2 - November 01, 2012 Your Hometown Newspaper News Outlook
Heaven Is
A Lot Like
By Charles Mattox
"Life does not consist
mainly, or even largely, of
facts and happenings. It con-
sists mainly of the storm of
thought that is forever flow-
ing through one's head."
Mark Twain
Hurricane Sandy is gain-
ing strengthas I write this
and I'm a little apprehensive
of what the next few days
will hold in store for our
country, particularly those
who will bear the brunt of
the storm along the east
coast.
There are no guarantees
in this good but fragile life,
dear reader.
We all face storms of one
kind or another; we face
weather:related storms and
those of other origins.
I seem to have turned a
new leaf in my life with a
"spiritual storm" within me,
which seems to be gradu-
ally abating.
I was able to do a good
thing this weekend and help
some old friends and new
friends in the process.
I was glad to help with the
T3 Trippy Gooding Benefit
Pistol Shoot held Saturday
at Shep's Sports World,
along KY 32, in Fleming
County, on Saturday.
All proceeds from the
shoot went to help Trippy
Gooding, a local law en-
forcement officer who was
recently diagnosed with
cancer.
All of God's children face
storms in their life and Trip-
py is facing this one bravely
with the support of a loving
family, friends and commu-
nity members.
I had the pleasure of
knowing Trippy on a per-
sonal and professional level
about a decade ago when
he was an officer with the
Flemingsburg Police De-
partment.
Trippy worked several
years as an officer with the
Maysville Police Depart-
merit and has been a Mason
County Deputy Sheriff for
over a year now.
He's a good police officer
and we've had some good
conversations as our paths
have crossed.
By nature, I suppose it
could be perceived that I am
a selfish individual; in that
I let my work and my own
personal problems and solu-
tions to those problems rule
my life.
I don't do any volunteer
work.
If the truth be known, I
don't seem to have enough
time or energy in my typical
day to take care of my own
needful chores, let alone be
of much benefit to anyone
else.
I tend to gravitate more
eagerly towards dogs than
people on a personal level.
Dogs rarely screw you
over or cause many prob-
lems that can't be fixed with
a little soap and water.
But when my old Buddy
Sebastian Gaskins told me
about the shoot to help
Trippy, something changed.
Sebastian and I are old
and trusted friends who still
have vivid memories of our
childhood playing together
and we have always shared
a common ridiculousness
and sharp sense of humor
as well as a certain perspec-
tive on life for those of us
who call northeastern Ken-
tucky their home.
Like many, we were chil-
dren of the 'greatest genera-
tion' and our fathers were
soldiers.
So too did we both an-
swer the call of duty in our
youth following our gradua-
tion from FCHS in 1981.
Sebastian and I are also
gun folk, and we also like to
shoot our mouths off at one
another even more than a
particular weapon of choice.
The weather was about as
nasty as it could get Satur-
day morning, but we were
prepared and enthusiastic
about helping Trippy.
12 people from across
the region joined us for a
good time and competed
at sending some rounds
down range. During safety
briefings, general instruc-
tion, placing and removing
targets and keeping score,
I was impressed with the
folks who had come togeth-
er on a blustery and wet day
to show their support for
Trippy.
Geneva Kennedy was al-
most angelic to behold and
her commitment to helping
fund raising events is an in.
spiration.
When you see folks, sev-
eral of whom I had never
met, like Geneva, come
together for the common
good of another, it creates a
power and an electric sensa-
tion that is somewhat conta-
gious.
At least it has been for
me.
Perhaps when we help
others we are also helping
ourselves.
I feel like that was the
case with me.
My co-worker Cecil
Lawson has covered some
emotionally charged and
sorrowful events in Bath,
Menifee and Nicholas
County and I occasionally
see him struggle with news
stories that can easily be
internalized. Things like re-
porting on fatal accidents or
deaths.
After you cover so many
of those stories, including
murders; brutal and violent
murders, you develop some
pretty thick skin.
I've covered more of
those stories than can be
• easily numbered.
It takes its toll on the hu-
man spirit.
A
I've always been about
"adventure" and gravitate
toward the "hard news."
There's a reason they call
it hard news, if it were easy,
everyone would do it.
But as David Dick used
to so famously "follow the
storm" he too was as equal-
ly gifted in illuminating the
gentler angels and actions
of the communities he cov-
ered.
I need work on that.
I need work on a lot of
things.
But I'm getting closer to
getting where I want to be,
and helping with the benefit
shoot this Saturday was a
big step in the right direc-
tion.
I'm still so sore I can
barely walk from the rigor-
ous schedule of Saturday,
but I've never felt this good
while I was feeling so sore.
Perhaps there is hope for
me yet to conquer my spiri-
tual cancer.
If the Good Lord is will-
ing, I'll keep on plucking
away.
It is never a question of
"if' storms will come, but
rather ' hen" they will
come.
I hope.you weather your
storms well, dear reader.
There are lonely places
out there.
Some people may say
there is no such thing. They
say that when you go there,
you take the loneliness with
you, and it colors what you
see.
There's some truth to
that.
had.-nmny gbofl:walks
ruined because I was in a bad
frame of mind, I :a-ais ed
the sights and sounds; rve
ignored the company, all be-
cause I was in a bad mood.
Even with that said, I still
think are lonely places.
You don't know them un-
less you've been there, so
it's going to be hard for me
to convince you. But let me
try.
Most of the woods and
fields throughout the coun-
try have always struck me
as, for lack of a better word,
content. The trees and flora
grow, and the local varmints
and critters make their
home there.
