I look up at the sky sometimes and I see the stars so far above me, and I just drift away. My thoughts usually drift into some place that makes me think about what it is that has brought me to this physical place, but I wonder if the stars had something to do with it. Some people say that the stars actually control our lives… I believe that to a degree, but not completely. We make our own decisions and I never looked up and asked a star to guide me in making the correct decision, lest one fall on my head. But that is neither here nor there… but everywhere. I’m here because someone or something so far back in time that it is but a mere memory etched in the forbidden reaches of the cosmos, made a decision… Very similar to the decision that my great grandparents made one lonely night, or my grandparents or my parents on their honeymoon. The fact is my life, the life I cherish and value, was the random effect caused by decisions made many years before I even came into the picture. I would never have existed had my Mother not have decided to go to a party one night where she met my father, it was random. God, The Stars, Fate, Karma, all of these are answers to the question, “what happened that brought me here?” But the reality is that the exact opposite was just as mathematically possible at the time. Who is to say that making the decision to use your debit card to pay for gas at the store will not change your life? Ok… So I had my card out to pay for gas… You following me? And then I decided I wanted a Tropicana Pure Premium OJ, The best in the world, so I put my card back in my wallet and I walk into the store. I get ready to pay when this nice looking young man with a nice big black handgun walks into the store; he demands that the clerk and I give him all our cash. The clerk decides to be a hero, the gun goes off…. And now I am a quadriplegic. I would still be able to walk had I just used my card, but that is over there somewhere… not sure where, but what does that have to do with anything. The stars, they are real, decisions we make, they are real… me I know I am real… I think. What is reality? I once read that everything is energy, the molecules that hold everything together is energy, the stars are energy, and I am energy… I’m not sure if I really like that thought, but it still fascinates me, if all we are is energy, than everything that exists only does so because we perceive the energy in certain manners. We touch the surface creating vibrations, we smell vibrations, we taste them, see light waves, and hear sound waves, so we can only perceive our surroundings by sensing the energy in separate ways… this is odd that means that in reality nothing is really solid unless we perceive it in some manner. So who is to say what the office looks like? Or what we really look like, we only see the simulations that our body has set up for us based on the input of several sensory organs that sense energy… nothing more… and the only reason we have those sensory organs to sense the nothingness is because our great-great-great grandparents made a decision one morning to get out of bed, that changed the world. So when people say don’t sweat the small stuff… Stop and think… is it really that small… and when you walk out of a room, stop and ask… does that room exist now that no one is there to perceive it? Or better yet stop and ask yourself if your maternal descendant that lived all the way back in 16 BC thought that when he met that beautiful young girl that it would cause this discussion to take place. Is that the big dipper? You know, the stars are beautiful?
(c) 2008 J. Grant Blakeney
Humanity has many flaws, but we also have a great strong point… through the greatest disaster’s we will persevere. This is the Gulfport Yacht club, destroyed in 1969 by Hurricane Camille, and once again in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina… No longer does it lie in ruins, it is a symbol of the Coastal communities ability to rise up from the ashes, stronger and better than before!!!
Fort Massachusetts on Ship Island (Offically known as the Fort on Ship Island) is part of the interesting history of the fascinating barrier island. It was originally built after the war of 1812, and only saw actual battle once when confederate solders on the island engaged the Union Ship Massachusetts in the civil war. It is home to a mortar oven that was used by solders to heat cannon balls to red hot temperature and fire them at enemy ships in hopes of catching them on fire. The fort had once been the center of many military buildings that were once on the island, including a hospital barracks, and mess hall, all of those have since disappeared, and for a time all that remained were the fort and a replica of the Ship Island light house, Hurricane Katrina took care of the light house in 2005. The Fort has been out of service since 1903 and most cannons were removed in 1908. It is currently maintained by the National Park Service.
Brandon is the county seat of Rankin County in Mississippi; it is located approximately 130 miles from the Mississippi Gulf Coast. However during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods this was not true, Mississippi was part of a warm shallow sea, and they speculate that the Jackson Volcano was actually an island much like Hawaii. However Brandon Park just off highway 80, located just behind the Brandon Library is one of the few places in Rankin County where the sandstone breaks the surface. If you look closely the ground is littered with cockle shells all millions of years old, most of them are broken, but you can occasionally find whole ones. It is truly a unique place, I have heard and seen fossil sand dollars, sharks teeth, crabs, and lobsters from the area around what may have been Jackson Island. I would have loved to have seen it!
The sea is king, all life sprang from the sea… and it still keeps us in its wave of influence. Even the mightiest of trees can fall to the sea, man can build the largest most unsinkable ships… but if the sea wants it, she will take it. .jpg)
Oceans, Rivers, Lakes all attract me, I love the water… and I love being on the water. Ships and boats all hold a special place in my heart, there is something calming about being on the open water… granted I would want to do it in the lap of luxury and not Titanic style. Needless to say when I went to Ship Island, I was in heaven… I loved the boat ride, and I thought it was awesome when we stopped and passed the Ruby Gensolen (Read the name from a distance, not sure of the spelling.) on its way to ports unknown. One thing about Gulfport it is home to one of the most important Ports in the United States, and brings in ships from throughout the world.
