Fathers Day 2011

Since everyone is posting pictures of their dad, this is mine. I came across these, and other photo's that belong to my older brother, when doing some cleaning. I didn't know him very well, matter of fact not at all. He was pretty much out of the picture by the time I was old enough to know what was what, and who was who. He came back for a short time when I was around 8 or so, I remember going to work a few times with him, he was a plumber, but other than that I don't remember ever having a conversation with him. The last time I saw him alive was when I was 14, he had just gotten out of prison. It appears he moonlighted as a getaway driver for a gang that used to knock off jewelery stores.
He died somewhere between 1977 - 1978 and I remember my mothers words as she stood over the casket "At least I know where you are now John", she said.

I wish I could say I feel something for the man, but it's hard to feed the soul from seeds never planted. What's most important is I don't feel anything against him. To me he will always be just another pilgrim taking all the wrong directions on his lonely way back home. There were a lot of lies penned in his absence, a lot of "we could haves, if he only wouldn't have", orated to excuse away personal shortcomings. But truth, in all it's harsh light, also ushers in the peace after the storm. Most just stay locked in the memory and use it to shape their future, prisoners of their own ignorance, and a deceptive system that would keep them there for their own ignorance filled devices. For me I know different, and if that solitary act was the intention of the exercise, then it was accomplished that's all that matters.

Well God bless you and God keep John, I'll never know the outcome, the spirits I communed with are all locked away quite safely now, If you were anything like me, and I think you were, you'll know that now, and find shelter there now. And when the crossroads appear on the horizon, and we by fate meet once again, maybe then I shall get to know you, and answers if any shall pass away, their significance laid to rest, like these bodies we once shared.