“This book might interest you,” prefaced my visitor. “I’ve read your recent writings. This Journal and Remarks chronicles some related thoughts of my own. For historical context, at the time we sailed, the sun never set upon our empire.”
“182 years ago,” I noted. “You, more than any other human, at any point in time, shaped how we currently understand biological life. I am deeply honored to meet you, Sir.”
His handshake was warm and kindly. “Please call me Charles.”
“I’ve contemplated your observations for all of my educated life,” I continued. “May I combine your hypothesis — with recent fossil and forensic genetic research, contemporary explorations in the field of Psychology, and the teachings of Aristotle?”
Evolution selected for us to use our senses to perceive the world around us: physical objects, other living creatures, relationships. (stimulus)
Evolution also selected for us to have emotion, which is a near-instantaneous chemical survival mechanism triggering flight/fight/freeze/fuck reactions. (response)
Evolution also selected for logic, which is the introspective tool we use to determine if our internal perceptions match external conditions. (cognition)
If our internal perceptions match external conditions mostly consistently, then we learn to trust our own judgment. (meta-cognition)
Because, ultimately, each of us is a potential DNA replicator responsible for our own personal survival and decisions. This is the evolutionary purpose for autonomy.
“Precisely!” Darwin exclaimed. “There have been many instances in history when only a small cohort, or sometimes just a single individual, survived a mass extinction event and lived to contribute genes. Consensus is not analogous to safety, at any scale. Autonomy is an evolutionary failsafe.”
“Trust evolution. Trust your judgment.”
PHOTO: Original leather bound edition of The Voyage of the Beagle from Charles Darwin’s personal initial publication. Holding this book in my hands, knowing it had been touched by him, changed my life in a way I do not have words to describe…a sense of awe. (collection of a friend)
VIDEO: Killick Hinds live improvisation on WUOG (90.5 FM) Athens, GA. Two of my builds get a workout via his vast array of techniques: 8-string fretless multiscale and Walrus 6-string multiscale. Watch and listen to the evolving soundscapes he creates organically, exploring string harmonics. Fascinating and beautiful. Recorded live 9.21.2021 at the college radio station.
The first track uses a traditional Native American flute that was gifted to me by Charles Littleleaf: https://www.littleleafflutes.com/
My mom has been doing volunteer work with dogs on the Warm Springs Reservation. She met him while building a fence and he made me the flute as a thank you.
I think you’ll especially enjoy The Destruction Of Words — I used Wingspan 8 and my Guild acoustic for the chord playing layer, Walnut Jazz Skele for the lead playing layer. You can also hear Wingspan 8 on tracks 2, 10 and 11.
VIDEO: Max McCargar takes us on a tour of ruins. Gorgeous full spectrum tone from Wingspan™ 8-string guitar. Single track, single take, improvisation live into DAW using only reverb and Goodhertz Wow plug-in.
Startled, I opened the door to a horseman dismounting his lathered chestnut mare. Early thirties. Auburn hair tied back in a short queue, rider’s clothing late 18th century. “Twenty eight miles and a swim from Independence Hall,” he said by way of introduction.
“Thomas Jefferson.” I scarcely breathed the name.
“Yes,” he replied.
He unbuckled his saddle bag and presented scarred timber — burn marks and bullet holes. “Given to me by a friend. Will you accept the responsibility of fashioning an instrument from this?”
I weighed the piece with my hands, history immediately visceral. I understood. “Not an artifact, a reminder. Much like your Declaration.”
“Which you have let slip through your fingers.”
“Me, personally? I build guitars. What do you expect me to do?”
Ferocious intelligence assessed me: my words, my physical self. Unbearable scrutiny of this experienced swordsman, blade in hand. “I gifted you a set of Principles. At full risk to Life and Fortune we fought to give you self-responsibility. We have granted you the freedom and the mandate to speak Truth.”
He continued. “Instead, I find an Empire of Lies.”
“A central bank — the Federal Reserve — which you have allowed to finance military expansionism around the globe. Recently you have purchased the finest pandemic borrowed money can provide, from patented disease to patented cure, while you cower in your homes, begging unelected bureaucrats for permission to live.”
I countered heatedly. “But isn’t this for the greater good? Export democracy to spread peace? Accept restrictions to protect the weak…how can you possibly suggest we ignore Science?”
“In both instances, correlation is not causation,” Thomas Jefferson stated.
“What if you were to discover reality is actually completely opposite the narrative you have accepted?” He looked directly in my eyes. “I submit you prove current regulatory actions are not exacerbating your circumstance. If you wish to follow scientific principles, you will begin with Marek’s disease.”
I countered, the phrasing as if memorized. “Many alive today believe hypocrisy as a slave owner cancels your words and actions.”
“It would seem the Age of Enlightenment is ended,” he noted. “What exactly passes for rational thought in your era?”
“Twitter mobs,” a sonorous voice quietly interjected.
Powerfully built black man of similar age stepped forward, and my two visitors warmly embraced. Thomas Jefferson turned to me, “May I present Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: It seems unreal as I relate this experience. And yet…
“Would you gentlemen mind if I pick up the thread and weave several strands into this cloth?” Dr. King asked. “Spiritual aspects underlie the purely logical and biological.”
“Slavery is a universal human condition. As far back as known in recorded human history, slavery has been the default: on every continent, across every race and culture. Continuing in many places today, including slavery of debt. The exception proves the rule. This one singular individual,” he indicated Thomas Jefferson, “in boldly stating ‘All Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights’ established for the first time a framework recognizing the primacy of the Individual above the desires of the State.”
“There can be no Freedom without this principle.”
“Thomas, I deeply and sincerely thank you for this accomplishment you have wrought. You made my life, my work, possible.” Tears rolled down Dr. King’s face. Jefferson too was moved. I observed, fascinated.
“At the risk of being offensive, how do you reconcile your words — and works — with the treatment the both of you are said to have visited upon women: forced childbearing by slave Sally Hemings, marital infidelities against Coretta Scott?” I asked.
I held their gaze for a long minute of dead silence.
“A man is the product of his time,” Dr. King spoke slowly. “We cannot live outside historical context. In the words of God: ‘Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.‘”
Thomas Jefferson watched my reaction as I thought.
Then he asked, “Is it not more useful to value and build upon the greatest achievement of an individual?”
