Francis Meyrick

Question: Do we tend to maybe look UP the ladder too much?

C’mon, we ALL do it. Looking UP the ladder. Career, education, wealth, status, satisfaction… it’s never enough, is it?
If only… hmmm…. (DREAM, DREAM). Right?

Well, a few years back I was pondering this issue, and wondering how to verbally illustrate what I saw in my tiny mind. I’d love to meet a painter, or somebody really good with computer graphics, who would be able to create a tableau, with lots of ladders climbing out of valleys and cities up into the clouds. And lots of lots of people climbing those ladders. Some high up, some at the bottom starting out. With one peculiar oddity: nearly everybody is looking UP. Only here and there, do you see a climber looking down at the struggling souls beneath him. Very occasionally, you would see one actually reaching a hand down. Offering support, an unselfish hand up to a higher rung.

Symbolism, obviously. An allegory. It points to a human tendency to often think that we are lacking some thing we absolutely need to be happy. If that sense of being slighted, or passed over, or unfairly treated, or not loved and appreciated goes into overdrive, people can get depressed. If the depression goes on, you can end up seriously depressed. Maybe, heaven forbid, even suicidal.

So, how to combat that? Well, talking about it is a first start, obviously. I have in the past volunteered to help out on a suicide hot line, and that was a learning environment. You can’t “help ” people. But you can “assist ” people in helping themselves. People will work it out, given the basic tools. Like, dare I suggest, these simple stepping stones.

So, a few years ago, my tiny mind was churning around on this issue, and then I had an idea. So I wrote a letter from my imaginary younger brother. Well actually, he is not totally imaginary, as you shall see. Actually, he is very real.

Here is the letter, addressed to me. I am his ‘Big Brother’.

TO MY BIG BROTHER – A LETTER

9/5/2010

Hi Francis,

How goes my big brother? I reach out to you, in kindness, across Space and Time, and hold you dear in my heart. I hold my arms around you, and comfort you.
I was absorbing some of your stories, and realizing that you are on a quest.
You are, in your own clumsy way, a true Seeker. Although you are fumbling and groping, I sense the direction that you are feeling for…

I have walked with you up the “Sugarloaf Mountain “. I too have gazed out over Ireland, and listened to the wind of the ages, brushing lightly around me. I too have shaded my eyes against the sun, closed my eyelids, and yet sensed the light reaching out to me.
Another story I liked is “The Road of Light “. I related to it, and I can only wish I had enjoyed the experience you describe. How I would have loved to have had the chance to become a helicopter pilot! How I would have loved to have done a fraction of the things you have done! Traveled to the places you have seen, and met all the people you have met!
Another one I liked was “Starry, starry night “. I liked the music, and I liked the way you honestly described your tiny mind probing the Immensity of the Universe. You are wise to ponder your own insignificance. For in humility, perhaps, even you will find the first stage of learning. Fly, my brother, fly in your helicopter, look out over this strange world, and relate your stories to us, with gentleness and caring.
I can see myself, flying in that strange contraption, soaring out over the waves. Following that Road of Light, following those stars you pondered. How I would have enjoyed that! To have been with you maybe, chatting together, looking out over the vast Pacific Ocean. Sailing over the endless waves, alone with you. How I would have been so happy to sit beside you, and listen to the whirrings of your confused mind.
You have been tremendously lucky, you will forgive me for saying.

You have had so much, my big brother. So many opportunities to achieve perhaps some Good. So many opportunities to learn. So many opportunities to hug your brother, to exercise compassion and kindness. To use your talents, however you may so perceive them. To learn. To follow that same Road of Light, and to follow on the Path of Human Kindness. So why do you worry about such trifling things? You dwell so much on money and bills. You worry about your retirement. You worry about your mortgage. If only I had owned my own house! If only I had enjoyed the luxury of worrying about my retirement!
I longed, achingly, for less, far less. A hug, a cuddle, and to feel warm and secure in my mother’s arms.

Think of me sometimes, my big brother. Look at my photo below, often, and remember me.
Never forget me, for that would break my heart.

Your little brother,

(unknown)

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Last edited by Francis Meyrick on January 24, 2015, 9:53 am

Beware of Mirrors

Beware of Mirrors – for a cold creature lurks there

There are other sorts of mirrors than just the glass ones we obsess in. Other types of mirrors that seem to set us off on an inward looking spiral. Me. Introspection. Strange. Does it really matter?