Some areas are fenced in,
some not. Stands of trees,
old homesteads, rolls of
hay, cattle, horses, woven
wire or barbed wire, old rot:
ring fence posts, maybe a
junked car or two. The rural
landscape radiates a certain
serenity that I think most
of us locals find very sooth-
ing. It's one reason why we
choose to make our homes
here. Whether we live
amongst the knobby hills in
Olympian Springs or Pine
Grove or the rolling farm
and pasture land around
Sharpsburg, the land cra-
dles and comforts us,
But there are certain
places in the land that radi-
ate a different feeling when
you're there. You may feel
a subtle transition as you get
closer, or you may even pass
through these places and
not wholly understand the
change until you've left.
I will stop far short of say-
ing such places are haunted,
but Native Americans, who
have lived here much, much
longer than the European
settlers who were most of
our ancestors, have a long
tradition of regarding cer-
tain areas of the land as spe-
cial, cursed, or full of power.
The Lakota Indians
named the arid region in
:s6uthwtestem South Dakota
as Malkhd ' a, "bad land,"
what we appropriately today
call the Badlands National
Park. This quarter of a mil-
lion acre area was where the
Lakota and their ancestors
hunted since just after the
last ice age. While the land
was certainly good for hunt-
ing, it was not.exactly a place
to have a home, given the
soft and easily eroded soil
and the difficulty of travel.
Several hundred miles
to the east of the Badlands,
near the town of Vermillion,
is the Spirit Mound. No
local tribe would go in its
vicinity, despite the wealth
of game in the surrounding
prairie.
For several Native Ameri-
can tribes, central and east-
ern Kentucky was a similar
type of hunting ground
(Kentucky's name is prob-
ably derived from either
Shawnee or Iroquois; in Iro-
quois, it sounds like "mead-
ow lands"). We know that
natives had lived here in the
past (the Mound.Building
peoples), but when white
settlers first entered the
region in the 1750s, no par-
ticular tribe made it their
home.
At one time, this too was
the land where the buffalo
roamed.
ON
When you lived as close to
the land as Natives did - or
lived directly from it, since
they had no grocery stores
that carried shipped in food
- you became attuned to it.
There were certain places
even the animals didn't go.
As I've walked the hills
and valleys and bottom lands
of Bath County, I've tried to
imagine what Natives might
have experienced as they
passed that way.
One of the most lonesome
places I experienced on my
rambles was a stretch of
bottom land along the Lick-
hag River between Moores
Ferry and Peasticks.
Normally I find walking:
along the river a peaceful
time. Whether the water
is up or down, and regard=
less of the lime of year, the
Licking River is oneof those
touchstones in the land-
scape that remains stea ly.
This was in December,
probably over twenty years
ago, when I wasin this area.
I will neverforgetit; it has al-
ways stuck in my mind.
The walk was going on
along fine until I crossed
over a little branch creek
and headed into an area pre-
viously unexplored by me.
The bottom land narrowed
to about teen feet wide, with
a high, steep bank to my left,
and the way was blocked
with tall, dead, fibrous
weeds.
The sky that day was gray,
the trees were bare, and the
landscape around me was
mostly barren but for the
tall weeds.
I pressed ahead, and the
bottom land by the muddy
Hcking widened again but
opened into more of the
same.
At one point, I stopped
and looked around me.
Sometime in the past, the
land had been cultivated but
it has since fallen into dis-
use. The further I walked,
the thicker weeds
ELY
and I began running into
briar patches.
It was one of the God-
awfulest places I've been,
either before or since then.
I never had the landscape
fight against my being
there so much, grahb'mg
and blocking at my every
movement., And I was the
only one it was fighting, it
seemed.
It was time to find high
ground.
It took a while. I was a lit-
tle disoriented. I could see
the river, could see Spurlock
Gap across the river, but I
wasn't entirely sure of ex-
actly where I was.
I: made my, way to a
steep hillside to my left and
walked up through the end-
PLACES
less briars'and weeds.
I found myself in some-
one's back yard. Not want-
ing to draw attention to my-
self, I skirted the backyard
and eventually found the
road. It was pretty late in
the day, and I had no inten-
tion of backtracking, so I set
out on the road.
I didn't recognize any
of the houses around me,
and there didn't appear too
many mailboxes. It was a
cold Sunday afternoon, and
no one was outside.
The road sign finally
came into view- Foxcliff
Road, which is in Peasticks.
Needless to say, I had a
long walk home. This was in
the days before cell phones.
I think at one time or an-
k,ntucky
other we've all wound up
in these lonely, forbidding
places. And maybe they all
haven't been somewhere
outside, away from people.
There are places you can
wind up, in your heart, in
your mind, places you're not
welcome, places in which
you don't need to be.
Heartbreaks, undeserved
pain, regrets, thoughts of re-
venge - these too are lonely
places where you can get
snagged and caught and
held down. You may have
wandered far along the dark
rivers of your own heart
before you found them, but
once you've been there,
the road back home, long
though it may be; is well
worth it.
With gas_ logs in your fireplace, you'll get cozy immediately, without any
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bringing your family warm, comfortable heat.
safe.
So don't be left waiting in the cold. Hake a qu ck swrcch natural gas. It s
the best way to warm up your family and enjoy comfoPc, convenience and
affordable energy making any house feel like home.
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3617 Lexington Road
Winchester, KY 4039 I
www.deltagas.com
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