The Old Man on the Mountain
I'm just back from a flying trip to Fort Valley, where our OMOTM is fading on us. He called me Friday in what for him passes for a tizzy, which immediately got me into one too. Bottom line: his condition is worsening, but the pills his doctor ordered up and I picked up Sunday had him feeling somewhat better by Monday afternoon.
But he is down to little more than skin and bones and is luminous in his immersion in things of spirit, to the point I doubt he will pay enough attention to keeping a foot on this side of the veil. He's been telling me for a couple of years how ready he is to join his Jeannie Ann and leave the lunacy of this mudball behind, but always before he has added "the Boss must have some reason for keeping me here, 'cause otherwise I'd be long gone."
Now his eyes are turning away from here, and I begin to realize that the rejuvenating power I have ascribed to the hill really comes from interacting with him. I can only hope that might be reason enough for the Boss to keep him with us a while.
Time passes and the world changes and my view of the "Gift of the One to Men" flickers between Pandora's box and the truest Gift of all.