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You have now arrived at the 1st chapter of the e-book, “Judgment Day-RX7″. If you are just arriving at this web site, you are invited to start here at the beginning of the trail (Chapter 1).

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The Scream of Nature – Wikipedia – public domain – by edvard munch c.1893…

“I was walking along the road with two friends – the sun was setting – suddenly the sky turned blood red – I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned on the fence – there was blood and tongues of fire above the blue-black fjord and the city – my friends walked on, and I stood there trembling with anxiety – and I sensed an infinite scream passing through nature.”

Edvard Munch explains the inspiration for this his famous painting, “The Scream of Nature”

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CHAPTER 1:

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“Beginning Of The Trail”

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THE LOVE OF GOD

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VERSE 1.

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“The love of God is greater far

than tongue or pen can ever tell;

It goes beyond the highest star,

and reaches to the lowest Hell…

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VERSE 3.

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“…Could we with ink the ocean fill,

And were the skies of parchment made,

were every stalk on earth a quill,

And every man a scribe by trade;

To write the love of God above,

would drain the ocean dry;

Nor could the scroll contain the whole,

though stretched from sky to sky.”

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Verse 3 was penciled on the wall of a narrow room in an insane asylum by a man said to have been demented. The profound lines were discovered when they laid him in his coffin.

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Summertime, 1980

In a few seconds I will plunge to almost certain death!

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Anything to rid myself of this insane voice that keeps plaguing me! Even as I’m standing here at death’s door, he’s still mocking me… Talking, talking…always talking…”Ohhh Chu-u-u-ck! I’m gonna miss you, boo hoo! Sob sob. sniffle sniffle.” 

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This…uh… “familiar friend” is a great mocker. And I’m at the end of my rope with this unwanted companion! “Ohh Chuck, don’t leave me! I’m gonna be sooo lonely! Sob, sniffle.” See!? See what a mocker he is!? Death will be a welcomed release from all this! And from him!

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At this point, I’m no longer talking with him. I’m just putting up with him. He talks! He mocks! And I just tolerate. But I can only barely tolerate him! What else can I do? He’s invisible! It’s not like I can just shoo him away!

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The Scream of Nature – Wikipedia – public domain – by edvard munch c.1893

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ONE WAY OUT!

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But now, I’ve found a way out!  And who can blame me for ending it all? Who can disagree that taking this plunge is the only way out? Not to mention the terror of this situation which I’ve suffered for so long…

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So, what would you do if you were in my shoes?

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Well, if you think you’d do different, let me just tell you my story. Then you make up your own mind.

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Okay?

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Fair enough?

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Good! Then we’ll turn back the pages of time from this moment (late summer of 1980), to about 16 months earlier. Back to spring, 1979.

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That’s a good place to begin my story, or should I rather say, my true account of how, “All Hell broke loose!”

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The Scream of Nature – Wikipedia – public domain – by edvard munch c.1893

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Spring, 1979

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“Singin’ to the world, it’s time we let the spirit come in, (Let it come on in).

“I’m singin’ to the world, everybody’s caught in a spin. (Look at where we’ve been).

“We’ve been runnin’ around… year after year…blinded by pride…blinded by fear—

“Cause it’s daybreak. If ya only believe,

“it can be daybreak, ain’t no time to grieve,

“said it’s daybreak, if ya only believe,

“and let it shine, shine, shine….all around the world”…….

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“Far out, man!” That was my last song for a whole month!  As I made my way out of the auditorium to my car, I noticed my hands were starting to tremble again. “Maybe a month’s vacation will stop this shaking.”, I told myself. I probably shook my head, as if to shake away these thoughts outa my head, so I wouldn’t think about it. But frankly… it worried me. I didn’t want to believe I was having some sort of a breakdown, or whatever. I didn’t want to acknowledge that I was losing control.

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Keane1 – Yamaha Electric Grand – courtesy Wikipedia & Yummifruitbat – Picture of very talented person and not of Chuck

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AN INTRODUCTION IS IN ORDER

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This is me. My name is Chuck. I’m your typical 28 year old. Typical for back in 1979, that is. Do I look a little clueless? Well, I am. I mean I was. But all that was about to change.

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“Oh, and how do you like my little metallic cobalt/black sports car? It’s an RX-7. Just got it, not too long ago. Pretty cool huh?”

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Mazda rx7-1st Generation – wikipedia – GNU-free-user-license

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NEXT DAY…

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“GET YER MOTOR RUNNIN’…HEAD OUT ON THE HIGHWAY…”

(Opening lyrics of the 1968 Steppenwolf song, “Born To Be Wild”) 

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Anyway, I was ready for a much-needed vacation. I was all packed. The motor-home was ready to roll. A whole month off! From work. From the club. From this local beauty pageant that I was asked to perform a song at.

