The Wisdoms of Wicker Robinson

McCarty Robinson, my twin brother and I were born at the Nevada County Hospital on Christmas Day in 1944. My mother, Amanda McCarty Robinson died from birthing complications. Wicker Robinson developed “The Wisdoms of Wicker Robinson” for us and our future generations.

“The Wisdoms” hint of buried treasure, and chronicle Wicker’s mystical experiences. I wonder sometimes about the possibility of reincarnation since Fred Wait and Wicker Robinson have historical links between their families.

McCarty married Bess Moore in 1964 and they have five children. McCarty followed Wicker's advice of commerce and became an importer of goods from the orient. He and his family reside in San Francisco. I married Fred Wait’s son, Stephen and we adopted three children and took to the life on the land.

“The Wisdoms” are a genuinely valued family manuscript and have been copied and passed on to all our children and now, to their children. The manuscript speaks for itself—it is a purely Emersonian philosophy. Wicker not only “talked the talk”, he “walked the walk”.

I leave the reader to his own thoughts regarding the value of Wicker’s manuscript.

Clementine Robinson Wait
Sierra Nevada Foothills, California

1. The Wisdoms of Wicker Robinson, my personal and private manuscript for use by my twin children and to future generations of Wicker Robinson. “The Wisdoms of Wicker Robinson” I hope, shall always be considered a private family document for the guidance of family members and take the place of guidance and counsel I was never able to deliver.
2. One thousand acres of unencumbered, undeveloped land located in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California.
3. Two million dollars in cash.

I require of you both to:
A. Read the “Wisdoms”
B. Walk the land
C. Only then, should you measure the cash.

Your births provided to me the purpose for developing the “Wisdoms”. You are right to expect an explanation for my absence from your lives both when you were children and adults. When your mother, Amanda McCarty Robinson, died during childbirth, your Aunt Polly Morrow McCarty begged me to send you both to her for your upbringing. Since the first McCartys lived in North Carolina about 1765, I felt that you both were going home.

However reluctant I was to lose you, I knew that you would be in the safest of hands. I decided that I should remain in the California gold country. For more than five years, I walked the northern California rivers and streams purchasing gold nuggets from the placer miners who panned for riches. My trusted friend, Fred Wait, stood guard on the ridges above the streams armed with a rifle in the event someone should attempt to rob me of my cash or gold. Like brothers, I always watched his back and Fred watched mine. We managed to purchase a sizable quantity of gold and make many friends. Fred Wait, my business partner and loyal friend for most of my life, had family in New Mexico. Fred’s grandfather, also named Fred Wait, was present during the Lincoln County Wars, a tale of cattle rustling and murder.

Fred’s grandfather is mentioned in at least one narration of the history of that famous episode. Traditional thinking is that “Billy the Kid”, whose name was William Bonny, was really a “McCarty” or at least affiliated with the McCarty family.

Charles Wicker, my half-brother, helped in the construction of the Elephant Butte Dam in New Mexico.

Charles married a McCarty girl from Missouri. During those years following your move eastward, I worked continuously for your welfare, regularly sending both money and messages. Not for one moment did I stop loving you and hoping you both would one day be with me.

I hope to supply you with the benefits of my experience and education during my travels. Since it is a matter of family consequences, and to your mutual benefit, it is necessary that this document remain confidential. My philosophy is unpopular in certain circles.

There are those who wish to control others and self-reliance is their worst enemy. However true “the Wisdoms” are, they represent a threat to some and you might become outcasts if your beliefs became known.

I am not a poet. My message, if anything, is simple and honest. I can only hope I haven’t delayed too long.

The world exists for the purpose of your education, experience and enjoyment. There are many who will tell you otherwise.

Life, in fact, is a great show! Carefully keep your feet planted firmly on the ground so you are not swept away by the theatrics of it all. As a world observer, something in you must remain stable. There must be a constant, steady line of reason between the watched and the watcher. Crossing the line from observer to participant must be a planned and orchestrated maneuver.

The entire world competes for your attention—and awaits your judgment. The world is never average—but it requires that you to recognize it. The worldly experiences of man are cumulative and should be shared and passed on to future generations. On the other hand, each person experiencing God for the first time in new and unique.