Where… is that mirror now?

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Last edited by Francis Meyrick on November 30, 2014, 6:37 am

The Importance of Self – or Not?

For a long time in my Life, I saw myself as at the center of the Universe. Maybe not consciously, but effectively, Life revolved around me. Oh, and I was important. I was essential actually. I also, coincidentally (or not) wrestled mightily with feelings of guilt and inadequacy.

It’s taken years for a shift to occur. But once that change started to flow, it ended up being a Tsunami. It was a painfully slow realization, but powerful as it unfolded. Damn. I was small. The Sky was big. I was finite. In terms of Time, I was just a blink in the eye of Forces unimaginably greater than I. But, still, I mattered.

Lots of things happened, some good, some really bad, and then I spent five years flying helicopters of Taiwanese and Korean tuna fishing boats, all over the Pacific Ocean. It was the Wild West of helicopter flying, dangerous, exciting, and raw. Close to Nature. Lots of accidents, shared dangers, shared tragedies. I started writing, more and more. I spent a lot of time in solitude. I share those stories on my website www.chopperstories.com.

I came out of that, a changed person. I no longer saw myself as anywhere near the center of the Universe. I think I saw myself in a much more truthful, and accurate light. I was a child of the Universe, beloved, despite all my frailties, by a Great Cosmic Kindness, that I sensed, but could not hope to understand.

I blog about this. Very simply, trying to figure it all out. I don’t doubt that many readers and visitors to my little perch in Cyberspace may be able to offer insights and reading material that would be greatly advantageous to my little spirit.
I know that if you need a Teacher, he will find you.

I therefore welcome your messages, and you can contact me easily through the dreaded FaceBook, or by joining this website.

I wish you Peace, and, if you are struggling in your walk, I embrace you, and gladly offer you all my simple heart can give you.

Francis “Moggy ” Meyrick

here’s a way of thinking I am attracted to:

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Last edited by Francis Meyrick on December 24, 2014, 6:10 pm

You know why I admire this lad?

Because he is going to cop it from his local community’s “activists “. (read: thugs)

And you know something?

I bet he knew that.

And he STILL went ahead and did the human thing.

My hero.

And all those biased “investigative ” reporters…

all those professional race hate baiters…

all those hardened cynics who exploit and inflame…

Humanity: 1

Cynicism, falsity, hypocrisy, race baiting, inflammatory “coverage “: 0

If only we had more people with that sort of courage, to row against the current.

How you…?

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Last edited by Francis Meyrick on November 29, 2014, 4:06 pm

The Next Tank Man

Who will be the Next Tank Man?

I don’t mean standing unarmed in front of advancing tanks, like that astonishingly brave young fellow in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, on that fateful day in June 1989.

I mean, who will be the next young person who stands up, and manages, by their raw courage, and their raw humility, to elevate the whole human race, just for a moment.

You? Why not?

Here’s a story I wrote in 2009. Celebrating my hero, the Tank Man. I often wondered what happened to him. Rumor was he was executed. We know the tank commander, who tried to drive around him, was disciplined and demoted.

Do you know that today, in China, very few people know the story of the Tank Man?

What does that tell us?

What dangers slide towards us, as power is usurped by fewer and fewer elitist totalitarians?

Do you care? I hope so. Very much.

Here’s my previous story…

The Tiananmen Square Massacre

I do know a young fellow I truly admire and love.

After you read the story above, I hope you will check out my local hero.

I intend to write about him too.

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Last edited by Francis Meyrick on November 29, 2014, 2:29 pm

Is there a Message in the Bottle?

A couple of years back, there was big to-do in the media, for at least two days, about the efficiency of anti-depressants being called seriously into doubt. Imagine that. Really? Big Pharmacy had been making all those billions of dollars all those years selling billions and billions of tiny Happiness pills and it turned out they didn’t actually WORK? Well, never. Are they gonna pay the money back?

Pardon me for being cynical. It’s not a virtue. Here’s some images that speak eloquently of the issue.

Hm…. Maybe the Message is, that we need more than pills…?

Having said all that, some conditions involving mental issues appear to be clearly treatable with a sympathetic regime of very specific drugs. Early diagnosis, prompt treatment, follow through… and it works. So there is no one sided, simple truth here. You can’t say drugs are all bad, or all good. Many of us harbor though a deep suspicion, that drugs are WAY over prescribed, and that the Profit Motive is hardly the most positive/likely road towards the unselfish creation of human happiness.

