The Backwards Beekeepers AND 1972 B and Me

There's a good article in BRAND X ( a small LA entertainment weekly newspaper) this week about some people who are doing something about CCD. (Colony Collapse Disorder)

Whether it's enough to offset the tremendous loses due to CCD will only be determined by how individuals react.

THE BACKWARDS BEEKEEPERS have a plan that if individuals respond, could offer a solution. Which means that waiting for the government to get involved might not be our only option.

My personal experience regarding the life of bees goes back to the summer of 1972 and it's a story that a some people in my immediate family have heard, along with a few very close friends.

When I used to tell the story I could feel the listener suddenly looking for a door or reassuring themselves that they always knew there was something a bit off center in the Michael Timothy McAlevey reality agenda.

To this day I can't really say if I was in an extended hallucination created by the chemicals (thinners and strippers) I was working with, or a true epiphany delivered by the very essence of Mother Nature and her amazing little honey creating creatures....better known as BEES.

I was 26 years old at the time and even though that was 38 years ago....there are moments of the experience that seem like they happened yesterday.

I have a feeling that most mystical experiences have a tendency to stay vivid throughout one's lifetime.

And this story is indeed one of the more amazing mystical experiences I have encountered in my lifetime.

Go make a nice cup of tea....make sure you add a big lump of fresh honey and read

BEEEEEEEEs in my ear!

Summer of 1972

I was working on a 60 foot yacht docked on the San Rafael canal in Marin County, Ca. The boat was owned by William Penn Patrick, an odd sort of celebrity millionaire who died the next year in a private plane crash, a few years after trying to defeat Ronald Reagan for Governor.

I had been prepping the area in front of the wheelhouse for a few days. It's a six by eight foot section that is painted a high gloss white. The preparation includes a lot of sanding and priming and sanding and priming and sanding. Anyone who knows about high gloss finishes knows that extensive preparation is mandatory.

The weather was nice and calm so I didn't have to worry about wind. When one works on a high gloss finish it's very important to work fast and there are certain techniques used to create a nice even finish...but the weather must corporate in order to achieve a smooth surface with no lines or orange peeling.

It took me about an hour or two to completely finish painting the area and as I stood back to admire my work I heard a small buzzing sound in my ear and looked up as a single tiny bee slowly came down and landed right in the middle of my new paint job.

I looked down and of course was upset because now I'd have to redo an entire section and there would be a high possibility that lines would show and then I'd have to redo an even larger section. I think I might have said a few dozen swear words. I then noticed the bee flapping it's wings and trying to lift off but of course that wasn't going to happen. The white paint was now on both wings and they were not moving anymore. It was a a quiet moment for both the bee and me. All sounds seemed to disappear and everything became very very still.

I remember looking at the situation and then saying the following words......"I can't believe you fucked up my paint job."

THIS IS THE EXACT MOMENT THAT THINGS GOT.......SHALL WE SAY........DIFFERENT.

In my left ear, but not outside of my ear, I heard a small voice say.......

"You think I want to be stuck in your paint."

I looked around quickly thinking someone had come onboard but of course I was standing quite alone....except for a small creature lying in the middle of some high gloss white paint.

I looked at the bee and started to laugh, thinking of course that flashbacks were a rumored effect of certain chemical experiences, and although I had yet to have a flashback in 1972 ( I was still participating in actualities at the time) I was pretty sure that's what this was.

Please note that I was working and had not indulged anything Learyish for a few weeks.

As I laughed a little harder I once again heard that same little voice in my left ear......

"I would appreciate a little hand here and please be very careful when you lift me out.....just grab one wing very gently and toss me onto a dry spot."

I stopped laughing!

I slowly sat down on the teak deck and was pretty sure the next thing would be a self induced coma followed by a nice small funeral.....but the only thing that happened was one more left ear sound experience.....

"Hey, I need your help now. I can't breath in this stuff......hurry."

Forgetting that perhaps I was having a nervous breakdown, I jumped up and reached over and gently picked the bee out of the paint and tossed it on the deck.

(I DO REALIZE THAT TELLING THIS STORY IN DETAIL MIGHT HAVE SOME EFFECT ON HOW PEOPLE PERCEIVE NEO-ILLUMINATION BUT SINCE THE BOOK HAS NOT YET BEEN PUBLISHED IT MAKES NO DIFFERENCE TO ME. IN FACT THIS ALL SEEMS TO TIE IN RATHER NICELY WHEN ONE CONSIDERS THE MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE)

PLEASE KEEP IN MIND

"THE MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE FAR OUT NUMBER THE KNOWN REALITIES"

I sat back down on the deck about five feet from the bee and noticed immediately that it was working feverishly with it's legs to try and remove the paint from it's wings. I watched for about a minute and then realized that I still had to repair the bees original landing spot. I jumped up and grabbed my brush and started feathering the area. I think I was able to fix the spot but it's been 38 years and that part of the story simply doesn't matter compared to the rest of the story. (Do you think the Paul Harvey estate owns that line?)

