Goin, Goin,' Gone: Adventures

By Catherine E. Goin

McCoy Pottery

I went to an auction and what did I see?
A piece of McCoy pottery.
A vase, bright yellow and tall
And that’s not all!
There was a heron thereon!
The color was divine and the lines were sublime
“I must have it! I must! In God I trust!
He, the money will supply, I don’t know why
Except He knows it’s important to me
To satisfy my ‘eye, which has a love of beauty.
To convey it is my duty; to delight my essence
And to present it to God from the depths of my heart,
A part of what I believe, of what I perceive, a part of Him.
A piece of clay tells me all this, such an existential twist.

• Language: English
• Publisher: LifeRich Publishing
• Release date: Sep 11, 2020
• ISBN: 9781489730848

Catherine E. Goin

Is her story real? Did it happen in reality? It happened in 1974 in SFO. The events of that time escapes memory. She met Lufti in 1974, just before going into the hospital. He knew her as Betsy. The character of Eileen existed only in her mind. Does she exist now?

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Copyright © 2020 Catherine E. Goin.

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Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Interior Image Credit: Catherine E. Goin

Scripture taken from the New King James Version of the Bible

ISBN: 978-1-4897-3068-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4897-3067-1 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4897-3084-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020917638

LifeRich Publishing rev. date: 09/10/2020

Contents

The End or is it the Beginning

50 Years Ago

Nerve Venom

Meeting Wahu

Madame Pele and Wahu in Ole Hawaii

My Imaginary Friends

And Then There Was FROG!

Curve Venom

Poems About Weight

Shall I Jump?

Don’t Jump! Don’t Jump!

Back in the Psyche Room

The Art of Appearance

The Happiness of Mobility

Do or Do Not, There is no Try – so said Yoda

I Sigh Flying By Like a Bird in the Sky

Bored! Bored! Bored!

What I Remember

Brussells at Last

To Bangkor, Maine

Towards the End of CRAF

Sometimes the World Misses CAT

The Day We Were Sure

September 11, 2001

Gracious Hospitality of the People of Terrier Rouge

Crossing the Border

Dress for Success or Style for Awhile

Thank You USANA, Thank YouI

goin’, goin’. Gone

Could it Be? Depress-ed me?

Trumps’ Treacherous Troglodytes….TTT

Find Mind

Goin’, goin’, gone’

Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations of the hills also quaked and were shaken, because He was angry. Smoke went up from His nostrils, and devouring fire from His mouth. Coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens also, and came down with darkness under His feet.

Psalm 18: 7-9

Now a word was secretly brought to me, and my ear received a whisper of it, in disquieting thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men. Fear came upon me and trembling, which made all my bones shake. Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair on my body stood up. It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes; there was silence; then I heard a voice.

Job 4: 113-16

Dedicated to:

Russell Goin, my brother and source of much of my thinking

Dr. David Goldstein who makes me meditate on what is around me

The End or is it the Beginning

I looked down at the paper before me on the table. The pen was still clutched in my right hand. With my left hand I swept my fingers across my dry, red eyes finished, completed. My book was ended, a sigh of relief, a sigh of pleasure.

I laid my head on my arms, which were crossed on the table, closed my eyes I think I will rest. I closed down my conscious mind and drifted off into my land of dreams, a land more real to me than anything in the ‘real’ world.

"Woof! Woof!

Woof! Woof! Woof!

Plop, plop I did drop

Into the middle of a yard

Next to a man playing a fiddle.

"Where am I? Where am I?

Why, it seems I have been transported

Through my dreams.

Why, there is a cat chasing a mouse.

There is a rocking chair which on a rug doth sit

In the back corner where it doth fit.

The colors hooked thereunto are of many shades and hues….

Red, purple, green, gold and blue.

Why, oh why, I cry must we sigh and die?

I wonder why. So full of hope! I hope to cope!

Not to mope, you dope!"

Woof! Woof!"

001.jpg

The magic room where my heart resides, as in my rocking chair it rides. Back and forth it ventures, while my mind pursues adventures. I am old, no longer bold in a physical manifestation which oft-times rises to meet the occasion. The magic room is a room of enchantment, quiet and cool with windows facing east and north, bringing me rest and beauty. Quiet!

