by Athanasios
Ursus shook his head and sighed in utter relief.
TIME: FEBRUARY 19TH, 1966. DIGBY ISLAND, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA
A new flag flew over the Prince Paul post office. The Union Jack was replaced with the red maple leaf and quite a few people were sour about it. A petition had been started at the counter, but Kosta didn’t give it a second look. He only came to town once a week for letters, parcels, magazines and newspapers, so he didn’t stir up any trouble. He usually made the trip by himself, but this time, Adam showed interest in coming, so Kosta had humored him.
In 1965, Adam’s enthusiasm for the Beatles continued, unabated, with another endless supply of songs that had him humming and singing all over Digby. Ticket to Ride, Eight Days a Week, and Yesterday replaced last year’s tunes, and No Satisfaction and Get Off My Cloud made Kosta understand what Adam called “cool.” The Rolling Stones were much more to Kosta’s liking.
The winter, spring and early summer of 1965 had mixed messages for him. In March, Martin Luther King Jr. marched from Selma to Montgomery, joined by many celebrities like Tony Bennett, Harry Belafonte and some of the Rat Pack. Adam wanted to see Frank or Dean, marching along with their friend, Sammy. US troops were attacked by the Viet Cong at Da Nang, but could only defend themselves. In June, they were given permission to take the fight to the Viet Cong.
For six days in August, the Watts riots shook Los Angeles, but were replaced on TV by F-Troop, Lost in Space and Adam’s newest favorite, Get Smart. He loved Agent 86, the bumbling, idiot Bond, and Adam would use his shoe in pretend conversation with Kosta’s chief. Colanders were used as cones of silence and they called the Luciferians, and Dark Nobility their CHAOS.
Throughout the year, Kosta kept a careful eye on the new Pope’s accelerated push to modernize the church. In October, he visited North America, and by the end of the month, had forgiven Jews for Christ’s crucifixion. How big of him, Kosta thought. While Kosta and Adam came out of the Vancouver theatre, humming My World is Empty Without You and replaying scenes from Thunderball, Pope Paul VI signed the Second Vatican council. Outside of the theatre, Adam theatrically read the tagline for the film, “Look Up! Look Down! Look Out! Here Comes The Biggest Bond of All!” While it wasn’t the best 007 flick, it had great new gadgets.
The next day, while Adam watched more TV, Kosta returned to the last part of the Idammah-Gan. In Cathari, France, Kosta saw the emerging longing he read about in earlier depth of corrections. Then, it was realized and spoken aloud by the two Sangrael opposites. Now, they were one in Adam, who was content to only watch television. He was given the choice of absolute power and turned it down. He renounced it, for no other reason than it would hurt too many people. The price was too high, absolute power was blind and Adam saw too well.
People looked outside themselves for guidance and fell prey to human frailty. The tools used to reach peace are all faulty. We see with narrowed eyes, hear with limited ears, smell and taste with an imperfect nose and mouth and feel with partial touch. Were we to sense a facet of true light, we wouldn’t have the capacity to understand. There has never been, nor will there ever be, anything in human experience that will be able to comprehend what we are. The attempted explanations have always been inadequate.
The light for which we strive is always out of reach. We’ve used vehicles, religion, science and intellect, but cannot catch up to it, let alone reach its speed. We’ve described and named the light; God. As with everyone, Kosta’s senses were too limited. After all, he was human and used to his five senses. Instinctively Adam understood our senses weren’t enough. E very person had to learn this instinct — to learn they already had it inside of him or herself.
Kosta allowed Adam’s instinct to flourish and grow. He nourished it and allowed him to find his own way, without order, simply direction. The longer Kosta let it mature, the more this instinct would evolve. Good and evil were melded in Adam; they would evolve into something never seen before. Something humanity merely hinted at in scripture, art, literature, and myth. He would become Messiah, Redeemer, Hermes Tres Majestus, Maitreya, Buddha, to everybody.
