Tessie's Awe-Inspiring Vision of Max

Journal Entry
On or Around 02/02/2004
Time unknown

Tessie, our dear friend, phoned me and told me something incredible. She had been daydreaming in her room when Max appeared to her in a vision. She said she was awake when it happened, rather than simply seeing him in a dream.

Tessie said Max appeared to be young, perhaps about eighteen years of age. His hair was longer than usual and rather wavy. She told me he seemed euphoric, marching back and forth with what looked like a long pole that he would sometimes twirl and tap on the (seeming) ground as they talked. He wore a white shirt and a pair of blue shorts that looked perhaps like a uniform –clothing Max might wear for school sports like field hockey or soccer.

Before Tessie’s remarkable vision faded, she said that Max told her adamantly, and I quote:
Remember what the dormouse said,
‘FEED YOUR HEAD… FEED YOUR HEAD’

Max’s words have apparently been taken right from the song, “White Rabbit” (Slick, 1967). Note that Jefferson Airplane’s name was subsequently changed to Jefferson Starship.

The reader might wish to try and translate Max’s intended meaning. I decided to take a stab at it in my Post Script.

*****

Post Script

To my mind, when Max quoted Gracie Slick’s awesome phrase, “Feed your head,” he meant that while we are here, we ought to be reading, learning and expanding our minds. Of course, there is the drug culture innuendo and all the implications that can be derived from the “White Rabbit” lyrics. One could probably write a treatise on this song alone, not to mention Lewis Carroll’s wonderful work (Carroll, 1898).

*****

Not long after hearing Tessie’s account, just for fun I called Max’s brother, Mark. Did he happen to remember his school colors? “Why, they were dark blue and light blue,” he said. (Of course, Max’s colors were the same.) I then realized the blue shorts Tessie saw in her vision do not contradict Mark’s statement, and that the clothing appears to be part of a school uniform.

Another interesting note: out of the blue, I remembered that Max and Mark had each held the Wellington School record for Javelin Throw, Mark’s in earlier years. In fact, Max seldom hesitated to remind me he had topped his brother’s record around 1969 or ’70. Both brothers had learned how to throw spears from the proper source – the boys of Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe. They played games with the young Rhodesian lads when they were just tykes themselves. What better way to learn?

Could the long pole in Tessie’s vision that Max sported so proudly have been a javelin? I mean, an “intended javelin”, as in Max’s communication to Tessie?

Tessie knew about none of the above facts until I phoned her later. She sounded surprised and delighted to hear about Max’s javelin throwing record and his school colors. These details also tend to provide validation for her vision. Regardless, I believed Tessie’s account from the start. As a good friend, I knew she would have no reason to tell me a yarn, knowing how serious I am about the writing of my journal and the accurate recording of narratives.

Above all, isn’t it fantastic that Tessie received corroborating evidence for something as ethereal as a vision?

***

1. Slick, G. (1967). White Rabbit [Jefferson Airplane] On Surrealistic Pillow [Record]. Hollywood: RCA Victor. (1966)

2. Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, illustrated by John Tenniel, (London: MacMillan and Co., Ltd., New York: The MacMillan Company, 1898).