Most scientist seem to agree the our planet has been around about 4.5 billion years, give or take a few hundred million, though the oldest rocks that have been found can only be dated to about 3.9 billion years.  It is theorized that at it's formation the earth was a sea of red hot molten rock - a magma ocean.  Eventually things began to chill, a crust was formed and then seas.  There seem to have been a lot of ups and downs since then.  Life may have formed around 3 billion years ago, eventually evolving to something that crawled out of the sea, maybe to escape something bothering it, evolving, practically dying off from numerous mass extinctions, to include something similar to us "modern humans" maybe as much as 200,000 years ago.  10,000 years ago, our folks did pretty well as hunter-gatherers, but seems we thought we would be better forming groups, which lead to proto-states in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Indus Valley around 6,000 years ago.  Looking back, seems this may have been the beginning of the end.  2 to 3 thousand years later we start seeing these expansive empires of Persia, China, & Rome.  To me this is when things really started going down hill.  Empires have to expand to survive, always needing more land and natural resources to survive.  All the way to the 20th Century where super modern agriculture bumps the planets human population from a little over a billion to 6 billion in just a hundred years, that's even with the 167-188 million killed as a result of wars.  Now relating Earthtime to a typical human day, humans have only been around for about 6 minutes.  I wonder how much time is left. Seconds?  Milliseconds?  I hope our planet has another good 4 to 5 billion years left in her.  It kinda sucks that we may be a  cause of the current Holocene extinction event (Sixth extinction), but whatcha gonna do?  More importantly, what are you personally going to do with the time you have left?  Don't waste it!

Imagine...
Every thought
Every sight
Every taste
Every touch
You have ever known
is still there.

Every sense you will
ever know
is still there.

Creation is NOW.

Probably my son being born on my birthday.

We're getting a much needed hard rain here on the Isle of James this morning.  I've been cleaning house and packing for my trip.  Big lightening is popping all around, maybe I can finish this before the power goes out.

I grew up in a working class neighborhood called Greenwood Estates on the edge of Florence, SC from 1963 to 1976.  My parents built a house out in the country on ancestral property and we moved there when I was 14.  Greenwood was the most magical, wonderful place for a boy to grow up in the whole world.  I probably had 20 close friends I grew up with and there was always a friend or two close by.  I miss those guys.  We created and destroyed worlds, built  kingdoms, loved fair maidens.  If we dreamed it, we did it. 

I just wanted to say "hey" to all my old friends and tell you that I love you all.

Hey
Little brother Barry "Burma Mae" Pierce
L.C. "Bud" Hatchell (deceased)
Weston Hatchell
Will Green
David "Francis" Harroll
Roger "Fish" Edwards
Gary "Freckles" Edwards
Stan "Sy-ou" Baldwin
Chuck Powell
Freddie Gamble
Ellory Sanderson
Brian Anderson
David "Feistus" Phillips
Bobby "R.C." Kirby
Mike "Buck Beaver" Kirby
Johnny "Honey Dargan" Kirby
David Peed
Mark "Cheif" Henderson
John Morris
Steve "Teebie" Morris
Donnie "Don W." Pierce (another one)
Dale Turbeville
Bill Weldon
Jim Weldon
Chuck "Hairy" Holland
Timmie Holland
David "Dooley Jack" Holland (deceased)
David "Davey" Lewis
Robin Lewis
Robin Hill
Rusty Boyd

I know I'm leaving some guys out, I've forgotten a lot of nick names, and I apologize.  Let's get together and hang out some time.

Earl Twirl

Hey good buddies,

I pray you are all well.  I am most definitely doing quite well.  I want to tell you about my little adventure I had this morning.  After a tasty breakfast at the wonderful Lost Dog Cafe, I made my way to the beloved east end.  The sun had gotten a two hour head start on me, and the herbal wrapped spa treatment air was already heavy and dense.  There is a beautiful sandy hedge bound path that leads to the part of the beach I like to begin my walk.  You have to get bitten by a few gnats or mosquitoes or beach flies every time you pass this way, but that's all part of the deal.  I passed a few folks I recognized that walk this section often, but mostly it was deserted as usual. 

After a 30 minute trek I found my favorite spot on the shore which thankfully was an appropriate distance from another cat who had found him an area to get his nude groove on.  I was far enough away I didn't have to get to know him "too much".  Normally I just wear some cutoff jeans, tee shirt, and good walking shoes, but today I had worn a buttonup shirt over my t-shirt.  That proved to be a good thing too.

