Live in Freedom

A Poemlet in Nine Parts by Bobby Matherne

1. Well Lagger

I was a well lagger once.
"What's that?"
You know, there was this lag
-- when I went to my doctor and he told me,
You are well and
-- the time that I could feel well again.
Now I feel well on the front end.
"Would you say you've been a well lagger,
--up until now?"
Oh, well.

1. Well Lagger Notes: Written in Timberlane Screening Room on May 7, 1996. I was writing the poem A Lot of Jobs in which I listed all the companies I worked for since I was a child. When I came to Schlumberger I thought of my job of "well-logging" and thought of the parallelism with tree-logging. In one case you make a map of the thing ( a log of the well ), the other you make a thing of the thing ( a log of the tree). I misspelled "logging" when I started to write down "well logger" and it came out "well lagger" -- having learned to trust my messages from my unconscious (mistakes), I wrote a poem on the process of "well lagging".

Around the time I worked for Schlumberger I was pretty much a hypochondriac: every minor pain or symptom I created a huge scenario, and went to the doctor who told me "You are well." I wasn't quite as bad as the hypochondriac who put on her tombstone, "See I told you I was sick!" For me it was simply a runaway process that I had to learn to control. While in the Tool Pusher's room one day I noticed a copy of Thought Conditioners by Norman Vincent Peale by his bed. I took it with me to read. Peale said that everyone did some physical exercise during the day, but they also needed some mental exercise. The thought conditioning exercises finally pulled me out of my hypochondriacal tendencies.

But not before my doctor told me I had low blood pressure and I kept asking him what does that mean? Finally Dr. Everett said, "It means you'll probably be cursed with long life." I finally understood. On another occasion due to a recent bout with amoebic dysentery, I'd been describing my stools to him. One day, he looked at me exasperatedly and said, "I don't think that there's a silver Standard Stool Specimen at the International Bureau of Standards in Paris." I felt a little embarrassed, but I always remember his words when I get a bit too carried away in details.

2. Well Logger

I was a well logger once,
"What's that?"
You know, there was this log
when I went to my driller and he told me,
This is a well.
Then I could feel well again.
Now I feel well on the front end.
"Front end -- isn't that
an oxymoron?"

2. Well Logger: Written in Timberlane Screening Room on May 7, 1996. Second of nine poems in this serial poem.

I was writing the poem A Lot of Jobs in which I listed all the companies I worked for since a child. When I came to Schlumberger I thought of my job of "well-logging" and thought of the parallelism with tree-logging. This is the poem that resulted after I finished the one my unconscious provided for me, Well Lagger.

An oxymoron is a phrase that is mutually contradictory, such as military intelligence and jumbo shrimp. Since one's front is on the opposite side of the body from one's end, front end qualifies as an oxymoron.

3. Occi-Morons

Mechanic: "You got a problem with your front end."
Front end?
Isn't that an oxymoron?
"An Occi-Moron? Where?"
Never mind.
"Yeah -- they're a rowdy bunch.
Forget them.
I'm gonna align your front end."

3. Occi-Morons Notes:Written in Timberlane Screening Room on May 7, 1996 at 9:30 am. Third of nine poems in this serial poem.

I was writing the Note to the poem Well Logger which ended in the line, "Isn't that an oxymoron?" That triggered this poem which works off the many meanings to the sound sequence "oxymoron" which might be spelled "occi-moron" where "occi" could be short for Occidental Petroleum or just occidental. Thus to the redneck mechanic "Occi-moron" could refer to the rowdy drunks he meets at the bar from the Occidental Petroleum plant down the road.

To a struggling college student it could refer to what he feels, when he has to compete with the oriental (from the east) geniuses in his class, that is, like an occidental (from the west) moron, or occi-moron.

To a psychiatrist who is scalpel-happy it could refer to her patients who she has "helped" by removing their occipital lobes, and turning them into barely functional humans, or occi-morons.

All this is by way of saying that if you want to say something that is otherwise not "politically correct", or un-PC, it helps if it's ambiguous. See poem 4.

4. It Helps If It's Ambiguous

If you really want to parley
-- on something that is un-PC
Make it your business to see
-- that there's an ambiguity
Or two or three.
Who's gonna sue
-- if you ambigue?

4. It Helps If It's Ambiguous Notes: Written in Timberlane Screening Room on May 7, 1996 about 9:45 am. Fourth of nine poems in this serial poem. Triggered by the last line of the note of poem 3.

