Diego Maradona's Goal of the Century.

Flawed Genius-Diego Maradona and The Year Of Broken Pathways

Look at any ranking of "Best Soccer Player of All Time" and Diego Maradona is number 1 or very close to it. Physically short and stocky, he nonetheless grew into a giant on the field. At his height he took Argentina to the very zenith of the soccer world, virtually singlehandedly. He has also scored, in the infamous 'handball goal' match against England, what is recognised as the best goal ever scored. He passed through the entire English side and the ball never touched his right foot.

But that is on the field. Off the field he strikes a tragic figure and today we'll turn to his 43rd. 'Year of Broken Pathways' to see just how tragic. Remember all the years of 'Broken Pathway':- 19,31, and now 43 are featured in this blog. In every case we look at life altering moments, somewhat outside of the individual's control, that took several years to resolve (in Diego's case until his next 'Year of Revolution' at 48). I did this analysis blind at the request of a fellow blogger, so remember just how powerful 'Life Cycles' is as a predictive tool. I don't really know much about soccer either.

Throughout his career he has been known for his drug abuse (particularly cocaine) and his romantic indiscretions, which he owned up to in his autobiography. Since retiring in 1997 he had gained a lot of weight, spent time in a Cuban rehab centre and continued with a reckless lifestyle. When he was 43 he came to his lowest point. On 18th April, 2004 he suffered a major heart attack, following a cocaine overdose and was admitted to intensive care in a Buenos Aries hospital. During the 12 days he was there he said:- "I saw death up close". His ex-wife said, that committing him for psychiatric care in a local hospital against his wishes in May, was the only way to save his life. Interestingly it was in the same year that he and Claudia Villafane divorced. Apparently he did not take this well either with Claudia saying:- " He doesn't want to acknowledge it, he still keeps wearing the wedding ring". She also said he couldn't cope with fame:- "He always said he had been taken to the top of the mountain, but once there nobody told him what to do".

So he certainly had an uphill battle from there. You can't get much lower. His own family took an injunction against him leaving the country. He even met the Argentine President to discuss it. What happened over the next couple of years? Well he went on to become good friends with his ex-wife and they travelled together to Napoli in 2005 for a series of homages. He also went on Argentine TV in 2007 to say that he had not touched drugs for 2 1/2 years. With alcohol it took longer however. In March, 2007 he was admitted to a hospital in Buenos Aries and treated for hepatitis, brought on by alcohol abuse. After this he vowed publicly to quit drinking.

Has this story of tough love and even tougher redemption got a good ending? Yes, I'm pleased to say it has and just before his 48th birthday, he learned of his upcoming confirmation as coach of Argentina. Yes this was to happen in his 48th 'Year of Revolution', just as retirement had marked his 36th 'Year of Revolution'. His most devoted fans call themselves "the Church of Maradona" (now 120,000 members). They rang in the year DD 48 (or After Diego) carrying a "goalary":- an over-sized rosary with 34 beads, which is the number of goals he scored for Argentina.

'Life Cycles' is the only theory where you get this analysis. Nowhere else! You don't see 'the hand of God' at work in that controversial goal, but you may choose to see it in the extraordinary predictive power of 'Life Cycles'. So, till we meet again:- "May the cycles always bring you good fortune".

Dumb And Dumber-Anthony Prince and the Year of Broken Pathways

It's a good thing we Australians have a droll sense of humour. Otherwise why would I choose to feature the first post about one of my fellow countrymen, who achieved international notoriety by carrying out (along with one accomplice) what was termed:-"possibly the most inept bank robbery of all time". The stunt earned Anthony Prince and Luke Carroll the names 'Dumb and Dumber'. They were both holidaying in the glamorous ski resort town of Vail, Colarado and came from solid loving middle class families.

The reason I feature the life of Anthony Prince is that he (along with Luke Carroll) were both 19 at the time of the robbery and were thus in their first adult year of 'Broken Pathways'. Anthony chose to speak out about his life in a national TV Show called 'Australian Story' and he left an excellent psychological profile of just what it means to feel somewhat 'out of control' and suddenly have your direction altered and have to slowly accommodate to the changes over the remaining years of the cycle till his next 'Year of Revolution' at age 24.

