Meet Jack
Jack W. Fee
Born on January 18th, 1947.
Capricorn Sun, Leo Rising, Sagittarius Moon
Father: Arthur W. Fee
Born in Punnichy, Saskatchewan, Canada.
Last Occupation: Minister
Mother: Ruth Janette Campbell
Born in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada
Last Occupation: 4th Grade School Teacher
I was born in Altadena CA near Pasadena. At the time my father was going to college to become a Nazareth Minister. At age 2 we moved back to Penticton, B.C. Canada, then to Livingston, MT, then Lander, WY, then finally to Ridgefield, WA.
My father died shortly after retirement. My mother however, lived another 20 years. She was more prepared for retirement as she had her friends, her garden, and her hobbies. I chose to emulate her life opposed to my fathers. It just seemed to make sense in the long run!
When I was 10 years old I wrote a short book titled "The Balance of Nature". I was laughed at then and it seems like an impossibility now - to put all our roads and cities underground and encourage the Earth to grow wild once again. I had visions of massive salmon runs and herds of buffalo returning to the West.
I learned to work with wood in high school wood shop and apprenticed as a carpenter in the pole building trade. I learned remodeling and auto mechanics within the necessity of fixing up old houses and cars.
Money making schemes have not been my forte. I have had some lucky real estate deals but paid jobs have been my main source of income. Learning how to live a champagne lifestyle on a beer budget has been my Modus Operandi.
My Philosophy
Are there many paths that lead to the center, the higher self? If we can get a grasp of what is Quality in our lives and try to balance the Heart, the Mind and the Stomach, then maybe we might be able to find more balance in our life?
I do not find this easy myself because I follow my passions - using them for my fuel.
On my long hikes, that I love, I notice a definite reciprocity from Nature when I maintain a humble thankfulness for every blessing, every barbed wire fence crossed safely, every resting place found and for not leaving behind an essential tool such as a knife or field glasses. And in the evening I am met by the best campsite spot I've seen on that day's march. Strange sounds out of nowhere getting me to stop and notice biscuit roots popping out of the ground at my feet, from the frost heave! Spilling boiling hot water on my bare foot only to have a cold wind hit it instantly, cooling it with no injury. And many other miracles!
To me these events come from myself being in a state of mind where I consciously maintain a humble thankfulness for every blessing and with a kind of Youthful Reverence of the Unknown -
YRU! Maybe this is where my philosophy begins: with these acronyms. Y R U. Why Are You? WAY. What is the WAY?
When I am not immersed in Nature it is harder to maintain a humble thankfulness for every blessing and everything seems to get blurred and buried under my material and social culture. I look at this as an anachronistic life style yet I know it still underlines everything everywhere!!!
I was raised by protestant ministers of the Church of the Nazarene and I could not help notice a lot of hypocrisy around me, so I distanced myself from the church as soon as I could. I did observe the advantages of a strong faith in certain people and have tried not to "throw the baby out with the bath water" so to speak. I have read the Bible and enjoyed its many stories yet, as far as I can tell, overall the text has caused as much harm as it has caused good. I personally think the best approach for any human being is to question all of the Root Documents of our culture and as we race headlong toward our own self caused extinction, I think we should question everything we have been taught!
I believe that the environmental degradation of the planet and homelessness are the direct byproducts of the Capitalistic precept that: Profit is the Bottomline. I think this behavior is a direct result of the culture we have learned!
Poetry
Only
The only beauty
I have left
Is in my music
And my dance
Watching Man
Trying to out smart
Nature
Makes me weep
Inside:
An unmet grief.
Green Sea
Everything is waiting for someone to die
The Trees the Hawk in the sky
Just think, You may be next and
what would be your
contribution to the ground?
Will the roots of a seed bearer
delve into that place
where you kidneys
once held your adrenaline?
And who will benefit
from the Akashic Record
of your every thought,
the Whales in the
Deep Green Sea?
The very bottom that
is covered with
all the elements
of Life?
Enchantment
It will take me forever to walk to Alpha Centauri and
the Universe has more stars than my Brain has Synapses and
My Mind can perceive many opposing Forces.
Yet what if I could not discern the difference
between Light and Darkness or
between near and very far away or
between large and very small or
between hot and cold or
between Male and Female or
between Good and Evil.
Would I then be God?
Life I think is beauty and
so kind, and so cruel and
so tenacious and so frail and
so pervasive.
Will the beauty I see as you ever fade or
die on contact?
I think you know you are beautiful and careful
who you share your time with and
I am humbled and
satisfied to notice!
How often does a man
kneel before a Goddess and
fit her into a suit of wings
for a dance
Then watch her fly away
with no fare well?
To imagine seeing so far and
flying so high
knowing the human heart,
its powerful lifts
its passions, its joys and
graceful descents ,
Its fears and its sorrows
its hopes and dreams,
turns and dives.
Only another Artist on the Road?
My memory of you a bookmark
fading from my page.
Friends like ghosts and
clouds that dissipate.
The way you held your wings
the strength I felt beneath your clothes,
a deep well of universal tribe.
Waking from my dream
all fingers tapping
on all the drums
I open the basement windows
hoping it was you.
Forget the Fences
I am still a wounded man
Walking in someone else's shoes
And I do not have enough grief
To set you free to return
As a helpful Nature Spirit.
Loving my Rooster’s adrenalin
With your red boots on or off
And I still respect you
Marrying in a red shirt
Adjusting to the load
Transferring discomfort
Watching the fungus growing
On dead wood.
She is so strong
And limber
So easy to break
Yet hard to split
And you come down
With a vengeance.
I free myself
My wants got in the way
Of your needs.
I apologize to all
My ungrieved lovers.
When my needs, become your wants
A reflection of the divine shines in you
And in my eyes.
Defending territory, drawing lines
Forget the fences
And the cold nights
In the birch forest.
Coyote moss
And tamarack needles
Drawing patterns on the ice
So intense in tents
A frozen moose head
Kept me company
Locked in the deep freeze
Where fat rules the land
Birch my friend
Where the Rooster’s crow
Is frozen
And the ax and knife
Rule the roost
And the straight grain Spruce
Is a saving’s grace.
Fire on a cold Mountain stream
I bathed with
The Goddess
Wrapped in wool
Where the wants of others
Don’t match my needs
Sleeping on the Earth
Strengthening my Soul
The pervasive and penetrating
Wind moaning through
The night
On fresh summer sheets
And clean pillow cases
One head on my side
And your’s is other
Than here
Troubled by red boots
And his attack Rooster
And a horse’s hard hooves
Uneasy in the wind
Who cast that brass
Bell
With a pure tone
Like an upright Grand
Played by a connoisseur
Of Ivory-less keys
On God’s Piano?