My Zig-Zag sign sets the tone. It was purchased for $30 at Laughlin’s Auction in Edinburg, Virginia. Going to auctions brings me peace and pleasure. My life is no longer full of people who wish me ill. But I can’t really blame them as they were just avenues for entertainment for me. I didn’t have much character in those long ago days when only adventure mattered, when adventure was all. Those people are mostly gone now, to the ‘great beyond.’ That was before I was a Christian which they certainly weren’t. So sad.

What changed me? Dr. Wang. He saw something in me that I had missed, that others had missed. And he rose to the occasion and ‘saved’ me for which I am eternally grateful. Does he know? Probably not.

That was back in 1974. Now I am sitting outdoors at Great Harvest drinking coffee and water and thinking how to write this book. The times aren’t normal. In fact they are quite strange, to me and everybody else"

1–the coronavirus has hit the world and the USA

2–around 40,000,000 people are out of work

3–George Floyd was brutally murdered setting off an epidemic of protests, which includes me.

Since I am schizophrenic it makes sense to me to write this book in both prose and poetry, both of which are important ways of communicating to others. As I sit here it occurs to me that my life is coming to an end and mincing words is not the way to go. In the faces of Trump and McConnell evil has been manifested for years, day in and day out to the point where it seems normal. When I first saw the cop with his knee pinning down George Floyd, murdering him, I went oh well. Then it occurred to me that he couldn’t breathe and was being killed while the other officers looked on. A cold-blooded murder, systematic and heartless. I have not recovered from the shock of it at all.

As a Christian it is my belief that good triumphs over evil but is that applying in the USA in 2020? For sure it is no longer advisable to be quiet and shut up. We have done that way too long. More than ever it seems important to write this book. The title sums up my attitude. I may be one of the ones who don’t make it but I have no fear of the future, either here or in the ‘great beyond.’

Where did all of this hatred come from? I know Trump and Mitch hate people, especially women, children and those of a different skin color. Why puzzles me. We know God loves diversity and created us in His image; not just white, dirty, fat, ignorant men and women who love guns because they really only want to kill–animals of humans, it doesn’t matter. Do they want the end of freedom? Probably,

Unless people of good will are able to be sufficiently motivated to fight for justice. Does God still stand for us? Who knows…not me for certain? Certainly not out leadership.

Oh well, enough negativity. On with adventure.

I started flying in 1964 and flew for nearly 40 years. By the late 60’s I began to have difficulty in my thinking and behavior. The doctor I was seeing told me in his experience women who were mentally ill or depressed tried to ‘hide’ by not taking pride in their appearance. At the time I looked awful and dressed in drab, muddy colors.

By 1974 while living in San Francisco I cracked and was diagnosed as having an acute schizophrenic episode, paranoid variety. I ended up in the psychiatric ward of the St. Francis Hospital under the care of a wonderful doctor, Dr. Stanley Wang. He was a Southern Baptist Chinese doctor, a thoughtful and kind man. At the time I was anorexic and he said Miss Goin, you can either eat or die. So eat I did. Sick as I was it seems there was a strong will to live. He got me to participate with the other inmates by watching Star Trek. This show mesmerized us all: drug addicts, alcoholics, mentally ill. All of us.

After two weeks I was shipped home to recover which I had to do in three months if I wanted to keep my job which was the most important thing in the world to me. Dr.Zigmund Lebensohn was my new doctor and he graciously helped me to live a ‘sane’ life. Dragging into his office in early June of 1974 I took one look at him, realized he was smarter than me and could help me so cooperation was imperative. He told me not to watch or read science fiction other than Star Trek or Star Wars which were morality plays where good triumphed over evil. Next he said Miss Goin, what do you want to do? So I got rid of my sacred cows which were the values imparted to me by others, not my own and started to establish a system of which I was proud and the owner of. The first thing I wanted to do was to study astronomy. He helped me to find National Capital Astronomers which provided guidance for years.

Next I had