TALES FROM THE CARIBBEAN

Dave’s aunt was glad to see them and, of course, the warm feeling was mutual and they continued to chat until the captain changed the subject by asking if she had a moving dolly? She did not, so Dave and his Dad lugged the 5 wooden boxes, one at a time, from the truck into her family room. Fortunately there was a conference table in that room that could be used to sort through the boxes. The treasure was a surprise to the aunt because nothing was said to her about it on the phone. Dave’s aunt made her money-trading stocks, but after he told her about the treasure she was interested—especially about the gemstones.

Dave, of course, insisted that she should have first bid on any, or all of it, after Jenifer appraised it. The captain used the aunt’s cell phone to call Jenifer (NY appraiser) and his timing was perfect because her plane had just landed. Dave and his aunt chatted while the captain took the truck to pick up Jenifer. After they returned from the airport, Dave and his aunt were already sorting through the first box. Jenifer’s only concern was verifying the treasure’s authenticity and after she heard the whole story and saw the treasure on the table all doubt was removed.

“Oh My,” exclaimed Jenifer between Dave’s aunt’s “Oh, my word,” exclamations.” Jenifer began by separating the jewels from the other artifacts and after she examined each stone with her eye-loop and weighed it to determine the number of karats, she placed a wholesale value on it. Dave’s aunt had dinner catered in because this process was going to take some time.

One of the diamonds was emerald cut and it was the biggest diamond that Jenifer had ever seen up close—it had exceptional color and clarity and tipped the scale at 63.4 karats. She estimated its wholesale value at 273 thousand dollars, but its rare size might make it go at a Sotheby’s auction for millions of dollars. Dave’s aunt quickly spoke for it and so it was separated from the other jewels. Some of the Emeralds were huge too; two of them exceeded 35 karats with a wholesale value of 35 thousand dollars each, but they too might go at auction for much more because of their unique size, clarity and cut. Dave’s aunt spoke for them too and on they went, as Dave’s aunt’s pile continued to grow. Box by box, until all five boxes had been inventoried and priced. Jenifer and everybody else was tired and although Jenifer wanted to get a motel room Dave’s aunt insisted that she stay in one of her guest rooms, but before Jenifer called it a day, she phoned her buyer in NY City who, upon Jenifer’s recommendation, said that he would take it all, for cash—sight unseen.

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Not wishing to risk a security breech the Captain called Big Jessie and asked him to fly there without any explanation and Jenifer asked her buyer to send his private jet and exchange the money for the wooden boxes. Dave’s half of the treasure’s wholesale value was in the millions and it would be sufficient to buy a sailboat, a new dinghy and pay for his college education too. Although Dave had planned on giving the rest of the money to his grandmother in Italy for safe keeping, it suddenly occurred to him that his aunt would know what to do with it—she was, after all, a successful investment specialist. Having put the business behind them, it was time to kick back and enjoy themselves on the white sandy beach while they waited for their plan to materialize.

“Pop,” inquired Dave, “Although you’ve never mentioned religion, I know that you have some sort of belief system about nature or spirituality? Occasionally, I’ve heard you say, “God only knows,” and other times I’ve heard you say, “Mother Nature is everybody’s mother”–the Monk certainly has strong religious beliefs, he prays all of the time.” Whenever, I hear you say somebody is praying like sixty-mothers, I suspect that you are talking about him, he prays in earnest—all of the time?” One time I heard Indiana John say, “If a cow painted a picture of God, it would have horns—that made sense to me.”

“Son, everybody should have their own concept of God, but I never subscribed to the idea that I needed a priest, rabbi, or swami, acting as a spokesperson between me and the Almighty Creator of our universe. I believe that I have just as much of a hot line to God through my personal spirituality as the religious leaders do and that includes the Pope, but I’m careful not to force my ideas on you—you must decide about spirituality for yourself–what you believe or, do not believe.”

