Crossing the Red River had a profound effect on my life, even at the age of 5 years. I was raised in the Badlands, the old Indian Territory. The home of Will Rogers, Garth Brooks, Toby Keith and Kristin Chenoweth. Brad Pitt, Brian Bosworth, Johnny Bench, and Ron Howard. Yes…Opie is an Okie. The Native American heritage is strong in Oklahoma and when I began to study my own heritage (part of which is also Native American…a very small part), I began to identify with the Irish Diaspora with what I learned about the Trail of Tears. Also, being raised just north of Norman, OK, my loyalties lie with the Crimson and Cream of the Oklahoma Sooners.

For the past week, I have been on vacation with my family in the mountains of North Carolina. This is our second visit to North Carolina, and our third to Appalachia. I love these piney mountain-tops, winding roads, and the blue ridges on the horizon. As any amateur historian, I began to research the history of the state that I would love to one day call my own. My quest for knowledge led me to a website that contains some of North Carolina’s history. I’ve listed a few interesting facts below. Some I didn’t know about…and some you may not know about.

http://www.secretary.state.nc.us/kidspg/history.htm

In ancient times, the eastern half of the state was underwater, and giant megalodon sharks roamed the waters. On land, there were woolly mammoths and mastodons. It is believed that the first Native Americans inhabited the New World 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. Eventually, nearly 30 Native American groups settled across the state.

In 1524, Giovanni de Varrazano is the first European to visit North Carolina.

In 1718, Blackbeard the pirate is killed off the North Carolina coast.

Shiver me timbers!

Many people believe that in 1775 North Carolina became the first colony to declare independence from Great Britain. After the American Revolution, North Carolina became the twelfth state of the Union.

In 1831, workmen attempting to fireproof the roof of the State Capitol ironically end up setting the building aflame.

The roof, the roof, the roof was on fire!

In 1840, the first public schools open in North Carolina, based on a plan that had been drafted in 1817.

…and not a moment too soon!

May 20, 1861: North Carolina leaves the Union. Instead of voting to secede from the United States, as other states did, North Carolina voted to “undo” the act that had brought it into the United States.

Could this be the first official “do-over”???

And for the most interesting of information. Information that may only be interesting to me…and not listed on any website that I know of…is that I share the same initials as the Tar Heel State: NC is to North Carolina as NC is to Norman Cooper.

Coincidence????

As I sipped coffee at this late hour, my eyes fell on the following passage from the Ballad of Reading Gaol by Oscar Wilde:

I never saw a man who looked
With such a wistful eye
Upon that little tent of blue
Which prisoners call the sky,
And at every drifting cloud that went
With sails of silver by.

I walked, with other souls in pain,
Within another ring,
And was wondering if the man had done
A great or little thing,
When a voice behind me whispered low,
“That fellow’s got to swing.”

A couple of stanzas later I read:

I only knew what hunted thought
Quickened his step, and why
He looked upon the garish day
With such a wistful eye;
The man killed the thing he loved,
And so he had to die.

Yet each man kills the thing he loves,
By each let this be heard,
Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with a flattering word,
The coward does it with a kiss,
The brave man with a sword!

Some kill their love when they are young,
And some when they are old;
Some strangle with the hands of Lust,
Some with the hands of Gold:
The kindest use a knife, because
The dead so soon grow cold.

Some love too little, some too long,
Some sell, and others buy;
Some do the deed with many tears,
And some without a sigh:
For each man kills the thing he loves,
Yet each man does not die.

He does not die a death of shame
On a day of dark disgrace
Nor have a noose about his neck,
Nor a cloth upon his face.
Nor drop feet foremost through the floor
Into an empty space.

We are the masters of our own destruction. Often, it’s pride and arrogance that destroys. Other times, it’s just our careless selfishness that alienates our loved ones and pushes them away.

Also, we kill the creativity that once lived inside of us. Whether insecurity or self-doubt is to blame, who knows what truly is the cause? And we kill the creativity that dwells within another. Are we jealous of their freedom to create?

How many of us have had dreams, goals that were never realized? How many of us create excuses why we never danced on Broadway, finished that novel, pitched game 6 of the World Series, or that we should have been better parents, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters? What caused us to stop trying? What killed the dream inside?

We are imprisoned in this world of toil and trade. We work to provide, we work to survive. We envy those who chased their dreams, who reached their goals. We make excuses for our failed attempts and look to the sky as our refuge. That only in death can we be freed from our labor, freed from our calloused hands and arthritic fingers. We all look with a wistful eye, upon the little tent of blue which prisoners call the sky…

It is sweet to dance to violins
When Love and Life are fair:
To dance to flutes, to dance to lutes
Is delicate and rare:
But it is not sweet with nimble feet
To dance upon the air!

“Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will.” - George Bernard Shaw

I tired the NaWriMo this past November and failed miserably. Where I planned to start my crime/mystery novel, I only wrote a little more than 200 words.

I’m always amazed at how the writer’s mind works. Recently, I’ve written two flash pieces that seemingly came out of nowhere. I felt compelled to write both, and I felt like I couldn’t do anything until I sat down to write. I wish my Muse would be a little more consistent than that!

Both works are currently in the critique/rewrite process, but I hope to be ready to send out for publication soon, along with several other stories that I’ve neglected.

As usual, when/if they are published, I’ll announce it here.

Tina Diane Mitchell, Writer

Tina Diane Mitchell, Writer