“I’d wager that about ninety percent of what happens in this city consists of occurrences which would be termed ‘normal’ across most of Earth One’s reality. Yet, there’s also, I’d guess, about eight percent which I’d designate as ‘strange,’ and probably about two percent which I’d categorize as ‘extremely strange.’ But, the residents of this city are expecting their new mayor, as the old one did, to embrace, rather than attempt to alter or stymie these events.” That was what I was told just before the mayoral oath was administered to me, and I became the chief executive of what most likely is the strangest city in the Earth One reality of planet Earth.
But I was also informed of a second very important matter of fact prior to my oath taking. “In this city, the vast majority of residents will not tolerate the deception, fakery, and hatred of liberalism,” I was told.
“Oh, you needn’t worry on that account,” I answered. “I understand the dangerousness of liberalism. But I’ve also been here in the United States long enough to condemn the groundless impeachment frenzy which today seems to be rampant amongst political, journalistic, and entertainment despisers of the American middle class. And, this blatant hatred of working Americans makes one wish that the people who are pushing this phony impeachment charade might be made to work for some amount of time in a factory or in an agricultural setting so that they might learn what it means to actually earn a living in this nation. Maybe then they’d stop wasting their time and taxpayers’ money on bogus claims of wrongdoing. And, as a collateral benefit, maybe they’d also then stop encouraging foreigners to illegally enter and remain in this nation.”
So, anyway, I guess I demonstrated that day that I possessed the two great requisites which are apparently demanded of mayors of this city. And, in my first remarks to our city’s council I said I looked forward to working with it’s members, and cautioned them concerning certain candidates running for president in the next election. I told them that some of these people want to exorbitantly tax working Americans in an effort to extend certain government benefits to people living illegally in the U.S., as well as to able bodied Americans who simply refuse to work. But then I also expressed heartfelt words of praise for our city’s former mayor Ralph Hawk. And, speaking of Ralph Hawk, I think I’ll now disclose some of his earliest remarks to me. These were made shortly after I arrived here in the city.
Ralph speaks: “You know, as I prepare to leave the Earth One reality of planet Earth and return to Parallel Reflections, the reality of my birth, I’m experiencing a fear of the onset of the aging process that’s been stopped for me now for fifty some years. But I’m also guessing that after fifty years of basically being told how to conduct my life and impact the lives of others, it’s going to seem strange to be more or less left on my own as I try to enjoy my remaining years. And maybe I’ll try working at a mall. I always could know everything I needed to know about anyone I may have seen walking in one of those. And I knew the people there simply by seeing them. I almost always didn’t know their names, yet I knew who they were. I knew their hearts, minds and souls. And you, I, and they knew that I knew.”
That was (and I think basically word for word) the response I received from Ralph Hawk when I met with him before he left this city, and asked him what he’d do when he returned to his earthly reality of birth. But of course the real reason for our meeting was that he might “prepare me,” as best he could, for the duties of mayor of this city; a job he was now going to relinquish to me. And I was very impressed with Mr. Hawk. And my main goal in this city shall be to lead it as well as he did,
Thus, I feel it’s fitting that I write this note as both a farewell to Ralph, and as an introduction of myself as mayor of this city. And I’ll try not to be long-winded, yet I know I’ll never forget some other quotes made to me by Ralph that day. And again, I’ll present them as well as I can recall them.
Ralph speaks: “I wonder how many more times we’ll be allowed to sneak out a back door or side window and avoid what seem to be the retributive threats associated with our tendency to delegate our ‘situations of the future’ to others?” And I believe that complex sentence will for me now always illustrate the “personality of being” I’ll forever associate with Ralph Hawk.
But, although I reckoned Ralph’s “presence” to be somewhat detached, I also perceived his persona to somehow represent all the responsibilities we as earthlings accrue simply by being inhabitants of this planet. And, I agree with Ralph that each mortal’s paramount human priority lies in his or her responsibility to his or her own self. But why? Simply because if we fail to do our best in regard to our own personal survival (discounting criminal activity of course), how can we realistically expect to aid others in any quest they may wish or need to pursue?