A South Bend professor, once spoke about the writings of the ancient Greek philosopher Xenophanes (c.570-c.475 BC) and his words remain deeply etched in my mind, as if, he said them last week:
“Humans suppose that gods have been born and wear clothes like theirs and have voice and body. But if <horses> or cows or lions had hands to draw with their hands would produce works of art as men do, horses would draw the figures of gods like horses and cows like cows, and would make their bodies just as the form which they each have themselves. Ethiopians say that their gods are snub-nosed and black, and Thracians that theirs have blue eyes and red hair.”

Xenophanes pointed out to what great extent we judge things by contrast, and by what else is around:

“If God had not made yellow honey, people would say that figs are sweeter.”
Xenophanes’ opinion on what God was actually like—the supreme God—is interesting:
“One God, greatest among gods and men, not at all like mortals in body and mind. As a whole he sees, as a whole he thinks and as a whole he hears. And always he stays in the same place, not moving at all, nor is it fitting for him to travel different directions at different times. But with no effort at all he keeps everything moving by the thinking of his mind.”

And Xenophanes (like Pythagoras, and like Plato later on) seems to have believed in the transmigration of souls: “And they say that once as he was passing by when a puppy was being beaten he took pity on it and spoke as follows:
‘Stop! Don’t hit it! For it is the soul of a friend of mine, which I recognized when I heard its voice.”

The story of the thousand faces of God stretching upward like a totem pole toward heaven came from the great Hindu spiritual work called the Bhagavad-Gita. In the story, an ancient Hindu prince named Arjuna is standing in his war chariot at the beginning of a bloody battle where he will have to fight and try to kill some of his own cousins. But it turns out that the man whom he thinks is his charioteer, dutifully standing beside him and holding the horse’s reins, is in fact the mighty god Krishna in disguise. Then the Lord Krishna suddenly reveals himself, and starts giving him serious religious instruction, about how he has no choice, he has to fight, and finally gives him that vision of one God with an infinite number of faces.

The Christian’s put it this way in a Bible verse:
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what was planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; A time to break down, and a time to build-up; A time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather them together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.”

The Greek philosopher, Plato’s tripartite division of the soul teaches us some valuable things, about the proper role of anger, and fighting, neither of which are bad in and of them selves. The human soul, he said, was divided into three parts, like a war chariot guided by a wise charioteer and pulled by two winged horses:
The rational part—the wise charioteer, who always thought before he acted (if at all possible).

One of the horses (a fine thoroughbred race horse) a part of the soul that (when out of control), erupted in uncontrollable rage and murderous temper tantrums, but that (when balanced properly) produced COURGE. That was where real courage came from, from the proper channeling and focusing of our aggressive impulse. That was the only horse with the guts to keep at it, no matter how bad it got, and win the race.

Another horse (a lazy old nag), who refused to get upset about anything, and kept on telling the other horse, “calm down, don’t get in such a sweat.” The important things in life, he insisted, are food, drink, sex, sleep, physical comfort, and mindless entertainment. Go bowling, eat a pizza, get a bag of popcorn or pretzels and half gallon bottle of Pepsi-Cola, and watch a basketball game (or a rerun of an old comedy) on TV.

But you got in big trouble in your life if you let any one of these three totally take control. This included the rational part that could turn you into a futile, helpless nerd.

The good warrior practiced the virtue of “justice” (dikaiosune, right thinking), which to Plato meant the proper “balance” between the three parts, neither too much nor too little. Now if somebody is “unbalanced” that is just another word that means “insane.”

So a very good translation of dikaiosune is SANITY. If I get accidentally locked in an insane asylum, where everyone else there is hopelessly insane, my best hope of survival is NOT to be as crazy as they are (to get even with them? to show them how tough I am? No one there cares?). No, my best hope of survival is to stay as SANE as I possibly can.

The four virtues of the good warrior are therefore: prudence (planning ahead, taking no foolish and unnecessary chances.), courage, self-control (when tempted to slack off and loaf) and justice (right thinking, mental balance).

“Pop,” Dave asked, “would you say that Big Jesse is balanced or unbalanced?”

“God only knows son,” said the captain, “It’s not for me to judge anybody else, but I believe he’s crazy like a fox—never underestimate him.”