Caution.

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Last edited by Francis Meyrick on December 8, 2014, 9:40 am

Reality – worst game ever?

Well, you knew I was going to poke a bit of fun at Cyberspace, didn’t you…?

Basically, it’s mostly good. I love Science. Technology. Space Exploration. SpaceX and Elon Musk. The Frontiers of Science.
But Reality is out there. You know, Real Place.

A couple of odd trends:

1) People from the same town, who know each other on Facebook, who “like ” and applaud each other’s posts, (seemingly enthusiastically), but who then PASS each other in the street with barely a cursory nod.

What’s that all about? Does the word “False ” come to mind? What are we doing here? Building up an idealized, perfect “Cyberspace Persona “, with hundreds of ‘Twitter’ followers? Huh? Twittering used to be something birds did…?

(I never could get into that Twitter thing)

Lots of admirers? Pretend relationships? Are we talking defense posturing here? Superficial Shallowness? A Mutually Agreed Admiration Society? Falsity? A Make-Believe World that somehow comforts?

2) Violent Video Games

Hey! This is the way Real Life works in the USA. You break the Law, you have a good chance of going to Jail. Real simple. Shooting people in the head, blowing them up, seeing them dissolve in violent bursts of blood and guts, listening to a constant litany of grunts and groans and howls…

what are we doing here…?

When the average teen is walking the streets, encountering “Reality “, how many cops has he shot dead? How many people has he run over? How many cars has he crashed at high speed, and walked away unscathed?

The Internet is really interesting, and used carefully, leads us to all sorts of opportunities for learning and personal development. YouTube features some brilliant, vivid ways of imagining the way the Planets were formed, the Stars were born, the way the Universe is unfolding, to this very day.

Used vicariously, used just for superficial thrills, it’s a waste of time.

Reality is what life’s all about. I just wonder what happens to people who get depressed, and start hiding. But don’t realize it, because they think they “have ” their friends in Cyberspace.

Cyberspace as a tool, used wisely, just like a telephone, can deepen relationships. But it can’t “replace ” real, feeling, touching, human warmth. A damn good cuddle when you’re feeling blue.

I think, anyway.

How you…?

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Last edited by Francis Meyrick on November 29, 2014, 10:16 am

Be your own Helicopter

I’ve been flying Airplanes and Helicopters for a living for decades now.
I also did an aircraft maintenance course, and I am what they call an Airframe and Powerplant (A & P) Aircraft Maintenance Technician. The point of that anecdote, is not to tell you how great I am, but, on the contrary, to tell you how working as a Helicopter Pilot-Mechanic (on a Taiwanese Tuna Boat) slowed me down. A lot. How so?

A modern Helicopter can cost millions of Dollars. I fly a Bell 407, and behind me stands a team numbering hundreds of individuals. Those guys are specialists. They have spent whole careers focused on their area of expertise. They really know transmissions, or turbines, or electronics, or GPS systems. They are field mechanics, or logistics people, or finance guys, or customer liaison dudes. They worry about all sorts of stuff, and they have my back. And little moi, well, I am the lucky-lucky-lucky jester that gets to PLAY with the biggest, meanest toy you can imagine. Err, WORK, I mean. Having also worked as a mechanic, I see the results of my actions. I see, in my mind’s eye, a shaft spinning, cogs meshing, hot gases flowing. If I fly slightly out of balance in a turn, I wince, because I sense the stress and torque I’m putting on my poor baby’s tail boom. If my landing is a little firmer than I am used to, I feel bad, because I’m being rough on my baby. Heaven forbid that I ever, EVER, really broke it. By flying into something, or doing something really stupid. I’d die of shame. I would be letting the whole team down. All of them. All those hundreds of people, from design engineers on down, who pulled together just so little MOI could take to the skies. The tip of the spear.
Flying is a Privilege, not a Right.

Well, when I say “be your own Helicopter “, what I mean is something along the same lines:

There is a whole team behind you as well. Parents, family, educators. Colleagues, support staff. The Police and Firemen and Ambulance Drivers in your local community are on that team as well. Friends, lovers. There’s a LOT of people that have a vested interest in YOU. They may not know you personally, but their efforts have been indispensable to get you to where you are now.

Heaven forbid that you ever, EVER, really break your beautiful Helicopter. By flying into something, or doing something really stupid…

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Last edited by Francis Meyrick on January 7, 2015, 2:13 pm