Blog 1479 – 10.05.2019

Guardian Of The Light

One of my favorite episodes of the popular and long running (far longer in reruns) CBS sitcom, The Andy Griffith Show, is about sheriff Andy Taylor’s son Opie joining a secret boys club and being elected the club candle caretaker with the auspicious title, Keeper of the Flame. It is a humorous story where Opie learns the danger of playing with fire but also the danger of keeping secrets.

To me it is no secret that we, everyone of us, is a Keeper of the Flame in a greater sense than Opie ever was. The God spark that has always been and is at the center of everything glows especially bright in human hearts and is always intended to flame, to glow, and to show the way home.

My daddy was a World War Two veteran and smoked much of his life and so like many men he carried a Zippo Wind-proof lighter. I recall, as a boy, seeing him often light a cigarette, a pipe, an occasional cigar, and as well many fires in the fireplace or coal heater that served to heat our home. I saw him fill it with lighter fluid and also put a new flint and or wick in his Zippo more than once. Dad was a caretaker and keeper of the flame.

Some years ago, though I have never smoked nor intend to, I started carrying a Zippo in my pant pocket and I ritualistically light it each morning to make sure that it has fluid and that the flint and wick are in working order. When asked why I carry it I usually reply, “Just in case some pretty woman needs a light.” I do not recommend smoking to anyone but neither do I judge anyone for their habits, I myself, just prefer different ones. Though I never cared for smoking myself nor the smell particularly (except for certain pipe tobaccos and cigars) I do think pretty girls and older women look sexy smoking.

But the real reason I carry fire is not to light pretty women’s cigarettes (After years of carrying a lighter I have actually yet to do that even once, so far anyway) but to remind me that as my father before me, his father before him, and all the way back to the First Father and Mother, that I carry fire within me and am a true Keeper of the Flame, Guardian of the Light. The divine spark, the eternally flame, lives in all of us. May it ever burn brightly and guide us all safely Home.

Your friend, fellow traveler,

Burning coal, and shooting star,

David White

https://drive.google.com/file/d/15iIoinZZD25XCj_endZ0J2BJwfoDbM1L/view?usp=drivesdk

Not Just An Old Junk Of Coal