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Oh well, it was just a one-song gig… and not to mention alotta pretty ladies there! 

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And now this last commitment was done with, and there was nothing  between me and a trip through the Southwest: Disneyland, Vegas, Grand Canyon, Zion National Park, and finally Lake Tahoe. A real 30-day “dream vacation”!

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So I climbed up into the cab of the rented motor-home. Ready to roll.

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But something caught my eye. Something in the ash tray. Someone left something there in the ashtray. “Wow! A Neil Diamond cassette! I wonder who left it here? Hey, there’s no note attached! Oh well. Beautiful weather! Great music! Great day!”

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So it was time to start up the engine. Put in this new cassette, turn the music way up… and roll out…onto the awaiting highway! Neil Diamond belting out his tunes, with his raw, one-of-a-kind style! “Goodbye schedules! Goodbye gigs! Goodbye restaurant!

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HELL-O HIGHWAY!!”

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Jukebox – Wikimedia – cropped image – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 Global license

Picture of motor-home courtesy – wikipedia Public Domain.

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THE GRAND CANYON

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ABOUT TEN DAYS LATER… We were just walking down into the canyon. This was great!  Weather was just right. Hikers were just practically skipping down the trail. Like a walk in the park. Better! The force of gravity just kinda carried the people down, down, down (as we descended, I noticed it getting gradually hotter).

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TWO MULES FOR SISTER SARA…NONE FOR ME!!!

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After about three hours, I reached the bottom. Walking down along the river trail at the bottom, I began to get worried about the journey back up to the top of the canyon, the next day. Man…that’s a long way back up that steep trail! If it took three hours to walk down, then how long will it take to get back up…uh-h…Maybe I could rent a pack mule at the visitor center here at the bottom.

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Maybe I’ll find Sister Sara. (You know, like that old Clint Eastwood movie, “Two Mules For Sister Sara”.) She’ll have an extra mule! One for her, and one for me! Ha ha…Uh Hmm-m.

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So I walked through the crowded restaurant/tavern, asking about a mule. No such luck though! Oh well… I don’t have to make that climb till tomorrow! And tomorrow’s tomorrow! And that’s a long time from now! Right?

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Juancito pack mule – wikipedia – public domain

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BLIND MAN AT BOTTOM…

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I decided to buy an ice cream bar at the open-air food stand at the little community on the canyon floor.

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There were a number of people ahead of me in line. And as I waited in line, I noticed the young man who worked at the window was wearing extremely thick glasses, which also had a magnifying glass attached to his already super-thick glasses. “Man, that poor guy is almost blind!”, I thought to myself while I stood there in line. And even with those thick lenses, this nearly blind clerk still had to hold each coin right up close to his attached magnifying glasses in order to tell what each denomination of each coin and each bill was! It was impossible to not feel bad for this poor guy as he, no doubt, had to struggle through life!

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Yeah, even a brash young arrogant schmuck like myself could feel sorry for this guy!

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THAT EVENING…

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WHAT’S A BROTHER FOR?… That evening there were hikers spread out all over the canyon floor, about 50 or 100 feet apart with their sleeping bags. And so I went for my bag. Actually it wasn’t exactly MY bag. I kind-of just borrowed it from my brother. It was such a nice compact little bag. And it was just hanging there on the wall, begging to be borrowed. “What are brothers for!?” So I grabbed it on the way out the door, as I left for my vacation.

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Constellation Orion from Grand Canyon – Wikimedia – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license

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“WHAT’S THIS!?”

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But upon opening it, I was shocked to discover, it wasn’t a sleeping bag at all!

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“IT’S A PARKA! A LITTLE… NYLON… PARKA!!!“

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 No wonder it was so compact! “What am I gonna do!?” I was down here at the bottom of the Grand Canyon! Not too many options! And so, I laid down on the hard ground, and tried to pull this lightweight parka over my feet and legs. And so began an all-night wrestling match with this little parka. Needless to say, the parka won the wrestling match!

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MORNING AT BOTTOM OF CANYON

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After tossing and turning most of the night, finally the light of dawn arrived. All the campers began to roll up their sleeping bags. I rolled up my little parka and put it back in its little nylon bag.

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ARTIST’S VIEWPOINT…

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I looked up at the steep canyon walls, as I was instructed to do.

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I took a long look at these massive rocks of the canyon walls. A customer of our restaurant, a really great artist named Don, a very well-known nature painter back in Klamath Falls, suggested I take special note of the canyon walls in the early morning light.