He couldn't tell it any better than if I had access to an in-depth interview and asked just what I wanted. This material is similar to the 'Wolf of Wall Street' biography because it is detailed, exact and describes 'Life Cycles' as if they knew about it. Remember I do all my work second hand.

Their own defence lawyer described this crime as "absurd". Carroll and Prince robbed the Weststar bank in Vail, a place where they were regular customers and well known to the tellers. Their Australian accents made easy picking even though they wore ski masks. They also wore name tags from the sports store they worked at. Their getaway was to board a chair lift about a quarter mile away and snow-board down the opposite side of the mountain and go home. They took photos with the cash in a McDonald's toilet and tried to buy one-way tickets to Mexico the next day. Told they couldn't, they opted for a round trip. The FBI already had mugshots, because they were arrested in January that year, for shooting out windows with a paintball gun. A police officer recognised them from the FBI flyer and their accents and arrested them as they tried to pass through airport security. More could be said about what they did with the money, including trying to flush $800 down the holding cell toilet, but I think by now you've got the picture.

Hollywood could not do better if they tried. What were they thinking? This was the brain snap to end all brain snaps. Now Anthony Prince was interviewed about all this. Just how did it happen? He tells how he was overawed by Vail:- "everywhere you look, flashy cars, money, houses....this was the Mecca". "We were two Aussie larrikins out for a good time....up early, in bed late, trying to get into clubs with fake ID's etc," They were amazed they could buy paintball guns in Walmart, so that's what they did.

Shooting out window panes with the guns got them arrested, but unfortunately it didn't slow them down. "We felt like we could get away with anything....and we were like how crazy would it be to take these BB guns into that bank and rob it? It was a small bank, two female employees, no security whatsoever. You'd be stupid not to try it".

"So it began as a joke and then just slowly, subconsciously moved into something which was real and we'd talked ourselves into it". This is exactly the sense of not being fully in control of events that marks the 'Year of Broken Pathways'. Not as dramatically for most of us as these two poor kids, but it does in so many different ways for everyone one of us. It did for John Lennon when he thought nothing of donating money to the Black Panther movement, and Robert the Bruce when he thought nothing of telling the Red Comyn he wasn't going to be the first King of Scotland in private. Events seem unreal at the moment they occur.

Now what was the outcome of Anthony Prince's life over the remaining years of that cycle? What uphill struggle did he continue to face? Well the first thing was getting used to the inside of a US maximum security prison. "I've been slashed with blades. I've been beat down, hit with padlocks.....it was a scary environment".

He cried openly at his trial and begged forgiveness of the teller he had pointed a gun at. He only got 4 1/2 years, not the possible 25. He thought that he had to make it up to the his long-suffering parents, so he got correspondence material through his mother to study at an Australian university.

He spent a lot of time with immigration detainees whose English was bad so he sat down and helped them write letters to their loved ones. "I had a bit of a knack for it so I became known as this.....the love letter writer in there". Then in the final year of the cycle, just before his 24th birthday, he was released and came home to Byron Bay, an idyllic holiday spot on the NSW coast. "Coming home was amazing. I wish everyone could feel what I felt. The first plate of bacon and eggs...."

Yes it took him all of the remaining years of the cycle to finish this modern morality tale, complete with forgiveness from Jessica Cole Gunther the bank teller. It wasn't until the end that she looked him up on Facebook and showed him her letter written years ago. "It really did blow me away" he said.

Keep with me because I'm asking you to tell me who I'll be featuring next. He has been billed as 'the world's greatest footballer'...and that is of the round ball game I don't know much about. OK you couldn't get Robert the Bruce and you've never heard of Anthony Prince, but this guy you know! So leave me a comment and tell me. Oh, and for the big prize I want to know which year I'm featuring and why? Till then, may the cycles always bring you good fortune.

Robert the Bruce's Year of Broken Pathways

Yes we're going to murky, murderous olde Scotland as I adapt this darkest of morality tales from the BBC series 'History of Scotland'. But of course I'm doing this in order to show again how the 'Year of Broken Pathways' works. Same as for Lennon, it will be the Bruce's 31st year from July 11th, 1305 to July 11th, 1306 we will be looking at. We are looking for fateful moments, that would have long term consequences and would take several years to resolve, at least until the next 'Revolution Year' (at age 36 - 1310/1311).