I do remember continuing to work on other parts of the boat that day and occasionally would walk by the bee and notice that it was still trying to remove the paint. Its little legs were really moving fast.

At the end of the day I put everything away and as I was walking on the pier to leave, I looked back one more time and saw it still working like only a bee knows how.

When doing independent contracting work on a boat one usually hopes to get two or three weeks out of any single job. Exterior boat work never stops and once you get to one end of boat with painting and varnishing it's usually time to start back at the other end. Owners with lots of scratch have permanent workers on their boats while some owners only pay for occasional labor and that's what I was doing in the summer of 1972.

The next day I got to the boat about 7:30 am. In my mind I still considered the previous day to be some strange hallucination brought on by certain experiences started in the summer of 1969.

As I walked down the pier to board the boat I glanced over and immediately noticed the bee still working his little legs like a blur. I boarded the yacht and walked over to the area where the bee was laying, which happened to be the same spot where he landed after I picked him out of the paint, and got down on one knee and examined his situation. Tiny white flakes of paint were laying next to him and one of his wings was almost back to normal. I went to get some paint remover to clean the deck and when I came back the bee had rolled a few feet away.

As I bent down to clean the white paint off of the deck with my paint thinner soaked rag I heard the same little voice in my ear......

IT IMPORTANT THAT YOU UNDERSTAND THAT THE SOUND WASN'T COMING FROM OUTSIDE MY EAR....IT SEEMED TO BE ORIGINATING FROM INSIDE MY EAR....CLOSER TO MY BRAIN THAT MY EAR DRUM......

OBVIOUSLY HARD TO EXPLAIN SINCE IT'S THE ONLY THING LIKE THIS I'VE EVER HEARD....UNTIL FEBRUARY 5 1994 WHEN SEAN TOLD ME TO HAVE A PARTY AT SEAMUS'S HOUSE AND HAVE SEAMUS PLAY THE PIANO....but of course that's really another story.

'Don't get that stuff near me......it's dangerous."

I looked down at the bee and at the same time tossed the rag off the boat and onto the pier.

I decided that if I was going to be hallucinating that perhaps it would be a good idea to participate in the hallucination as an active player....so I bend down and said, "Are you really talking to me?" in a little louder voice than I would normally speak.

"It's not the same as talking and have you seen the size of my ears.....you don't have to raise your voice....and in fact you can talk in a soft whisper and I'll still hear you.

What do you mean, it's not the same as talking? I'm talking, aren't I? What are you doing?

"I'm communicating"

Can I communicate the same way?

"You might get lucky from time to time, but I doubt it."

I'm little nervous that I'm actually having a conversation with a bee."

I'm a little nervous that I won't be able to get all this stuff off my wings."

Why did you land in the paint?

"I thought it was another bee and was just landing next to him."

The reflection of the high gloss paint!

"Sometimes we smack into glass if we aren't paying attention. This is the first time I have seen stuff called.....paint."

Do bees communicate with people on a regular basis?

"We have our ways and from time to time we make ourselves understood."

Why do you sting people?

"It's not something we do on purpose. It's usually a reaction to an aggressive moment. Remember our ears are very small and vibration is the key to most things in the universe.

When someone sees a bee at a picnic and screams 'WATCH OUT IT'S A BEE' the vibration hits our ears and spins us around and we sting.....and then of course after we sting.....we limp away and find a place to fall asleep.....forever.

Of course at lot of stings are pure accidents caused by someone stepping on us while we are working, or swinging at us while we are flying too close. We don't have an intrinsic fear of humans so we aren't programmed to be looking for trouble. We have been known to sacrifice some soldiers when a bear moves close to one of our hives. A major part of our destiny is to create food for human beings, and those bears are really big bully's and they eat way more than they should."

I don't see too many bears anymore.

"All part of the bigger plan."

The bigger plan?

"The expansion of the things that matter."

At that point I had to stop and take a deep breath and I stood up and realized that I had to get back to work. I looked down at the bee and it was still frantically working to remove the paint from it's other wing.

"I'll probably still be here when you get back."

END OF PART ONE

I'VE DECIDED TO TELL THIS STORY IN TWO PARTS BECAUSE YOU NEED TIME TO DIGEST THE CONTENT.

TO BE CONTINUED TOMORROW..........................

Michael Timothy McAlevey