- Life Rewarded -
TIME: FEBRUARY 20TH, 1967. DIGBY ISLAND, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA
January in Canada — the deepest part of winter — could get anyone down, but Kosta and Adam were easily entertained with their TV, music and reading. Rubber Soul dropped that month, amidst Paul and Art’s Sounds of Silence. Adam loved the opening, “Hello darkness, my old friend, I’ve come to speak to you again.” He said it touched a deep part of him equally fascinated by the Dark Knight and his sidekick on ABC.
In March, he was amused when John Lennon said the Beatles were more popular than Jesus. Adam and Kosta didn’t have a problem with that statement. In fact, in the modern world, most media-revered celebrities were becoming new religions. As Pope Paul VI demystified the Roman Catholic Church, it was no wonder people turned to newer forms of entertainment.
Everywhere, people were beginning to explore new avenues of thought. Kosta used this opportunity to teach Adam that contrary to some people’s opinion, different worldviews needn’t be socially taboo. If relegated to the level of thought, it was healthy to be unique and disagree with commonly accepted belief. However, he also noted that if this continued and was expressed through appearance, behavior and practice, he should expect scrutiny and opposition. To illustrate, he pointed out the changes in the church and how much resistance they elicited. Adam’s beloved Beatles also aptly exemplified his point. They were different from the usual brush cut and athletic lads normalized by the media. The Beatles incited scrutiny, comment and ridicule. Either a person has to be ready for these reactions or remain anonymous.
Kosta echoed Kazatzakis and told Adam that life was trouble. As he got older, he would be under more scrutiny and given more attention so they would make sure he was prepared for it. Trouble is life and life is trouble — people live to avoid it. Kosta was earnest that the constants in life are pain and trouble. They’re like breath and blood, both necessary and unavoidable. Nobody ever said life would always be fun, easy or that people should be happy. He believed whoever said that life is the pursuit of happiness was either a moron or manipulator. Once this fact is truly internalized, freedom may be attained. Free will is a frightening thing and is unencumbered by what we have chosen to believe. Once liberated a person will discover that liberty is terrifying and merciless. No cushion of rationalization will exist to buffer any fall.
In May Kosta’s attention was diverted to CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada. This time, he watched the Canadiens beat Detroit’s Red Wings in four games to two, winning the cup for Montreal. Scant days later, they listened to the radio and Adam concentrated on the Rolling Stones’ Paint it Black. It wasn’t long until his perennially favorite Fab Four, with Paperback Writer, replaced the Rolling Stones, and even though he had the album, it sounded different broadcast over the airwaves.
The summer brought another show with which Adam identified, Dark Shadows. In July, the news showed riots in Chicago and people in Alabama, responding to John Lennon’s matter of fact statement in March were burning Beatles paraphernalia. In August, John and the boys released Revolver and the Monkees came on television. Adam kept Kosta entertained with his ridicule of Tork, Dolenz, Nesmith and Jones, enumerating the reasons why he despised them, yet tuning into each episode. He hated Marlo Thomas to an equal degree, but refused to watch That Girl.
Everything stopped when Star Trek started on NBC. When it was on he was even more riveted than usual. Until the commercial breaks, the only response Kosta would get from him was “shhh.”
December and 1966 ended with the bombing of Hanoi and the escalation of tactics by LBJ’s administration taking precedence in the news. JFK’s former Vice President was in over his head. Factions, beyond his understanding, were manipulating him; he was barely able to tread water. There were many who were beginning to observe the increasing involvement in Vietnam; Kosta was sure they would start to
openly oppose what was becoming a war, not merely police action. Only the future would tell.
In 1966, their monthly forays into Vancouver yielded a wider variety of film. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf, A Man For All Seasons, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and A Fistful of Dollars provided them with many hours’ worth of conversations. Clint Eastwood was one of Adam’s favorite actors. Even though he had not been in many films, Adam thought he was underappreciated.
This pronouncement came with a grain of salt and a chuckle, when it was followed by his equally valid laughter as Adam West tried to get rid of a bomb on the big screen version of Batman. He also loved Hammer’s awful, but chilling, Dracula: Prince of Darkness. Adam thought he would be his choice to play Saruman in Lord of the Rings. He was just a really scary guy.
