Anonimity and the vintage years

By Johnny D. Symon

Time and its passing is nothing more than an illusion. When Adam and Eve sauntered through their own private paradise pre-original sin, time did not exist. Their Creator hovered around infinity with no wristwatch or sundial. Time's perception began for Adam and Eve after they made a bad decision that propelled them out-with the golden paradise to eke out a living with the skill of their hands and the sweat of their brow. Sure, the stars, the moon and the sun were accurately placed to help determine where we were in the scheme of things, but pre-sin Adam and Eve had no use for them ... life was without end.

There was a physical beginning, a starting point, that was intended to be an ongoing physical/metaphysical journey. The fall goes down in history as the first instance mankind screwed up. Ever since that day, and despite all signs to the contrary, dubious individuals have stated that the world is getting better, contrary to the assurance of another old Dude, that the world would wax worse and worse.

"We are born at a given moment, in a given
place and, like vintage years of wine, we have
the qualities of the year and of the season
of which we are born."

Carl Gustav Jung

We're honed by our initial environment, and that which fashioned it. Where we began in life can be likened to freshly trodden grapes becoming new wine. How we improve in the cask and in the bottle initially depends on the quality of vine we grew on and the climate we drew our necessary energies from, the rest is all about personal maturity. Good wines can turn bad in the cask or bottle if they're not placed in the correct environment; the wrong angle, a bad ambiance or temperature, can send a promising vintage to the trash-can. We're all personally responsible to look after our own vintage, and our own growth and maturity.

There's a remarkable connection between good vintage wine and good vintage people. There's no quick-fix solution in life, it's all about proper groundwork.

Back in the 1990's my hand fell upon a bottle of Spanish red wine named Albali. I'd been hovering around a huge wine section in a national supermarket when Albali grabbed my interest. It was a 1988 Reserva, and somehow I decided to forego my earlier choice to take this one home. Anyone else in my then list of friends would have rejected this bottle for one reason only ... the price. It was little more than one dollar, but I felt something about it was worth far more than it's price. Next weekend I popped it open and realized that I'd won the lottery. It's the best red wine I'd tasted in many a year, which found me back the following week to the same supermarket to buy a case.

As time went on, and that friendship osmosis thing began to act, all my snobby friends dropped their love of top dollar vintage slosh to adopt my cheap and cheerful habits. Then some few weeks later Albali disappeared from supermarket shelves, as if in an instant. My friends traveled far and wide searching for even one bottle of this precious liquid, but to no avail. I found it hard to believe that the wine had all been consumed. Then a couple of months after that, Albali '88 reappeared on all supermarket shelves as if by magic. The label was different, it was jazzy and highfalutin. The final touch to ram the message home, that this wine was for highbrows only, was the price ... about six bucks.

I learned a little later from a Spanish wine guy that relabeling and pricing was far from unusual. A vineyard may originally assess the latest hooch to be unremarkable, and sell it at a rock-bottom price, to later on discover that the plonk evolved itself in the bottle from the ugly duckling to a potential golden goose, and judging by his description, I began to think of some people who seemed to emulate that process also.

Back in the 1970's I found myself behind the Iron Curtain. At one point I stood on a darkened street in East Berlin, taking in the sounds and scents so commonly familiar throughout Eastern bloc communist countries. I marveled at the fact that some of the old buildings still had shell holes and shrapnel marks, bomb craters had never been filled in, grass and weeds clothed the surface of the long-forgotten explosions and subsequent loss of life. I noted that the average person had more concern for personal survival than they had to feel bitter about recent history. Their then government was extremely brutal. In this regime it was not permitted for people to be idle, everyone had to have a job, the ruling power had at least recognized a Biblical fact, that idle hands can turn to mischief.

East Berlin of the 70's was little different from the early 1940's, and I found something strangely compelling about this. I was born when the world was proud to be industrious. It cared little for ecologists, and more for jobs and progress. Pollution was recognized as simply a byproduct of progress, something to be dealt with after the work was done. A good workman looks after his tools and cleans up at the end of the day. To have progress also means you'll have a little residual mess, it's a fact of life, and if the Bible is to be believed even the 1940's and East Berlin of the 1970's was a better place than where we're living now. If that's the case, we have to reassess our present environment, the one our old vintage wine is maturing in, and with that thought in mind I happened to remember a little ditty uttered by Mr J K Catsup.

