Innocents Abroad

I thought I could write a book with my ramblings, and I could call it "The Innocents Abroad," except that title has already been used by Mark Twain. And God forbid anyone confuses me with Mark. Rather I could call it "A Novice in Unfamiliar Territory or the Perils of Pauline in the Periphery."

Pauline is a frustrated lyric writer who has been bound to the railroad track of limitation, knowing full well that Dudley DoRight is an animated cartoon character and unable to save her. She still hopes for rescue, but basically it’s up to her to free her own self.

And the Periphery is an E-llusion, compared to an illusion or delusion. An E-llusion is when you know you’re there, and that it is real, because there is no un-real. Geographically, the Periphery is just outside the boundary of the normal mass belief tunnel vision.

And I preamble with a story from Elias about a man that was not originally from this country. Not speaking of geography, but a country of time. And he grew and left home and ventured into another country of time, but in so moving had to learn a new language. In fact, he had to learn several new languages as he moved further and further from his home. And because he no longer speaks his native language, he has forgotten it.

(BTW: let me side track here in an update, in case you are confused by my websites. I am writing in this language that has been forgotten. It is the language of imagery, color, and association. It is the language that you speak in dreams.)

Now his parents, his essence, still send messages and greetings, but this man has forgotten how to respond. This man has totally separated from his essence in his growing and exploring of new lands of time. But now he wishes to connect with his family again, and in doing so must remember his native tongue of communication.

And he begins to wander towards home with a great desire to reconnect. And in the process he will encounter much unfamiliar territory.

And the first thing he must learn is that there is no one to rescue him, or her, in the case of Pauline. Rescue in itself is an animated cartoon character where the cure is often worse than the disease.

It isn’t that DoRight doesn’t show up for Pauline. DoRight always shows up. DoRight is Pauline’s Nemesis, a carryover from hundreds of lifetimes schooled in the virtues of goodness and doing the right thing. Good is as close to God as one can get, if you dropkick one of those o’s into left field. The second best is clean. Good and clean together is an extra three points.

The problem is that in the unfamiliar territory of the periphery, good is often a detriment. Pauline doesn’t always have enough time to evaluate right against wrong or good against bad, without even considering adding all the supplementary attachments like clean. Being good, or the very sticky thesaurus of good, (used most often by politicians up for re-election,) moral or righteousness or virtuous, are much like swimming with brick shoes.

Pauline is only innocent in the aspect of guileless babe in the woods. She is not pure and unsullied, chaste, clean, decent, celibate, lily-white, simon-pure, incorrupt, sinless, vestal, virgin, virginal, virtuous, inviolate, uncorrupted, unspoiled, untainted, benign, bland, innocuous, inoffensive, mild, safe, unobjectionable and polite. And this be the point. The Periphery is not heaven, where those things would look good next to one’s name in St. Peter’s reference guide for who qualifies for a saint pass.

And by the way, just for your edification, St. Peter is no longer there. He has been replaced by a machine where you punch in your four-digit code and the gate lifts. And if you haven’t figured out by now the other choices, like crawling under or over the gate, or waiting for someone else to punch in their code and following them through, or just voldly crashing through the gate, then you’re probably missing the whole point of this essay.

And quite frankly it matters not.

What I wish to say in regards to the Perils of Pauline in the Periphery, is that every episode is a cliffhanger. Beginning with yesterday. (How’s that for imagery?)