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And so I looked. And they were beautiful! And very soon, the sun began to peak over the rim of the canyon. And the light began to spread itself over the walls, as if it was a coat of paint running down the walls of this ancient canyon.

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A paint of light. Spreading itself evenly over this ancient work of art. Wasn’t sure that’s what Don was talking about…but couldn’t notice much else.

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Canyon Walls, Courtesy USPS & Wikipedia. Pub. Dom.

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MULE-FREE ME…

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And in a few minutes after breakfast we began our ascent back out of this amazing work of nature. There must have been about several hundred people or so, who spent the night in the canyon.

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It wasn’t too long in the ascent, when I probably began to surmise, that it was becoming easier to tell the smart people from the stupid ones.

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The smart ones, of course, were on pack mules!

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I was still tired from a pretty much sleepless night. But on the other hand, I had been jogging back home in Klamath for the past several years now, and was in pretty decent physical condition. However, I had just resumed smoking several weeks earlier, but had not begun to suffer the results yet.

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The first part of the climb was fairly gentle, for an hour or so. But before long, I had to take a rest. The trail steepened into what is known as “switch-backs”. They went for some distance, and then switched back in the opposite direction. So there seemed to be an endless number of these “switchbacks”.

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Time passed. Finally one hour…and then two hours…three. We just could not tell how far it was to the top. These sheer walls made that impossible. Another hiker began to swoon. I became really worried that she might faint, and fall off these narrow trails, down into the canyon below.

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Those who were smart enough to have a mule, were passing us hikers by. We had to stop and hug the canyon walls each time, to let them by, and wish that we were on one!

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Actually, it was amazing how sure-footed those mules were! On the other hand, I trusted my own feet more than I trusted those mules. They looked pretty scary as their big rear-ends made a wide swing around each sharp turn of those sharp switch-back corners!

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Grand Canyon National Park – Bright Angel Trial, Mule Trip – Flicker

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ONLY WAY OUT OF THIS HELL-HOLE…JUST KEEP WALKING UPWARD!

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Four or five hours into this, the hikers began to stretch our necks to get a glimpse of the trail’s end. But in our disappointment, there was just another switch-back. Switch-back after switch-back. It was getting really monotonous!

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But there is no other alternative. If you want to get out of this HELL-HOLE alive, you just have to keep walking upward, along the narrow pathway!

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Five hours finally turned into six. No end in sight. Six turned into seven. Still only one switch-back after another. But then I considered how tedious it must have been for those who originally carved out these switch-backs.

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The pack-mules kept passing. I kept taking endless breaks. More and more I looked…hoping to see the words, “TRAILS END“.

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But just another switch-back.

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Now it was about eight hours of hiking this seemingly endless trail.

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Seemingly, a thousand times, I thought to myself…“When will this tedious upward trek ever end!?”

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Photo of the “Bright Angel Trail” courtesy of USPS.

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TRAIL’S END…

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It just ended!

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Yeah, suddenly, without a hint, the trail just ended!

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Our journey was over! Done! Finished! We reached the top!

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And needless to say, I just collapsed on a soft green grass provided by the Park Service!

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And so did the others! And it felt like Heaven!

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We made it! Yeah! We did it! “Mules? Who needs em!”

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In my short walk back to the motor-home I stopped to talk to a park employee. This person informed me that some cross-country runners had just run down to the bottom and back up to the top in about 3 hours.

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“Three hours!?”, I exclaimed incredulously…“Both ways!?”

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This information took the air out of my now-rapidly-growing-ego-bubble. But at least I made it! And was I ever glad it was over!

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Looking back on this, of course I’m happy I experienced this unforgettable upward journey. And now it’s just a memory…an experience to remember for all time!

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But would I do it over again? I’ll let you figure that one out!

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Courtesy USPS & Wikipedia. Pub. Dom. 

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“SIGNS, SIGNS, EVERYWHERE A SIGN…”

(Title of the 1971 song by The 5 Man Electrical Band)

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Later that evening, when I was back in my motor-home, I turned on the TV. It was my favorite new comedian. He was doing some skit, in which he supposedly had lost everything in life. There he was, living in a dumpster.

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But just then, his friends came and pulled him out of the dumpster. They had found some pennies he had invested years earlier. And to this comedian’s delight, they showed how his pennies had accrued while he was in this disheveled condition. So he wasn’t broke after all. Well, this comedy sketch was really funny at the time. I actually can’t remember why. Well, this comedian was just plain funny! And so I laid there on the motor-home couch and laughed so hard, I almost fell onto the floor.

