ATDDTA (8) By Way Of Summary (209-218)

[Keith]

Reef completes a transition stage of his journey, riding past  
towering dismembered gods in search of his towered father's corpse.  
The stage for this task is the wasteland of Jeshimon, a curious  
Purgatorio - where a Hellish Paradiso is ruled by a Lutheran parson  
offering up Lube jobs, and a Hellish Inferno is terrorized by Gov.  
Cheeta, always ready with lariat in search of a neck. After an  
Ascension to retrieve the corpse, Reef descends into Terra Hades, and  
journeys through McElmo's tablelands spread with more towers, fruit  
orchards, and deserted towns, pregnant with a mission as yet to be  
determined - a dynamite Elijah, blasting some unknown proclamation  
across the barren land. With one foot in the Polar North and one foot  
confined in the desert Southwest, his scripture speaks of the Ends of  
the Earth, and his gods above hokey pokey between the whisperings of  
Aztlan ghosts and the antics of the airship boys. Reconvening at the  
Lone Tree with the family Traverse, the body of Webb is laid to rest  
while his ghost continues its bustling. Reef returns to mother and  
child, ruminating about how to balance his role as family man with  
whatever role God tells him to adopt. The journey ahead is compassed  
about with so great a cloud of witnesses, but he struggles to lay  
aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset him, to  
run with patience the race that is set before him.

       I’m pressing on the upward way,
       New heights I’m gaining every day;
       Still praying as I’m onward bound,
       “Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.”

       Refrain:
             Lord, lift me up and let me stand,
             By faith, on Heaven’s tableland,
             A higher plane than I have found;
             Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.

       My heart has no desire to stay
       Where doubts arise and fears dismay;
       Though some may dwell where those abound,
       My prayer, my aim, is higher ground.

       I want to live above the world,
       Though Satan’s darts at me are hurled;
       For faith has caught the joyful sound,
       The song of saints on higher ground.

       I want to scale the utmost height
       And catch a gleam of glory bright;
       But still I’ll pray till heav’n I’ve found,
       “Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.”

And for now, we bid Reef farewell, and pick up with Lew and the True  
Worshippers on the other side of the pond..........