TIME: FEBRUARY 21ST, 1968. DIGBY ISLAND, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA
1967 was a tumultuous year for many as Kosta and Adam watched it on their TV, read about it in print or listened to it on the radio. It began in Sicily, where over two hundred people died in an earthquake, and a few weeks later, the Rolling Stones offered to spend the night together with a whole lot of people.
Wild Thing made Senator Bobby’s heart sing and the Smothers Brothers were making everybody nervous with their tongue planted firmly in their cheek. In Texas, Cassius Clay turned Muhammad Ali, won the heavyweight title, and less than a week later, the top two members of the Rolling Stones were arrested on drug charges. Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever and All You Need is Love were the newest Beatles songs that Adam wore out on Kosta’s ears, and in the now acknowledged Vietnam War, U.S. troops went on their largest offensive.
Muhammad Ali was inducted into selective service, and three weeks later in New York, he took it out on Zora Folley. The UN tried to make public proposals for peace in Vietnam, wrapping up the month of March. Muhammad Ali said that, “No Vietnamese ever called me a nigger,” refused to be drafted and was stripped of his title. His troubles continued to mount with indictment, conviction and threatened arrest. Shortly after this, Aretha Franklin hit the air with Respect which Kosta considered to be pretty poetic. In the Stanley Cup that year Toronto beat Montreal four games to two, and more members of the Rolling Stones were arrested for drugs.
The Beatles released Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Adam couldn’t be talked to for weeks; he played it over and over, wearing out two copies of the album. Expo ‘67 was in Montreal that summer, where French leader, Charles de Gaulle, spread separatist sentiments with “Vive le Quebec libre = Long live free Quebec.”
In September, Adam emerged from his Beatles coma to peruse the new fall line-up on TV. Mission Impossible, Ironside, and the Carol Burnett Show were the stand-outs, next to Smothers Brothers, Mannix, Dragnet and, of course, Spider-Man. Adam told Kosta that the Flying Nun could take a flying hike.
While visiting Vancouver, they watched movies that stood out from the every day deluge of news. The Graduate, Cool Hand Luke, Bonnie and Clyde, the Dirty Dozen and Clint’s newest, Hang ‘Em High, influenced Adam to adopt a new individualistic streak, which worried Kosta for a few weeks, however, it eventually wore itself out. Adam said that it was too exhausting to maintain and that he preferred to enjoy his peace and shows.
That year proved to be the turning point in Kosta’s worry about Adam. It wasn’t until then that he stopped watching for signs of the re-emergence of the one-year-old, capable of decimating a full-grown Seeker. He thought he was escaping through the distraction of TV, movies, books and music, and at first, he was right. His independent decision confirmed what he read in the Idammah-Gan Codex. It laid out everything the boy who became Adam, was and would be. It also spoke of other texts, tomes that explained his destiny in reverential, arcane and anti-Christian terms. The Luciferians might find those texts still housed in the Vatican Secret Archives, though the Nobility would most likely be the first to unravel their secrets. It could be somebody in the Vatican would uncover them first, but Kosta could never be sure of this. They might stay hidden. He did not have the resources of the Dark Nobility and knew his time with Adam was now limited. He cherished every second with him and smiled as Adam continued to unravel the layered meanings on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and the disappointing artsy-fartsy bullshit of Magical Mystery Tour.
It was during that year he decided to let the chips fall where they may. He was prepared for and met, his goal; whatever else came next was out of his hands. He had run out of alternatives and could only wait for the rest of the players to find the clues and come to them. He hoped his years of planning and safeguards would be enough.
TIME: FEBRUARY 22ND, 1969. DIGBY ISLAND, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA
Kosta and Adam watched the Magical Mystery Tour go on though without Adam’s full enthusiasm, while they laughed at many, yelling, “Sock it to me,” on NBC’s Laugh-In. The Viet Cong launched the Tet Offensive, while Nguyen Ngoc Loan executed an enemy officer with a shot to the head. The picture flashed all over the media and encapsulated a brutality nobody unused to war could understand.
In March, JFK’s little brother, Bobby, announced his bid for the Oval Office, one month after Richard Nixon announced his candidacy. There would be another Kennedy/Nixon debate, Kosta thought.