Oddly enough, your tolerance of others leads to your own freedom. Poverty too can lead to freedom—since you would have one less master.

I promise you that your spirit and your world are equals—inseparable companions—neither of you is master nor more enduring than the other.

Your thinking, planning and reflections require in most cases, physical action. Practical results are a common measure. Others will know you and understand you by the work that you do.

There is an even exchange between you and the world—a co-mingling of education and experience.

It is a fluid world that has a different face from every point of view—from a mountain top, a poor house, a prison, or a sickroom.

Our moods change the world. If you are in love or angry, interested or bored, the world responds to you; this is a strong hint I think, that matter is an illusion.

Poets and philosophers are fine examples of humankind. Poets can shrink and expand all creation to match their thoughts. The poet and the philosopher are as like as two peas. The poet reveals the truth of beauty and the philosopher reveals the beauty of truth.

There is no barrier between the ethics of man and the laws of God—they are the same. Religion and ethics are self-evident in action, science, poetry and religion.

Humankind, being co-residents in this world of beasts, is a keeper and caretaker of the planet.

“The universe stands as an apparition of God.”—Ralph Waldo Emerson. I can’t say it better. Trust me on this point: Now and then an event in your life will change everything. When and if such an event occurs, consider yourself blessed.

I was tramping the Colorado River on the Arizona side in the spring of 1932. Needing supplies, I stopped at the store in Kingman. An old Indian woman, bent and gray haired was waiting for someone. We stood on the store porch, not together, yet side-by-side. I noticed a dust devil marching along the valley. She must have been watching it too because suddenly the old woman turned to me with her hand outstretched.

“See this”? She showed me a hand gesture. “Do this when a whirlwind threatens you”.

About this time, her group walked out of the store and the old woman walked away with them down the dirt path. A few days later, I wished I had asked her name.

I was camped beside the Colorado about mid-day when a big devil was heading for my camp. Remembering the simple gesture, I approached the winds. My heart was thumping and I wondered if I wasn’t in over my head. About ten feet from the base of the devil, I raised my arm high and made the hand gesture. Time paused and so did that devil! The base of the devil lifted off the ground—1 foot—5 feet—then far above my head! Then it simply dissipated—fell apart—gone as though it had never existed!

I was relieved that I saved my campsite from destruction and amazed even more than I was relieved!

We search for the pure of heart. Attorneys are paid warriors. Does it seem to you that they all seek justice? Physicians are paid healers, yet do all physicians heal? If physicians and attorneys are in conflict with themselves, what then are we to think of the motives of ministers, manufacturers and politicians? Examine closely the motives of anyone with an eye on profits.

Trust the land when you can’t trust anything else.

If there were five hundred pounds of almost pure gold hidden underground near the source of Wolf Creek, it would be well placed, making no difference to man or beast. Understand though, treasure once known to man, turmoil brews. It is not wealth itself that causes trouble.

I prefer the simple life on the land. However, should either of you hanker for power and fame, it seems to me quite possible to control governments and populace through commerce. If the majority of citizens had jobs, it is unlikely they care who controls the government. Please keep this information highly secret—there are those who would consider your knowledge dangerous.

Stockholders, it seems to me, are easily influenced voters. Wars might be declared first in boardrooms, then in Congress if at all. Casualties of commerce wars would be in the form of lost jobs and employee benefits. There might be an assassination now and then for the betterment of profits or control of markets.

Do you think, in such a situation, anyone would care one jot if creative thinking and genius were stifled or controlled? You both are better judges than I of whether this constitutes a superior world.

If you work in large proportions you are protected from all those who are weaker. Working in small proportion allows you to work unnoticed and undisturbed. Work in a very large way or a very small way, but always work in a virtuous way.

It is not only fools who can’t keep money. Wealth requires careful management—that is true. However, there are many who decide that you owe them. Obvious wealth will make you a target of envy, jealously and greed. Take precautions.

Preferring freedom to wealth, I leave it to both of you to manage, defend and dole it out.