After the resignation of William Wallace in 1299, both Robert the Bruce and John Comyn (the Red Comyn) were made guardians of Scotland. It would be fair to say they really didn't like each other. A fight broke out in the same year at a council in Peebles and Comyn grabbed Bruce by the throat and almost killed him. It would be seven years till they met again.

In 1305 Bishop Lamberton had gone to the Pope to get a ruling that Scotland was independent and should have a King. At a meeting between the Bishop and Robert the Bruce, it was agreed he should take the crown, but the price for his silence was put at 10,000 pounds (a fantastic sum in those days). But the Bruce was not a prudent man. He organised a fateful meeting with the Red Comyn at Greyfriars Kirk in Dumfries, on Feb 10th, 1306. This was to discuss the future of the crown. Both had left their swords outside and met before the high altar. Robert would have told Comyn (in spite of his agreement to keep silent) that he is to be made King and this would not be taken well. Scholars will dispute what happened next. Did the Bruce always plan to murder him or did Comyn draw his dagger first? But for whatever reason a fight broke out and he stabbed Comyn, who was practically dead as a result. After the Bruce had left he received news Comyn was not dead. He sent an aide back to finish him off.

His hot temper had really got him into trouble big time. He had committed murder in a church and faced ex-communication. He fled to Glasgow Cathedral, where his co-conspiritor Bishop Wishart absolved him of blood guilt, because he had no choice. They were all in this up to their necks. He then figured his best bet was to have himself crowned King and he fled to Scone and did this on March 25th, 1306. Could there have been anything more fateful than this sorry tale of hot temper and ambition gone wrong? His sworn enemy Edward 1st of England hunted him down and with little Scottish support, he was forced to retreat to Dunaverty, on the very tip of the Mull of Kintyre. Then he put to sea and disappeared. His wife and child were captured and taken to a convent. It would be eight years before he saw them again.

What happened next became the subject of myth, with Sir Walter Scott basing his character on the hero of the novel Ivanhoe and writing a poem about him being in a cave with a spider, called 'Lord of The Isles'. But what happened after this was that in Feb 1307, he went to South West Scotland with a few hundred Irish/Hebridians, to learn how to fight the English. He didn't want Wallace's early death. In April he surprised 1500 English troops and forced them to flee and in May using trenches and better tactics, he beat 3000 English troops at Louden Hill. Edward 1st then died and the Bruce had no major opposition in Scotland for the next three years.

Do you imagine that he went about a peaceful existence or negotiated with rival families? No, this hot-headed man had unfinished buisness with the Comyn's and the Bailiol's. He simply couldn't rest until he had got rid of every last vestige of opposition. He went on a terrible rampage through Scotland, laying waste to one castle after another, along with the people and then he burnt their fields. In short he was a bloodthirsty tyrant. Then he got ill with a nameless mysterious complaint, which no medicine or doctor could cure, so he went to the highlands. Just when others thought him dead, he recovered and continued the slaughter. Can you see how this period of years of struggle in its own very different way, parallels Lennon's dragged out fight against deportation, including the 18th month 'lost weekend'.

It would not be until 1309, that he had crushed resistence everywhere and then the Pope lifted his ban of ex-communication and King Robert called his first parliament. He was not yet a hero to his people however and it would take more years, until his victory at Bannockburn, for this to happen. Is it any wonder that in his later life he did so many public acts of charity and building works for the church. Just like McBeth, he had blood on his hands and a desperate need to absolve his conscience. In the end they actually called him Good King Robert, but that is another story and I'll have to tell it another day.

So I hear you say:- "All well and good, but that is in the grisly middle ages. It's got nothing to do with me." 'Life Cycles' would say otherwise, but it's way too soon to get you to agree. You see it's all about the fateful moment in the 'Year of Broken Pathways', that then has implications for quite a few years to follow of uphill struggle. I'll be back next month with a tale from my own Australia. A tale of two 19 year olds, who made world headlines in the US in the area of crime. Who were they and why do I tell just one of their stories? Any correct answer will be published and lauded. Till then may the cycles always bring you good fortune.