It's about 46 days over the third anniversary of John Kerry's momentous "earth day" speech, April 22, 2004. As you may know John Kerry is regarded as some kind of energy and ecology guru. The Bible provides an accurate formula to determine if a prophet is genuine or a fake; you just sit back and wait to see if his prophecy is fulfilled. Now before we go any further, I'm not trying to say that John Kerry is one of God's prophets, his grim ideas are all from the wrong source, nonetheless the dude still sets himself the task of predicting the future, therefore the same Biblical formula applies;

"When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD,
if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the
thing which the LORD hath not spoken,"

Deuteronomy 18:22

During his 2004 earth day speech, the following scenario was offered;

"Yesterday, I talked about my plan to protect our coastlines. In Louisiana, every 30 minutes a piece of land the size of a football field sinks into the Gulf of Mexico. Costal erosion isn't just swallowing their beaches; it's drowning their economy. Fishermen see their nets come up empty. Sportsmen watch entire habitats disappear. And families who live and visit those coastline towns fear that their homes or businesses may literally slip away."

Now ain't that scary? Every half hour, according to John, a piece of land the size of a football field sinks into the Gulf of Mexico. He describes it as "costal" erosion. Let's ignore John's unique gift as a spell wizard and just home in on the meatier issue. An NFL standard ground size is 57,600 square feet, that's a big chunk out of Louisiana, in 24 hours Louisiana would therefore kiss goodbye to 2,764,800 square feet of precious dirt.

Back when John uttered his prophetic words I communicated with a writer/poet friend, I explained that John's football ground story, if true, would find Louisiana done and dusted in 50 years. I sat back and refused to write on John's speech, until now, because I wanted to follow the above Biblical principle to the letter.

I visited the US Census Bureau, May 2004. Back then the population of Louisiana was just short of four and a half million, and the land mass was 2000 square miles, 2000 people for every square mile of land. But with 2,764,800 square feet disappearing every day, the State would now be a very sorry State indeed because, according to John's arithmetic, Louisiana is now out of 114 square miles, that's how much land the sea has taken away if John's predictions were correct. Thankfully he was wrong as usual. It's interesting to note that despite an undoubted erosion problem on those shores, Louisiana looks little different from space than it did on late 19th Century maps, the simple reason for this is the same worldwide: When tides erode coastlines it equally silts up seashore further down the line. Coastal erosion is not a 20th-21st Century phenomenon, it's always happened.

But here's a question: Why do ecologists concentrate on coastal erosion yet make no mention of silting?

A friend of mine again visited Turkey last year. Her previous visit was decades earlier. One region she visited was historically a sea-port, and used for that purpose long before the times of the Roman Empire. But last year she discovered that the port was no longer. She learned that the sea constantly drew silt as it flowed inward until the port became dry land, and a city now stands in its place. Apparently the city is a hive of industry.

Holland has been fighting coastal erosion since time immemorial. Their traditional dikes were placed long before the Industrial Revolution, in other words, coastal erosion is nothing more than the might of our oceans battling with our nation's lowlands. It's the power of natural science. The forces of nature not global warming.

Another well-known ecology guru received Spain's "Principe de Asturias Award" two days ago, due to his book and documentary entitled "An Inconvenient Spoof," or something to that effect. Using the likes of Photoshop or Gimp he visually predicted the end of Florida. I've waited over three years to prove Kerry wrong, but God only knows how long I'll have to wait to prove Gore's Gimp-job wrong. But here's my prediction; Florida and the Floridanians will only slip beneath the waves if they deserve it, and somehow I doubt that they do. But I ain't the only doubting Thomas around here, because even God himself doubts Kerry and Gore for He promised no more floods after Noah's for time immemorial. So take your pick, it's their word against His, and besides, it's only another opportunity to use your cowboy logic ...

If your boat keeps filling with water, repair it or buy a new one, and if you find your backyard replaced by the sea, move uphill. Most times nature has the upper hand and the only thing we can do is make allowances, but this age-old truth has been transformed into a "blame mankind for the state of the elements" trip: Global warming. Greenhouse gases ... it's all our fault! But you know something? most of us can only take the blame for being productive. If you work with your hands that which is good, you'll find that you're creating a little mess or residue in the process.

Without a little thing called the Industrial Revolution America would not be the most powerful nation on earth. During that time of great industry a bit of dirt got thrown around, likewise in England, but nature has it's own way of cleaning up our act, that's why the Bible exhorts us to work and gain dominion over the earth and all that is therein, yet fails to make any mention of resulting pollution. Either the Bible's Author was too stupid to foresee a resultant global warming and air pollution as an after effect of our work and dominion efforts, or, more likely, the Author did not regard those things as problems in the first place.

