Philip

Philip was born on January 2, 1952 in a small milltown in North Carolina. Moving around for five years gave him his universal love for all people great and small. Life was exciting but his Dad wanted to settle down. His Mama wanted to express her desire for the adventure of moving around but, as southern women are required, she kept silent and raised her oldest son and his two younger brothers, and cooked and cleaned as a good wife should. Philip was neither mature like his oldest brother nor always wanted to be a part of everything mundane adventure of a settled life in an unsettled working class neighborhood, which his younger brother thought was what life all about. Philip found a friend in his imagination which led him on many adventures along the streams and woods of the world beyond his rather sedated neighborhood which was content with the daily newspaper, and the hollywood cowboys and six o’clock news. Philip walked the mile to school, but occasionally strayed into the woods and along the streams, and was content to suck juice from the abundant honeysuckle, and the plump blackberries along the fence line of the huge farm which dated back to the civil war with shuttered trading post and broken down buggies once pulled by working horses. THe farm was off limits because of the crumbling chimneys and unfenced pond, but the magic of the past glory was a temptation which called Philip’s name and lured him into the nineteenth century where everything moved at a much slower pace. THe next day required an excuse from his mama as the reason for his absence at school. Caught without a logical reason for missing a day in school, Philip suffered the almost unbearable punishment of 2 weeks grounding pronounced by a dad that seemed to secretly envy his adventurous son. The child is never father to the man and Philip slowly learned; adventure experienced without the nodding approval of those in authority was a venture into the dark world of his imaginary friend, who was a shadowy figure. Here is another friend, however, who sticketh closer than a brother. His name is Jesus!