Politicians and their wordsmiths are experts at coming up with the perfect "ambigue" -- one meaning aims at what the people want the politicians to do, and the other meaning aims at what the politicians intend to do.

What do you intend to do?

5. What do you intend to do?

What do you intend to do,
-- dear politician?

Govern or screw?

You can't govern yourself.
How can you govern everyone
-- other than you?

Why don't you just govern yourself
-- the best you can
-- and let us,
No, encourage us to govern ourselves
-- as best we can.

5. What do you intend to do? Notes: Written in Timberlane Screening Room on May 7, 1996 about 9:45 am. Fifth of nine poems in this serial poem. Triggered by the last line of the note of poem 4.

Politicians, such as our retiring governor of almost twenty years in Louisiana, usually cannot govern their life very well, much less the rest of the state. When the new chief of administration went to his contracting staff and asked for the procedure they followed in letting contracts, they said, "We wait for the governor to tell us who to give it to." That kind of governing would be better done by ourselves, that is, by private companies who depend on their customers to tell them that they are doing right. That kind of voting is very powerful: it will quickly eliminate companies that are providing lousy service by giving contracts, not to the lowest bidder, but to cronies.

Coercive bureaucracies, democracy notwithstanding, can never operate as efficiently as the free market system. Look at Hong Kong versus mainland China: only miles separated them physical, but they were thousands of miles apart in theory for the past fifty years or so, up until now.

6. Govern Ourselves

Let us govern ourselves. is a hopeless plea.
It presupposes a lack of liberty.
To ask permission is to presuppose
-- the very existence of authority.

6. Govern Ourselves Notes: Written in Timberlane Screening Room on May 7, 1996 about 9:50 am. Sixth of nine poems in this serial poem. Triggered by the last line of poem 5.

The seemingly simple request "Let us govern ourselves" is laid bare as a presumptive cowering before a coercive authority. In fact it empowers the coercive authority in the first place.

7. The Very Existence of Authority

There is no one to ask
-- that you have not endowed
-- with the power to give permission.

What would happen if
-- we asked ourselves first?

Have you asked someone
-- to let you do something recently?
Was it for permission
to do something with their property?

----- or

Was it for permission
to do something
with your own property?

Do you see the difference?

7. The Very Existence of Authority Notes: Written in Timberlane Screening Room on May 7, 1996 about 9:55 am. Seventh of nine poems in this serial poem. Triggered by the last line of poem 6.

8. Permission to Do Something

When you must ask permission
-- to do something
-- with your own property
You don't own it anymore.

When you must ask permission
-- to do something
-- with your own property
You don't live in freedom,
-- up until now.

8. Permission to Do Something Notes: Written in Timberlane Screening Room on May 7, 1996 about 10:00 am. Eighth of nine poems in this serial poem. Triggered by the last line of poem 7.

The ability to use your own property as you wish is the hallmark of a free society. Does it include driving your own car on a toll road without paying toll? No, paying the toll is a way of getting permission to use someone else's property.

When the government takes money from your earnings before you get them, you are unable to use that money as you wish. When the IRS puts a lien on your assets, you are not able to dispose of them without permission. One could almost equate government with lack of freedom, but these examples are coercive bureaucracy examples not government examples.

In true government you will dispose of your property as you deem appropriate as long as it doesn't infringe on someone else's property. I am greatly indebted to Dr. Andrew Joseph Galambos for clarifying these otherwise confusing concepts in my mind. The money I paid for his two courses, V50T and V201T was the best use I ever made of my own property.

9. Live in Freedom

When you willingly ask permission
-- to do something with
-- another's property
You don't need own it to use it.

When you willingly ask permission
-- to do something with
-- another's property
You will live in Freedom
-- From Now On.

9. Live in Freedom Notes: Written in Timberlane Screening Room on May 7, 1996 about 10:10 am. Ninth of nine poems in this serial poem. Triggered by the last line of poem 8.

This poem elaborates on asking permission, which the hallmark of doing business in what Dr. Galambos calls the "Natural Society." Obtaining permission gets down to finding out the conditions that the owner will place on your use of their property. Often the permission is granted based on money, but other energy exchanges are possible. One of the reason friends don't charge each other for services is because of the energy exchanges they do for each other as a matter of course. If you think of money as a packaged energy exchange, then you see why money is the medium of exchange in business transactions with strangers.