have become great by dispensation - but they deny the Spirit in the same breath with which they claim their mandate to rule and reign - even unto the Universe itself.

Having laid claim to lands and resources - the water and the air; they are now ready to claim sovereignty over the waves; and the moon - and the stars - and they bask in their own light; and they embrace their own image.

They are clouds without rain; and the parched dry earth; though it be a paradise - yet, because in their thoughts it has no enduring truth or presence - it cannot satisfy their desire - and so they must conquer again or fade into the shadows of their former glory.

And so they will go to war -

“O ye heralds, and those that run to save the regiment - this day is all you have to live; for except ye accomplish that which has been entrusted to your gifts and holy graces - we shall all perish with the last trumpet.” - Fin McCool

The Apostles and the Evangelists

Even so - these great nations have produced masters of every craft, and artisans capable of fabricating vessels of fine silver and gold - ceramic wonders, and creations so intricate as to defy their own existence.

The accomplishments of their builders, some standing as the sentries of centuries; - verse and meter and the voices of the multitudes rise up in acclamation of their glories and their destiny.

These, by their craft have loosed the power of the atom and defied the confines of our ecosystem - and deep in their hidden laboratories they have challenged the boundaries of good and evil - and they have risen up to dominate - and in the examination they stand proud and indignant.

And they send their emissaries forth - to proclaim their day - and to prepare the people.

These messengers faint not - nor will they be persuaded - because they walk as minions - and they set the stage.

Neither are they hidden - for the apostles and the prophets faces and names are written for all to see - and their evangelistic fervor is the subject of every entertainment; and of every publication.

Only be aware - that though they appear unto you as princes and as favored ones - and though their works are smooth and sultry - yet - their end is destruction and their habitation desolation.

The First Watch

In one way or another - the attack will come at 3 am - it isn’t a time of day - it is a condition of the heart - and of the soul and mind;  and it can take hold of an individual, or a family - or a congregation - or a tribe - or an assembly - or a legislative body - or a judiciary - or an administration - or a camaraderie - even of those facing death.

We shall all face death in the third hour “on some scarred slope or battered hill”.

God knows twere better to be deep

Pillowed in silk and scented down

Where love throbs out in blissful sleep

Pulse nigh to pulse and breath to  and breath

Where hushed awakenings are dear

But I’ve a rendezvous with death

At midnight in some flaming town

When Spring trips north again this year

And I to my pledged word am true

I shall not fail that rendezvous

-Alan Seeger (1886-1916)

When Jesus the Carpenter walked in Judea - He upbraided them because they did not discern the signs of the times.

The legions of Rome were coming - and their destruction was at hand.

Prophets and sages have lamented - all down through our history; of the futility to set a watchman on the tower - if he be an hireling.  “Are there any but hirelings among us?” - The Fool As the usurer boasts, “Give me control of the nations money - and I care not who writes its laws.” - Rothschild “Wrath’s Child”

When the day of our incarceration comes - and night falls upon us - we shall then go into perdition - except ye be saved. - and then the words of the Master Psalmist will reverberate - and a chorus will proclaim that “the wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.” - The Shepherd

And so we raise our eyes upon the calamity - and the coming destruction - and we ponder - some of us simply sinking to our knees in awe of what has been revealed to us - some turning to flee the wrath to come - and some raising up the sword, and going forth to fight.

“Choose ye this day whom ye shall serve - if God be God - then serve Him.”  DBB

The Death Angels and the Point

of No Return

Very few of us would choose death - or bondage and prison, or slavery - but many souls down through the ages have gone into bondage simply because they failed to act in time to avoid it coming upon them.

All too often the point of no return is breached while we are occupied with less important things - or by an atmosphere of intimidation and fear that prevents us from seeing things as they really are. - Or worse yet - by surfeiting and complacency.

Our point of no return is coming - collectively; and individually - it will be sooner for some - and later for others - but it will come.

It can mean different things to different people - too.  During the height of the Third Reich - ordinary Germans became prisoners in their own homes - for to fail to conform was treason.  The Communists ruled Russia through fear - And the Khmer Rouge? - they used abject brutality - in some cases they were barely human.

So how did each of these cross the line to that point of never going back - a point at which even the thought of redemption was ludicrous?

I was told the story - and perhaps it is embellished - but never-the-less, based on the truth of war; a young man - in fact too young to go to war, lies about his age to enlist in the Army paratroopers - the 82^nd Airborne - “Devils in baggy pants” - the Division of Infamy.  When D-Day comes, he is 19 years old - and a lieutenant when he jumps out of the plane - when he hits the ground he is a captain - and he leads his men to capture an important bridge in the French countryside.  Later in the war he is recruited by a relatively unknown intelligence agency - the NSA.  You see - there are American deserters from the front lines - soldiers who have decided to “disappear” into the surrounding towns and villages.  Some of these boys have met pretty French girls - and now they want to make love instead of making war.  To the military commanders, they are a disgrace - and an embarrassment - and it is his job to find them - and to execute them - for there will be no Tribunal on their desertion of duty - “it could hurt the war effort.” - Source Denied

His greatest sin is his youth - and his willingness to serve.  Once he becomes an assassin - he has passed his point of no return - but the steps and choices that have carried him there are honorable - even commendable.

“Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people; and go from them! For they be all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.” - The Child Jeremiah

We are in the throes of a paradigm shift - politically, economically, socially, philosophically, religiously - and as we move forward and lay hold on the future - our present condition - in all its many facets - will pass away - and there will be no return. - and soon there will be little if any personal choice left about the direction we are heading.

Our world will take the long march into darkness - and yes, some of us will go quietly.

Remember the Savage, and the Controllers, and the brave new world.

And when the Death Angel comes - is there any among you that can deny that spirits and voices and apparitions in the dark have all been given their times to speak - prophets have warned us - and the Ancient texts have concurred - so that we are without an alibi, and our final judgment is echoed by the witnesses.

“Therefore I say unto you, watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation.” - Jesus called Christ

A New World Order

The atmosphere is almost giddy - it’s a bit like all of us - everyone in the world - is sharing an MDA trip - we have fallen in love - only to find that when we awake - the reality of our differences, and prejudices, and covetousness, and idolatry and diversity is anything but something to celebrate.

“For ethnic group shall rise up against ethnic group - and there shall be wars, and rumors of wars.” - The Prophet

“For how shall we be reconciled if there be no daysman between us?”

Evil men and seducers will wax worse and sores - and the personification of Eveil is risen up among us - and he goes forth with wrath and indignation - because he knows his time is short.

History repeating itself once again - Nimrod, and Pharaoh, the Mayan Priest holding the beating and bloody heart of the sacrifice - Caesar, Alexander, Hitler, the Son of Sam, - Pol Pot, Mao tse Dong, Stalin, Idi Amin - Robert Mugabe, Dresden, Auschwitz, the Killing fields, Nagasaki and Hiroshima. -

All in the name of the triumph of man. - But make no mistake - the coming conflict will be so universal and so inhumane “That except those days should be shortened, no flesh should be saved.” - Jesus on the Mount of Olives