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Little did I know, that in just a few months, I was about to lose all my earthly wealth. And little was I aware, that I would likewise be scrounging like a beggar. And nobody could’ve convinced me that I was gonna be cast into an abyss much deeper and wider than this Grand Canyon which was just outside my motor-home door!

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Jukebox – Wikimedia – cropped image – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 Global license

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UPWARD TO ZION!

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After the Grand Canyon, it was northward and upward to Zion National Park. The motor-home was rolling along the highway just fine. As I approached the state border, I noticed the beautiful red rocks of the desert. And every so often there were little stands with Navajo blankets and jewelry for sale. It was really beautiful in its own way out there in the desert. I wouldn’t want to live there. But I’m sure those who do live there, love it there!

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As I said, the motor-home was tooling along just fine; just fine that is, until the wind began to blow. And soon it began to blow harder! And finally, it was blowing so hard I feared the motor-home might blow completely over! I tried to go really slow, but the wind just kept getting stronger it seemed. 

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Finally I pulled over into some service station, rest-stop. Should I wait out the wind-storm? Although I was an atheist, I vaguely recall that I sensed that there was a greater power preventing me from going forward. Or maybe I didn’t. I can’t exactly recall. But it adds to the intrigue of this story, to think that I did!

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Finally I decided not to wait. I turned the motor-home around and back-tracked to California. And the further we back-tracked, the more the wind died down. I guess it was the right decision to turn around.

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Beautiful, beautiful Zion would have to wait until perhaps…another day.

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NAVAJO WOMEN WEAVE A RUG AT TRADING POST ON THE NAVAJO RESERVATION wikipedia public domain

Photo of dust storm courtesy Wing-Chi Poon wikipedia share alike license. Click here for link.

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UNSEEN SPEECH-WRITER!?!

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In September, I went to our 10-year high-school reunion in Salem. Yeah, I was looking buff! working out alot. Also had arrived in my sleek little black sports-car!

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I was all geared up to impress!

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But then, something really strange occurred!

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You see, as I sat there talking, I heard a non-descript voice in my mind, coaching me on just what I should say, in attempt to impress them. 

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Needless to mention, this was unnerving! But his advice sounded pretty good, so I followed it. And quickly just shrugged it off.

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And that was the last of that…for now! The first night, there was a large gathering at some ballroom in Salem…maybe at the Marion Hotel.

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Anyway, an ex girlfriend came up and asked if I would do the introductions. And so, feeling pretty good about myself, I agreed. And just as I was up at the microphone, feeling like I was getting on a roll, (saying something like, “We’re gonna have a big night tonight, and a bigger weekend!”), to which an old buddy standing in the large crowd, made some sarcastic quip, chortling something to the effect, “Not as big as your ego, Whittemore!” I suppose his rude barb got a pretty good laugh. But hey, in the clubs, you either just ignore, or you throw some clever retort back at the heckler.

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And since I couldn’t think of any clever come-back, I pretty much just ignored him and kept on speaking.

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“BAD MOON RISING”

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(FOUR PROPHETS OF DOOM)
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It was now October 1979. Five months after my vacation in the Southwest. I was back to work at the restaurant. And my singing partner and I began a new gig at a local steak-house three nights a week.

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One afternoon, while rehearsing down at the club, we decided to play a few hands of poker. Five-Card-Draw. After dealing the cards, my partner went to the restroom. While she did, I looked at my cards. She had dealt me FOUR KINGS!! My eyes bugged out.

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In a few minutes she returned, and we resumed our game. I asked for no cards. When I laid down my hand and she saw those four kings, she accused me of cheating. I can’t say I blame her since she had left the room, leaving me there alone with my cards.  Well, she got angry and needless to say, this brought our card game to a swift end.

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But looking back, I have to say, this was a soothsaying, prophetic moment!

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Because in a few weeks I was soon to encounter the King of the Universe! And the time had come for that King to pronounce Judgment on this unsuspecting night club musician (me!) And looking back, I can say…these four kings dealt to me that day were just “four prophets of doom”

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… MY DOOM!

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Jukebox – Wikimedia – cropped image – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 Global license

King playing cards wikimedia GNU Free Documentation License
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“HOW LOW CAN YOU GO?”…

(Lyrics from the 1963 Chubby Checker song, “The Limbo Rock”)

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I was on my break during a packed-house night. A man who was crippled happened to walk through the bar. In order to make some ladies laugh, I mimicked the odd way this crippled man walked. One of the ladies laughed. The other said, “That wasn’t nice!” I suppose the one who laughed probably didn’t think it was funny either. I didn’t usually make such a low-grade jest.

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However, there was one time back at high school that I also made fun of a crippled girl in front of others. And in 15 years since that thoughtless high school prank, I still hadn’t learned my lesson.