Despite the letdown of Magical Mystery Tour, in comparison to Sgt. Pepper’s, Adam warmed to Hey Jude, Lady Madonna and Revolution. His Beatles preoccupation was diluted by new add-ons like the Who, Cream, Steppenwolf and Jimi Hendrix, who now joined the Rolling Stones, Doors and Simon & Garfunkel.
April brought shock, when one of the leading forces in the move for peace and understanding in the U.S., Martin Luther King Jr., was gunned down in Memphis. In Canada, a new Prime Minister took office after a Beatlemania-like campaign. Pierre Elliot Trudeau was determined to make some major changes, with visionaries like Tommy Douglas in parliament, following the revolutionary Lester B. Pearson.
In the Stanley Cup the Montreal Canadiens swept St. Louis’s Blues in four games, with a team that looked like they were setting up for a dynasty. Adam was beside himself when Lennon and McCartney were featured on the Tonight Show, while Johnny Carson gave the desk over to substitute host and former baseballer, Joe Garagiola.
In early June, RFK was shot while campaigning for the presidency, and Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassin was brought to trial. In July, in the face of unprecedented, open sexuality Pope Paul reaffirmed his stance against birth control, which was a good call, quipped Kosta.
In August, over 6000 died in an earthquake in Iran, while Lennon and his declared muse, Yoko Ono, took a nude picture for Private Eye magazine. “Yeesh,” Adam said, “put some clothes on.”
Sixty Minutes premiered and was a staple of their Sunday night viewing, while more than a week before, Richard Nixon had asked them to sock it to him. To everyone’s shock, JFK’s widow married a little Greek gnome, Aristotle Onassis, and LBJ halted the bombing of North Vietnam.
The year ended with the release of the Beatles’ White Album, which marginally made up for the release of John and Yoko’s Two Virgins.
On their movie nights in Vancouver, Yellow Submarine confused Adam to no end, though he enjoyed the songs. 2001: A Space Odyssey irritated him with its glacial pacing. He thought that Kubric was a hack, his earlier Strangelove obviously a flash in the pan.
Planet of the Apes was a great departure from convention, while Romeo and Juliet and the Lion In Winter were great updates of history. Barbarella and Bullitt appealed to Adam’s testosterone, while the Odd Couple and the Party were hilarious. Peter Sellers set a new standard for interracial understanding of “tasty-num-nums” and “I am not your shugeh”. Rosemary’s Baby, on the other hand, seemed just plain silly. Considering the perspective from which Adam viewed it, it was built upon far-fetched premise.
The single most comforting thing that Adam experienced that year, or any year so far, was Beggars Banquet. The Stones’ lyrics for Sympathy for the Devil touched Adam on every level. Jagge
r seemed to understand there was a mind, emotions and awareness to the embodiment of evil. Adam remained silent through most of his listening, preferring not to discuss it even with Kosta. It was too personal and nobody else could understand it the way that he could.
TIME: AUGUST 14TH, 1970. VATICAN
Lancaster Martin was not a man who was prone to hysterics. After hours of exhaustive searching, he came to the unmarked door of the Apostolic Testis and knocked, waiting entrance. The door opened a crack and Sister LaParee squeezed out, smiled at the father and asked if she could be of assistance.
“May I come in, Sister? There is something I wish to discuss with you privately. May we go inside?”
Father Martin’s bafflement was evident as Sister LaParee attempted to deflect the question. “I’m afraid that is out of the question Father. My Mother Superior has given strict orders no one is to enter without express permission from the Secretary of State or the Major Prefect.” Although her face registered regret, it also revealed an unshakable conviction she would keep everybody out, short of Christ, Himself.
Father Martin’s face went comically blank struck by the finality and suddenness of the statement, though he tried to maintain decorum. “Have you seen Father Quentin, Sister? I’ve been looking for him a few hours and have yet to find him. There is a situation about which he must be informed.”
A short shake of her head and shorter smile creased her plump face. Sister LaParee stared blankly at the Jesuit father, waiting for him to go or to make further inquiry.