“But what about caring and compassion?” I put that question to Ralph Hawk.
“Truthfully” he said, “when one considers the obligations mortals may have as beings set into time for but a brief while upon Planet Earth, one deduces that they really have but two all-encompassing fidelities on that planet. And the first, as I’ve already said, lies in their own sense of self preservation. And, contained in that first fidelity is the greatest of all mortal quests, that being the salvation of one’s eternal soul, that it might be reunified with one’s deceased mortal body under the care of the Triune God rather than the deviousness of Satan in the inevitable eternity which lies ahead of us; though we’ve already experienced eternity while having lived in time that’s now behind us, and also all around us at this very moment.”
“And, the second great mortal obligation is the multifaceted ongoing struggle to procure a calm and unobtrusive passage of physical time. But what does it profit mortals to strive simply for what might be termed a rather blasé passage of time? Well, it more than profits; it is, or at least should be the goal of all alive on Planet Earth to live forward into future days, months, and years in opposition to all that’s caused damage in history’s books, i.e. wars, crimes, famines, droughts, fires, floods, and of course great rises or decreases in planetary temperatures.”
I then asked Ralph if he felt he’d done a “good job” while he’d been in Earth One.
“Yes, I believe I did the best I could have done” he replied. “But I do leave with many apprehensions. I often find myself fearing for the future of this reality. Many problems exist here of course, but I fear there is an overriding sense prevalent here now, that all mortals in this reality are somehow deserving of excellent lifestyles whether they work for them or not. Criminals are coddled. And people who are basically, for lack of a better term ‘losers,’ are encouraged to do all they can (even leave their nations of birth if they desire to) to live off the labors of others. Individuality is stymied. A pervasive, but spurious belief in group propaganda rather than verifiable fact is on the rise. And leaders are threatened with removal from their elected positions for groundless reasons.”
“And we don’t look at things that way (at least not when I left, and hopefully still not) in Parallel Reflections. Thus, I may have some trouble reclaiming my ‘sense of self’ when I return there. And, of course, I’m thinking many of the people I knew there at the time of my departure are dead now. After all, it’s been over fifty years that I’ve been gone.”
And here is the quote I’ll always remember best about Ralph. “Paris was the first place I was sent when I came to this reality” he said. “And as a thirty two year old, I found myself attracted to a lot of the Parisian women of the late sixties, and a number of them, I think I can say without being boastful were attracted to me as well,” he continued. “But I’d been instructed by my masters from Parallel Reflections to never allow myself to participate in any seriously romantic relationship with any Earth One woman, regardless of her ethnicity.”
“So I had a lot of friends there during those days. And I had a sort of ‘free reign’ there. And while I was there all my expenses were paid by my Parallel Reflections overlords; but that wasn’t to be the case when I was transferred to what I always called ‘the city of strangeness’! There I had to get a job and support myself. But after I left Paris, I was sent to about seven more places in the Earth One reality (none of which I remained at for more than a month), before I was told I’d spend the remainder of my Earth One sojourn in the city I eventually became mayor of. And I spent a lot of years in that city”!
And yes, indeed Ralph did spend many years here in our city. But now he’s gone, and yours truly, George Jennifer is the new mayor of this locality. And I imagine you may find it strange or unlikely that I have a woman’s first name as my last. Well, here’s the simple reason why. I had a wife named Jennifer who cheated on me. I guess such activity occurs in all the realities. And when the authorities in Parallel Reflections learned of my pending divorce, they asked if I’d consider a reality crossover, that I might become mayor of this city upon Ralph’s departure from it. And I agreed to come here and become mayor of this city in exchange for my last name being officially changed to Jennifer upon my arrival here. Yet I changed my last name not in honor of my ex-wife’s unfaithfulness, but rather as a sign to her and all other mortals I may ever encounter that I can conquer all evils by subjecting them to incorporation within goodness and such lifestyle changes which have proven beneficial to mankind.
So, I’m looking forward to being this city’s chief executive. And Ralph’s former friends (my new friends) and I are also looking forward to keeping you informed of the most significant developments which may occur here.