The inlet is normally fairly shallow, though it is tidal.  I usually don't go out any further than 3 or 4 foot deep, partly because the bottom turns from sand to mushy river silt.  I had swam for about an hour and had gone up the beach a good ways and turned back towards my spot.  This had been one of the most blissful swims I have had in a long time, at least since yesterday.  I was about chest deep in the water and was doing this skipping along kind of thing, so happy and full of bliss.  Felt like Leonardo DiCaprio on that big boat.  "I'm the king of the world!".  Next thing you know ICEBERG, or to be exact, I was ass-deep in oyster bed.  So I was very quickly transformed from Leo into Tom Hanks getting slammed into the coral in "Castaway", but not as bad, but almost.  I let go every curse word I knew and some I had forgotten, and finally calmed down enough to keep myself just barely above the bed to get past it.  It was really shallow, but I never saw it coming.  It tore the bottom of about six of my toes, one knee, and three fingers and palm.  The only way I can describe the oyster shells is they are like razorsharp metal or shards of glass.  Needless to say I was lucky I didn't rip a finger or toe or an ear off.

Now if you have to get all gouged up, a salt water inlet is a darn good place to do it.  Though coral can be real bad I learned the hard way in the Philippines once, but that's a different story.  Anyway, when I got to water that was about a foot deep I started accessing the damage.  Your hands and feet can bleed like your face, looks worse than it really is.  But I'm looking at all this blood pouring out and the only thing I can think of is the two shark "attacks" that had occured the past week at the Isle of Palms.  I'm thinking "Damn it, now the sharks are coming".  Hehehehe.  None of the cuts were too terrible, but the one on my right big toe was pretty deep, and like we used to say in Florence County, "bleeding like a stuck pig".  So I limped up to my beach towel, found my t-shirt and applied the pressure 'til it stopped.  After a snack of delicious seedless watermelon and a nanner, I headed back to the car, no worse for wear.

A fella from the American Red Cross has been leaving the most sincere request for blood donations on my phone for the last two weeks, but I kept forgetting to go do it, so I'm getting ready to here in just a minute.

Be safe, and I will catch ya later,
Donnie

If your world gets turned upside down
Stand on your head.

Yo dog, whatsup?
It's all good...what's shakin' with u?
Ah man... same shit, different day.
Word.

Yo, check this out.
Break it down.
Where'd all this stuff come from?
Whatchu talkin' 'bout?
All this "stuff" man.  Why is there so much?
You know what I'm sayin?
Word.

I mean, Yo, come on man.
Do we need all this shit?
Nah man, we don't "need" it.
People "think" they need shit
coz they want us to buy the shit.  If nobody
buys this shit, what's going to happen?

I know man, it just makes me sick some times.
Oh I smell what you're saying.  Everybody knows
it's bull shit, but you get caught up in it.
Whatcha gonna do?

I don't know man, I just don't want anymore shit.
I got plenty of shit already.
Word.

I drove the whole 5 miles (by myself, no one to help me) to the Isle of Folly before sunrise Saturday morning.  There was a humongous thunderstorm just off to the north, which have been prevalent during this ass-kicking heat wave that is continuing here.  I made my way to the east end of this seven mile long spit called Folly Beach to Lighthouse Inlet across from Morris Island Lighthouse.  I have always loved this end of the island, partly because it is uninhabited by people and you can often take long walks without seeing a soul.  Not that I have anything against souls, quite the contrary.  Who doesn't need a quiet walk on a deserted beach sometimes just to gather your thoughts?  Many times I have been sitting at the farthest end of the beach and enjoyed the porpoises popping up and down in the inlet.  One of my favorite visits happened during a Spring full moon a few years ago.  I had gone for a midnight swim in the ocean, and had layed down to sleep.  I started hearing this strange sound that I could not figure out what in the world was making it.  So I just sat up and listened, admittedly a little freightened, to this sound that seemed to be coming towards me.  But I couldn't see anything.  Finally I just layed down, closed my eyes and listened.  Next thing I remember, I'm waking up just before the sun has broken the horizon.  There is a young lady a few yards away digging a hole in the sand dune.  She shows me the loggerhead turtle track that runs by where I slept.  She is counting the eggs that were laid, and I believe moving them to a safer location.  How long have Loggerheads been coming to "Folly Beach".  50 million years?  It's their sacred home, definitely not ours.

Please check out follyturtles.com and if there's something you can do to help our friends at Folly, I hope you will.

Blessings,
Donnie

If he is the web
and she is the web.
If we each must be the change.
Then we must.

Osprey will continue to build
their nest.
Dolphins and whales will
continue to say hello.

Nice not having to depend
on folks not here and now,
but we will wait for them
too.

Holding each other up
is what we do.
Caring, seeing, helping.

I don't know about teaching this community anything since it seems most everyone has a vast curiousity and thirst for understanding and tolerance.  I could only encourage those who are going through difficult times to believe in their inherent uniqueness and importance to everyone and everything.  When you look in the eyes of other beings, you can send them a message of love, and this will return to you ten-fold.  Peace to all!