Black Gold Is Not For The Birds

Black Gold, or oil, as some call it, seems to get folks all stirred up more than anything I know. For days I have heard conversations about oil in the Gulf, families going out of business, and animals dying. I don't quite understand exactly what has happened, but it sure has Arly upset, which reminds me of another time, many years ago, that people I cared about were upset over oil.

Angel Face's family was in the oil business. I know that because her daddy ran the company his daddy started back in the 30's, and they didn't lack for money or for round the clock visitors in the house. Her daddy wasn't one of those men who came home looking like a tar ball washed up on the beach or anything, he was a suit man, and the one all the other folks who came to visit seemed to give a heap of respect to. Most of the time the business of oil wasn't discussed while Angel Face or the family was doing family things, but I recall one  month, which led in to several, that the topic of oil was the only thing talked about, and Angel Face was glad for the distractions. 

"Oil Embargo", that's the phrase I would hear being chewed up and spit out during those months. The talk was so loud and angry filled, that I would guess the dolls in the next house could have heard it too. Angel's daddy stayed angry, he paced the floors, stayed gone at times a lot longer than usual, and I almost thought this embargo thing might be an answer from God to the prayers I had been praying, but it didn't last. It stirred things up, and eventually, things seemed to go back to normal, but I don't think normal is what anyone should call it really. 

Similar discussions have been going on here at Arly's, but with a completely different tone I think. She is sad. Sitting in her lap, while watching the local news, pictures of birds  coated in oil like oily chocolate dip cones flashed before us  and grown men stood crying about losing everything they had because of the spill. I knew this wasn't about a family upset about moving down the money ladder, it was about a terrible insult to all things beautiful, and I was sad too. 

I don't understand a whole lot about what people folk do and get themselves into, but I do know, after spending years buried underneath time filled layers of dirt, that nature must be protected. Angel Face loved nature too.

There was just something about going down to the creek and playing in the glass water, that's what she called it, that made her smile from the inside out. She had bug collections, and named each one with names beginning with F. Her favorite was Frinkle, some kind of weird looking beetle thing that had wings with jewel colors. I think she could have easily been a fairy in another life, living amongst the beautiful nature beings that most folks seem to take for granted, and maybe she is now. Maybe she is a fairy angel protecting all those things she loved.

Just before going to bed I remembered playing with a glass bowl and some sea shells on one of the field trips Arly took me on. I closed my eyes and prayed that God would place a bubble like that  around all things beautiful in the Gulf, and I pictured Angel Face with a bubble around her too, keeping all the "oily bad stuff" out, and letting only the beautiful in. I wish we would have had that bubble a long time ago, but some wishes come way too late don't they?

Next Post