Prologue-Bob vs. The Volcano
Prologue-Bob vs. The Volcano
At this point in life Bob was just plain tired. Time was catching up with him and it seemed that he couldn’t keep up the pace anymore. So, this is what getting old feels like, he thought. In a movie or somewhere Bob had heard some wise man say, “Everyone has a dream, but there comes a time in life when one has to acknowledge that the dream may never come true, just ride it out and enjoy what time you have.”
For the life of him, Bob could not let go his dream of having a ranch; El Rancho Del Fuego, nestled somewhere in the Andes mountains of Ecuador. He could still picture himself and his family spending summers there and eventually retiring; spending his time writing and gardening. What a dream!
But this rat race was getting faster, and that dream had better happen soon or it wasn’t ever going to be. The way things were going none of us on Planet Earth were going to be here long if we didn’t do something. There was frustration in the air and the closer you got to the cities the crazier the world seemed. And the people!
The days leading up to the holidays had Bob going at a furious pace. He had been shaking and moving at the fresh market with his new business, while maintaining his engineering job and family activities.
The New Year had just begun and already that sinking feeling had taken residence in his belly again. The celebration of family, life and the holidays were over. The world seemed to be speeding up as he was slowing down. Is it just me or does everyone feel the same? he thought. The response lately from friends was, yes! Ugh.
His son Ethan had taken sick, and they were just chilling at home. Bob was nursing his boy back to health while momma was at work. With Bob’s To-Do list creeping back into his mind, he did as we all do and started bumming around reluctantly doing chores and slowly regaining momentum. Ugh.
An object at rest tends to stay at rest, Bob regarded Sir Newton’s quote as he meandered around contemplating the future and all the tasks at hand to keep the home ship afloat. Having nothing more to do except keep a cold towel on his banging head, Ethan was surfing the TV for anything other than those annoying daily talk shows. They both were complaining about the fact that there was nothing good to watch and all the shows on TV depicted the current sad state of the human race.
They happened on a documentary about our Universe and they started watching. The show was about our sun. The details coming from this documentary were weighing heavy on Bob’s mind as he commenced his chores. Solar flares, atmospheric degradation and more apocalyptic facts spilled out of the squawk box.
Then it came to him, a discussion from his professor way back in biology class at the University of Tennessee in 1995. Bob had just gotten out of the Navy, having seen Europe, no longer a small-town boy. He was tackling college again after his first ill-attempt as a wild child in the 80s.
The professor started, “A few million years ago, the ice started melting again and out of a puddle of protoplasm came a one-celled organism, it split and life started again.
“Since that moment the clock has been ticking for millions of years.” The professor paused long enough for every student to wait in anticipation, to hear echoes of wisdom in the huge lecture hall. “We are at the midnight hour of the next Ice Age.” he said firmly. “Chaos is the final step in the cycle. Everything that goes up must come down.”
The professor started in on his technical lecture describing the ultimate demise of our planet from greenhouse gas emissions and over population.
As these memories rattled through his brain with the television doing the same, Bob realized how much that one lecture had affected him. And it scared him. Even more scary was that from looking at the current state of affairs, the professor’s theory may be coming true,…. and fast!
It was way back then that Bob gained the realization that life is short. He had been fighting these fatalistic viewpoints ever since that lecture. It had really stuck in his mind. As the documentary kept spilling facts about solar flares and the inevitable end of our sun, Bob got it! Einstein was right, it is all relative.
Time is the ultimate precious commodity. Being an engineer and knowing how to work smarter and not harder was quickly becoming impossible. There was never enough time anymore. Reacting to constant demands just to survive was taking all his time and energy. It was getting harder to keep up.
For his ten-year-old son Ethan, time was infinite. He was always complaining that it was taking forever for him to become old enough for a motorcycle, R-rated movies and access to social media!
Is this world heading where like the professor said it was more than twenty years ago? Bob questioned. Is our world on the verge of chaos? The latest talks of impeachment, all the shootings, weather problems, international problems and overpopulation awareness had Bob at his wits end.
The narration and images coming from the TV had faded from Bob’s mind as it went wild in thought; it felt more like panic. He glanced over at Ethan who was just sitting there nursing his fever. This poor kid didn’t deserve to grow up in this complicated world.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if his side business took off and he could build a family business? This dream had been losing is illustriousness recently but still he could not let it go. Bob had always been a go-getter and had worked hard all his life. Too bad there was no retirement package in his future. He kept telling himself to hold tight to his dreams and keep pushing for that golden parachute. If not, his engineering job and the commute would kill him sooner than later.
The eighty mile round-trip commute to Miami on the turnpike every day had him so frustrated lately that he had found much pleasure going to the marketplace only a few miles away. He loved selling his hot sauce and dreams to his customers. They seemed to really enjoy his passion. After all, if Hans Christian Andersen could do it so could he. Winnie the Pooh was written for the man’s son to distract him from the bombs exploding over head in Germany during WWII. Why couldn’t Bob do the same and write about life on a ranch and the simple things that count? Wouldn’t that give the world some Peace?
Every day Bob had to make the commute south on the Turnpike he could feel the growing intensity and anxiety of people doing the same-surviving.
Bob knew that time was of the essence and had a strong desire to just pack up and run away-from it all. But he was not that kind of person. Instead he kept dreaming of the place where he could ride out his days somewhere high up in the Andes Mountains, writing from his window as he looked at the most amazing view of the valley.
Bob snapped out of his trance stopping his mind from running away.
“Ethan,” Bob said moving in front of the Television, cutting off his son’s view and hitting mute on the remote. His poor son looked up, all puffy and miserable from the Flu.
“Yes Dad?”
Looking at his poor sick boy, all Bob’s worries suddenly whisked away. Time, thought Bob. He took a deep breath and a long look into his son’s eyes. Bob finally got it. It was simple. Now is the only time we should be worried about. We must make time and not be so driven to get somewhere.
“Hey buddy boy,” said Bob. “When you get to feeling better what do you say we go to the Indian Motorcycle shop and look at dirt bikes. My father bought me my first Indian 50 when I was your age.
I said the right thing! A light came on inside of Ethan and he leaned up out of his slump on the couch and the cold compress fell off his brow.
“Really? Mom won’t like that,” he reminded.
“I know. We will tell her we were just window shopping for four-wheelers.”
“Ok great! Maybe one day we can ride our bikes on the ranch!”
Bob’s eyes started tearing up, and he took a seat on the couch with his son. He took a deep breath, put his arm around his boy, they left the TV muted and started talking about exciting things they would do on the ranch.
“First, build a track, a stable, then cabanas and a chow hall……” he kept on talking and all Bob could do is just listen and smile.
Ethan must have noticed Bob’s silence and smile of adoration. He paused and hugged his ole’ man.
“I love you Dad,” he said.
“I love you too son.”
A few seconds of silence passed as they sat there. Bob embraced that small but significant amount of time. It's working, he thought, I am relative to time.
Bob had an idea and a big smile grew on his face. He jumped up and said,
“Hey listen to this.” Bob grabbed his phone, opened Spotify and cued up his favorite Jimmy Buffett song, Volcano. They both got up off the couch and started half-dancing, more bobbing.
“I don’t know, I don’t know… ,” they chimed in as they boogied around the couch.
Bob interrupted,
“You know son, your Dad must be crazy to want to go build a ranch in the land of the Volcanos!”
“Yep Dad, but you have God in your favor,” he said and winked as he continues dancing around the couch.”