John Lennon's 'Year Of Broken Pathways'

Hello again! As promised we are going to examine the life of John Lennon in just one 'Year of Broken Pathways'. This was the year when he was 31 years old, which was from 9th October, 1971 to 9th October, 1972. We are going to be looking for major direction change, that included fateful events and being somewhat 'out of control'. Matters would also take several years to resolve. This is the essence of the 'Year of Broken Pathways' and if it's a famous life, then the events can often be well known. In Lennon's case they actually made a documentary about it. Did you happen to see "The US vs. John Lennon"? If you did then you know exactly where I'm going.

In Sept. 1971 Lennon and Yoko arrive in New York. As Yoko says:- "John was in love with New York". It was regarded at the time as the centre of the creative world. John did not care what people thought about him, as long as he could get on the front page with the word 'peace'. However the problems that ensued with the government began when they befriended the anti-war activists Jerry Rubin and Abby Hoffman. He and Yoko saw them as fellow artists, but of course they weren't. They in turn saw Lennon as someone whose public profile would enhance their own cause. He became a pawn in their game. Things heated up when he offered to donate money to Bobby Seale, who was Chairman of the Black Panther Party. As a former FBI agent said:- "if you become his friend like this, you become the enemy of every law enforcement official/cop in the country". The authorities were terrified of him, he had so much sway:- "he had some intellectual force unlike types like Mick Jagger and others".

He then went ahead and demonstrated this power. Lennon sang a newly written song "John Sinclair", at the "Free John Sinclair" concert before 20,000 people and three days later the State of Michigan released him. Sinclair was co-founder of the White Panther Party, a prominent activist and was serving ten years for drug related offences. Do you think any of this government paranoia was known to Lennon at the time? Surely not, because this was all great fun for a natural rebel like him. He liked to be provocative. However his pathway was about to be changed forever. How could he have known that in July of the following year, 18 to 21 year olds were going to get the vote and his influence could imperil the Nixon administration.

His activist buddies hatched a plan to follow the Republican Re-Election rallies around the country and the next day hold a rally to preach against them, with of course Lennon up on stage to help draw a crowd. This would culminate at the Republican Convention in San Diego. When news of this leaked out Lennon became a political target. He realised his phone was being tapped and he was followed in his car. He became worried and frightened. Yoko said they knew it would have been very dangerous to appear in the rallies and they backed out.

In Feb. 1972 Senator Storm Thurmond suggested to Nixon that:-" deportation would be a strategic counter-measure" against Lennon and soon after notice was served to him. Because they were afraid of a big show trial, they used a former drug conviction in UK as the reason. Lennon knew why they wanted him gone, but he wanted to embarrass them over the reason:- "other pop stars have the same conviction, but come and go as they please.....because they don't speak out". Of course he simply could have left but he said :- "I like the place, this is where I want to be".

He hired an immigration lawyer, who kept on getting his stay extended, in what became a very complex case. With Nixon's re-election Lennon was marginalised and the FBI closed their file on him. However Immigration kept the case going for another two years. Lennon said:-" It keeps the conservatives happy something is being done and it keeps the liberals happy that I haven't been thrown out". His life became 'on-hold' and this coincided with the well-known 18 month 'lost weekend' with May Pang, Harry Nilsson and others in Los Angeles.....but that is another story and I'll tell it to you another time.

Nixon resigned over Watergate and was replaced by Gerald Ford in August 1974. Ford had little interest in continuing the battle against Lennon and his deportation order was overturned in 1975,  at the same time as his 35th birthday and the birth of his son Sean. He called this the happiest day of his life.

This example meets every criteria of  the 'Year of Broken Pathways' and its consequences, which take almost all of the rest of his 12 year cycle to resolve. It's fateful, it's important and it's life changing. It's happened to me and it's happened to you. But heck, John Lennon was just one guy I hear you say. And you know what, you're right! One swallow does not a summer make. I'll be back next month with another great story from murky, murderous old Scotland. Until then :- "may the cycles always bring you good fortune".