This week is also the big meet of the G8 in Germany and the global warming anti-Bible lie is being seriously discussed. Strangely though, there's a horde of angry G8 haters outside screaming at the top of their voices. If G8 are taking global warming seriously, why are it's proponents screaming at them from outside? I don't like globalization either, nor do I feel any sense of love for G8, what I do feel however is the need to question why each member of G8 still qualifies as a member. The UK is no longer one of the world's most powerful industrial nations, neither is it one of the richest. Italy follows suit: It ain't one of the world's richest or most industrial, so why are they still in the club? And why is China not a member, since it's now possibly the most industrial nation on earth and one of the richest? Could it be that the old adage "once a something, always a something" is applicable here? an "in with the bricks" thing? and a full display of the Peter's Principle?

Well whatever it is, it's simply a lousy act, and a dangerous one, because if G8 are adopting the ecology line, they're rejecting Biblical truth in the process. They stand at a cross-roads and the sign points in two directions: God or Geldof and Gore. One sign points downhill, the other points up. For people like myself the choice is plain. But for most of the G8 who reject the Bible and have no faith, their choice will always be the downhill trip, after all, it's the best route to "save" the planet and it's atmosphere, all they have to do is let off the brake and let it roll. No pollution, no noise, and resultantly, no hope and no progress. That's why I question the seemingly permanent status of G8 membership. Saudi Arabia leaves most of them standing. It's one of the world's richest and productive places. They take care of their people. Australia should be a member. Singapore is rich and influential, but out in the cold.

I seem to be alone in questioning the ongoing status of G8 membership and feel at a loss to understand why. I also question their claim to be the world's richest and most industrial because I happen to know that each member state has a large percentage of its population on and below the bread-line. For me this is a contradiction. If they're the richest, why do they have so many poor people? why don't they take care of them first? Why do the old folks fear retirement when they've worked so hard and productively for their country during the best years of their lives? Why do so many young folks fear for the future? a future that to them is a long way off.

Well I suspect it's all because their leaders are not taking care of their own people's business. When times are hard those national leaders are happy to see failed business owners going to jail, while on the other hand they're giving away a large chunk of their GDP to bail out failed despotic nations elsewhere. The World Bank is a prime example of this. Sudan, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Iraq, Palestine and 77 Gaza Strip get the breaks, but domestic workers, business and business owners get the cold shoulder.

While I'm on the subject of the World Bank I have to mention the short-lived tenure of Paul Wolfowitz. I fail to see any major problem in his appointment of his girlfriend. I suspect the real reason for the pressure against him was due to his plan to make bad risk nations more accountable for their action or inaction. In business I don't care who gets employed as long as the results are good. If someone heading a company wished to employ their grandma that'd be fine by me. A well run business is all about results. If it's on the up, it's well run. I just hope that Zoellick adopts Wolfowitz's agenda.

But I don't need good, bad or indifferent prophets to ascertain the words and works of the World Bank, I have my own Time Tunnel that provides all the answers. Kerry's Time Tunnel was three years long to prove he was a false prophet, but the World Bank has me spinning and falling down that tunnel into past history, and that's all the proof I need to ascertain their future. They're basically trapped in the "Why break the habit of a lifetime?" mode. It's become an institution and a political tool.

A wise old sage once spoke on the subject of punishment. One day he realized that he was becoming world-famous, he therefore prayed to God begging Him to explain what kind of sin he'd committed to receive this kind of punishment. Every time I think of this old guy and his heart-felt plea, I begin to think of myself, and I consider the world in a yet deeper aspect. Is the world getting better or worse? I'm always satisfied and never disappointed when I choose the latter. The world is waxing worse and worse, although cosmetically it's fashioned and made-up to look better. Politicians, ecologists, world leaders, rock stars from Ireland who profess to be Christian while denying the Bible to the letter, are making it worse.

On a darkened street in East Berlin in the 1970's I realized that the local people cared little for the outside world or ecology. They lived life day by day, and hoped against odds for a good future. Individual freedom is one of the first casualties of those who promise paradise on earth wrought by the hands of the people, without the help and consent of the Creator who created them. Therefore the time in which we live is far more evil than any time in the past because it's a space where no place is allotted for God and His Word.

Well there I go again bringing up the subject of surrogate gods. Small wonder I have few friends and many enemies. But you know? I'm still a good vintage, and I'm maturing without the help of false alchemists. I know where I've come from, and I definitely know where I'm going. But I still hope to be back next week ... let's all think as individuals, clearly and without bias, until then. Johnny D

© Johnny D. Symon