The world serves you in every way--the practical world of material goods and crops—it is the ground where we feast and work. For your eyes and heart, you will find the beauty of it all—the oceans, sky, and landscapes. Your spiritual nature—the world belongs to the most able and responds in equal measure to the energy spent in controlling it. The world feeds your intellect. Study the natural order of things.

My dearest McCarty and Clementine, I am a person of some estate. Does that imply that I am an unprincipled person? Are all who are poor noble and good? Does it seem to you that justice is doled out only in heaven?

In all your ventures there is a silent third party a silent and sure equalizer for us all. You will only have grief unless you are fair with everyone. Always give more than you take—leave something for the others.

Your acts are cumulative and they can be light or heavy on your soul. Pay a fair price for everything. Don’t borrow money or things. A person gains nothing by borrowing.

Don’t ask for favors. Don’t ask for things—free is the highest price of all!

Don’t touch things that are not yours. Repay any favors or borrowed items promptly.

Keep your promises—always. Your word is all you really own.

Don’t gossip or repeat tales. Don’t be petty minded. Tend to your business—you can’t mend the world so keep your part of it in order. Others know you by the company you keep.

Most people have an aversion to learning. Remarkable people love knowledge and seek education. Thank God if you meet someone now and then who surprises you in his or her remarkable behavior.

If you use your senses and not your heart, others will seem like objects for your use and manipulation.

In 1949, I was in a gambling hall on the outskirts of Las Vegas, Nevada playing a slot machine and paying a high price for free cigarettes and drinks. Beside me was an Indian man, young and strong looking, but not tall. He was winning in a big way and his coin tray was full of silver half-dollars.

He was quietly singing a tribal song. I struck up a conversation, asking him what it was that he was chanting.

“My grandfather was a medicine man. He taught me this chant to use when I needed money—but use it only in an emergency”. “Would you like to try it?”

I replied that I would be honored. He placed his palm on my machine and chanted for a moment. I slipped a coin into the slot, pulled the handle and my machine hit a $25 jackpot! I thanked him because it was a wonderful experience.

I should have given him the money. It’s likely the young man thought so too. I’m ashamed of myself for not thinking of it at the time. Fred, who was playing the machine on the other side of me, asked the young man to do the same on his machine. The Indian youth replied “no”.

It is not so hard to read people. If you know their profession or religion, you can pretty much know how they think and how they are going to behave. People don’t usually change their habits.

Beware of “do-gooders”—they’ll whittle away at your very soul in the name of righteousness.

Boredom is a self-imposed condition.

Young people are the hardest to predict and certainly the most fun to watch.

Personal happiness is a personal responsibility. It is not the responsibility of others to make you happy. Once we’re contented, we are obligated to share it in any manner possible.

Overall, I guess it’s best to choose friends and lovers who have interests common to your own.

New ventures are risky business. More than once, I chose partners who didn’t recognize this fact and I must have neglected to mention it. We were still friends afterward, but it was never the same.

Somewhere along the way I made a bargain with the earth that I would take care of it if the earth would take care of me—an even exchange, I thought. Often, I picked-up and disposed of trash and debris both mine and others. Every campsite, before I left it, I pinched a bit of coffee grounds or salt and sprinkled it on the ground as a gift to the earth. It’s a promise I intend to keep or die trying!(Clementine’s Note: In the fall, 1988, Wicker Robinson was found dead apparently from heart failure, along side of Highway 20 between Nevada City and Lone Grave. Beside him was a half-filled trash bag, presumably trash collected from beside the highway. We discovered several more filled trash bags neatly packed in the back of his old Ford pick-up at his campsite. He was 82 at the time of his death. Beginning in the higher country in the spring, he made the trek routinely every year for 22 years.)

End of the handwritten “Wisdoms of Wicker Robinson”

Copyright 2003, all rights reserved.

"The Wisdoms of Wicker Robinson" and "Wicker Robinson" are fictional personalities offered for entertainment purposes only relating to Ralph Waldo Emerson and other classical philosophies.

"Clementine" is a fictional character offered for entertainment purposes and is identified with matters of spirit. Both characters are created by D. "Dandi" Moore.