Recently an old friend of mine passed away in Scotland; he was an American
from Iowa that had married a Scot and was the super in the 70's for the
construction of the Findhorn meditation Hall ; a huge multi purpose theater
made of stone built by a rag tag collection of Dharna bum stone masons and
carpenters from all over the globe who were given room and board and a place
to play (so to speak) to hone their craft;
 make their  beer; and chase apple cheeked lassies through sand dunes of  the
heather and the highland sea.  .
He was an unusual super and teacher in that he was patient; unjudging and
inclusive of your friendship through your craft.(or lack of) depending on
your willingness to learn. .. .

The day of his passing we unearthed skeletal remains on an archeological dig
about a half mile inland from the Pensacola beach .; at first a large thigh
bone came into view; then the ribs and lastly the skull with a doubloon in
the mouth of as yet an undetermined age
The archeologist and medical examiner were called for and as they jumped into
the  pit I took my tea break in the white sand under the breezy  Palms and
watched the  Pink morning sky dance with little wiffs of purple and gold over
 a shimmering Gulf of white caps..

Poor Thomas; my 21 yr old shovel and mud man "; doesn't care for the dead;
"Mr. Mike " he sez..... "dem spirits don't want you to be mess-ing with em"
His gold tooth flashes  the morning sun from his handsome cal- mex good looks
.
He has shiny black Indian hair he wears in plait with decorated whale bone .
"Dey gits you and keeps you" he sez with fierce dark eyes and a winning smile
of a Romeo that he is .

Poor Thomas is not alone in this assumption; walking home one night on 110 th
 street from working on the Audubon tomb in NYC  I ran into my street corner
Psychic...Mdme Sophie
 "where have you been she demanded ;"They are all around you "
with that she whisked me into the parlor chair and I got the ghost buster
special  with the smudge sticks; and shoulder rubs for incantations to the
arch angel Raphel , plus the take home incense.
All for free..
..Free? I ask " Yes free except for the incense; its special from Mexico
[that will be (cha-ching) $25 bucks  please."...
How she knew I was working graves Ill never know
Sophie  then gave me the lecture about working with the dead; how they latch
on ; cause colds and fatigue and a general malaise in disposition; and could
I please  come back each week ....
..Now theres the rub.

"Mumbo-jumbo " I kid  poor Thomas ; "if they latch on to you just go to the
massage parlor an let them latch on to you" now give me  a 3-1 mix with
hydraulic lime  for our foundation work "
 the  human remains were found at the 8ft level;
there was some broken pottery with it
 the Spanish were here from the late 1500s to early 1800
Missing from this area is the whereabouts of the Navvaro expedition which
predated De Soto and disappeared without a trace into the interior with 300
men an horses in full armor. sometime around 1530
 De Soto 15 years later found one survivor living as a savage but half mad
with incredible stories of torture and feasting of aligators and talking
heads  taken from the living...he was dismissed as incompetent and so De Soto
too ventured after Navarro and the lost citys of gold only to share the same
fate..
(De Soto it was chronicled was buried in the Mississippi; only 9 of 286 made
it back 4 years later to where is now Galvestown.)
 perhaps this coffee colored corpse will give some clue......
.. However as the skull is held aloft from the pit and examined in the
morning light  my thoughts are with  a dying friend and how some day we will
all look like that.;
I am romantic enough yet  seasoned  enough in this life  to say   that all to
this life  is not for naught in the end.
My thoughts this morning are likened to this  unknown Spanish adventurer we
have unearthed.. The soul is likened to a Galleon with riches taken from this
life on to the next for better or worse in the  the celestial passage; to
home ......sail on my carpenter brother  May we meet again .       Pyrate

--
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uncoffee-ed, or to change your settings, go to:
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