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But I was gonna learn my lesson! 

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Soon!

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REAL SOON!!!

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Jukebox – Wikimedia – cropped image – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 Global license

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“HOW DOES IT FEEL, TO BE ON YER OWN…LIKE A ROLLING STONE!”

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This particular night was Halloween, as I recall. And as I said, it was standing-room-only there at the Stockman’s Social Club!

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Among the many patrons dressed in costumes, there was one guy in particular whose costume really reminded me of Bob Dylan. I noticed him, because he kept dancing with my very hot girlfriend! But since I was performing and couldn’t interject myself between them, I chose instead to make a few slightly humorous jests over my microphone through the night, about him being, “Bob Dylan’s ghost”.

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Well, as the night wore on, I began stretching my neck to see where Mr. Dylan’s “ghost” and my girlfriend were, but neither of them seemed to be around any longer.

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They just seemed to disappear!

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Well, that’s what ghosts do! Right? Disappear?

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And, well, so much for me having a girlfriend.

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Jukebox – Wikimedia – cropped image – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 Global license

Bob Dylan – 1984 – cropped and colored image – Wikipedia – share-alike license by Chris Hakkens

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“ONE EYE IS TAKEN FOR AN EYE”…

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Little did I know, that in just a few weeks, I myself would become the object of pity and possibly the object of mimicry as well! Yeah, my bad karma was gonna come back around to bite me, and bite my hard! REALLY HARD! 

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And I suppose at some point in time, I could’ve been talking with customers in some bar somewhere. And a certain song was playing. And as I drank down my bourbon, or whatever, I never dreamed that this certain song (“Bad Moon Rising”) and those four kings dealt to me, were gonna be the only harbingers and forebodings I was gonna get, for what lay in store for me, in just a few short days! 

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Yeah, this song was exactly telling it like it is!

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And I just thought it was a good dance song! 

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Jukebox – Wikimedia – cropped image – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 Global license

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BAD MOON RISING

(Title of the mega-hit song by Creedence Clearwater Revival)

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“I see the bad moon arising. I see trouble on the way. I see earthquakes and lightning. I see bad times today.”

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CHORUS: “Don’t go around tonight,

Well, it’s bound to take your life,

There’s a bad moon on the rise.”

SECOND VERSE:

“I hear hurricanes a-blowin’.

I know the end is coming soon. I fear rivers over flowin’.

I hear the voice of rage and ruin.”

CHORUS:

“Don’t go around tonight,

Well, it’s bound to take your life,

There’s a bad moon on the rise”

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THIRD VERSE:

“Hope you got your things together.

Hope you are quite prepared to die.

Looks like we’re in for nasty weather.

One eye is taken for an eye.”

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Jukebox – Wikimedia – cropped image – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 Global license

Bad Moon Rising – by Makelessnoise – for Wikipedia – Share-alike License

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Go to Chapter 2,  just click this link…

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Ch. 2: “Atheist-2-Believer In 1 Second Flat!”  

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So this happy atheist, Chuck, was going to become a believer in just a week or so. And this conversion just might set the land-speed record for conversions! Or should I rather say, it might set the HELL’S speed-record for conversions!

                      
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TO THE READER:

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THIS SITE HAS APPARENTLY BEEN TARGETED BY THE MAJOR SEARCH ENGINE, POSSIBLY FOR OCCASIONALLY TEACHING BIBLE TRUTHS WHICH ARE CURRENTLY DEEMED TO BE “POLITICALLY INCORRECT”. 

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THIS, OF COURSE, MAKES IT HARDER FOR THE PUBLIC TO FIND MANY CHRISTIAN SITES VIA TODAY’S INTERNET GIANTS, WHICH SEEM TO BE SECRETLY SHADOW-BANNING THEM.

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TRUTH-SEEKERS CAN MORE EASILY ACCESS FAITHFUL CHRISTIAN WEBSITES, BY USING LESS INTRUSIVE/OBSTRUCTIVE SEARCH ENGINES, SUCH AS www.bing.com, OR www.duckduckgo.com

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AND, BY ALL MEANS, LET’S PRAY FOR THOSE WHO ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR TODAY’S CLANDESTINE CENSORSHIP, THAT THEIR HEARTS MIGHT BE SOFTENED, AND THEIR EYES OPENED TO THE TRUTH THAT WILL SET THEM FREE.

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To read more on this subject, click here…Today’s Devotional, Year 4 – May 20 (Mark Now Given, Part 7: “Masters of the Universe or Just Useful Pawns of Satan?”)

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Censored rubber stamp.svg – Wikimedia – Public Domain

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