Hey you

Hi.

Hey.

Hey you.

Hi.

.............

Good bye.

Transcendence

The Interstate Love Song said Nevermind to me this morning.  I thought a lot about life this weekend.  I only watch the time go by, but it's okay.  They are only here to entertain us, these thoughts, these perceptions, these views of the universe.  You bring me to my knees again.  I could beg but I don't want to.  I felt insecure my whole life - but now I'm leaving my burdens at the door.

These dreams I've been remembering lately - my brain's reaction to what I want, what I see, what I need.  Flight - my need to convince everyone that it's possible - realizing that not everyone was meant to fly - realizing that that's okay.  The abstract intersecting with the practical.  I told you I love you - then I told you I want to ravish you - I didn't know which one was true, or if they both were, or neither.  I made myself smile until the smile was real.  I made myself cry until the tears were real.  I made myself numb until the feeling didn't exist.  Serotonin - get some.  Dopamine - make some.

Goodness - what would happen if this wall came down?  Who would I be? What would this be like?  Life I mean - what would life be like if I didn't stop myself from living it.  You're right - I'm not okay with myself.  The question is - do I fix it, or accept myself however I am.  Tell yourself all you want that you are not constrained by the same things that constrain other people - that's a joke.  Some things are a constant.  Everything is Chaos, that's a constant.

If there's one thing you can count on - that you can bet your bottom dollar on - it's the ignorance of the American People.  Transcend.  That's not an original thought.  A lot of this is song lyrics that are either passing into my brain via a vibrating membrane connected to nerve endings or have so previously and are now surfacing and singing to me in some part of my brain.

The ends justify the means eh?  Does it only matter how society judges you? Does it only matter how the people you care about judge you?  Maybe sometimes it takes one act of greatness to make you great.  Maybe sometimes you can just fake it.  Most of the time your act of greatness will go unnoticed - does that make it any less valuable?  What makes an apple an apple?  Is it all a question of semantics?  What is justice anyway - right Plato?  Do you hold yourself only to your own judgement or do you hold yourself to the standards of society?  Trust me - God has no justice - all things being equal, everything is equal.  If God represents one thing, it's the ultimate in equality.  Justice from that perspective is meaningless.  So you give yourself a choice - judge yourself by the standards of society, judge yourself by the standards of your culture, judge yourself by the standards that you create from your own experiences, or don't judge yourself at all.  Find justice in there somewhere - in the cross section of the micro and the macro.

What is right for you? Once you figure that out - how do you use that in the context of the world around you?  Try your best to surround yourself with people who make it all better.  Be okay with yourself - be around people who are okay with you.  What is love?  (baby don't hurt me?)  My own happiness has never been good enough motivation for anything.  My own sadness and pain has never been good enough motivation to avoid something. Weather changes moods.  Nature is a whore.  He likes to sing along, but no one will ever know what it means.  I'm in bloom.  I don't know what it means.  I can't figure it out.  I've been trying my whole life.  I think your point is that it's time for me to stop trying to figure it out and just live.  Point my arrow in a direction instead of hoping that all the  tentacles that my brain has created will one day come back and make something that fits.  It probably would - right about the same time that I die. - - oops there it is, finally, now what - croak.  Thanks Obama. - - I knew I could work a meme in there somewhere.

In disguises no one knows lies the face, lies the snake.  Boiling heat...  Blackholes - that's where existence starts - where time and space are both meaningless.  Where everything becomes nothing - where time is gone for honest men.  Come here - rest in my brain - let me see what lies beyond that point - that point I feel my brain drifting toward.  Where infinity meets the edge of the universe and then keeps going.  To ascend we must die, we must see through the lies.  What lies?  The lies we tell ourselves.  That we are important to the universe.  That we are important at all.  That when we breach the barriers of the unknown that we will come out the other side and see the sun rather then just being recycled.  What is time - time is nothing - it's perspective - space is the same.  It's how we experience the universe.  How limited...  There is so much more to existence.  There are layers that we will never - never know.  Do we create? Do we observe? Do we really know - anything?  Are we just convinced?  What is life like when you're not convinced of anything?  What is life like when you're not even convinced of your own existence?  I have those answers.  You're reading it.  And understanding it - what does that say about you?

You have this thought - or feeling - that you are all alone.  There are things that you think about that you have convinced yourself that no one else could possible understand - you're wrong.  Everyone feels like that.  Most people have the same thoughts.  If you pay close enough attention - you will see it.  Especially in this world where connections are so easy.  I want to write the list - 1000 things you think no one else thinks.

Drifting into the abstract in terms of how I see myself - sometimes I think I can see right through myself - your world...Well - it doesn't really matter any more.  You were never really real to begin with - I just made you up to hurt myself.  Wow - this applies to me so much. - It worked.  There is no you there is only me.  Who?  This guy that I created to cover up the real me. Real...heh...  To cover up the me I really want to be - because I'm too afraid to be him.  It's okay - or at least I'm approaching okay - like I'm approaching the limits of the universe in my dreams.  We don't pass through doors and come out the other side - because the doors don't actually exist.  We created the doors to prove to ourselves that we can move from one place to another.  We don't...Movement is a dream.  We just - be - or to put it in a cultural context - there is no try.  Which - when you think about it - means there is no fail - epic or otherwise.

What's the best place to hide?  Time.  Why hide?  Why not hide?  Lost in obscurity - what's important to me may not be what's important to you.  What does that mean in the context of society?  Does that mean that we should only concern ourselves with what's important to ourselves?  Is that how societies are created?  A bunch of people walk into a room with concepts of what's important to them - influenced by what's important to the people around them - then create something that sounds like it's what should be important to everyone - then tell everyone that this is what's important to them.  Sounds about right - until it stops working for just about everyone - then what.  It used to be that we would go do something about it.  Now it seems like memes with cats on the internet have more influence on the world then talking face-to-face.  Proving that you can affect the world with a single sentence that a lot of people happen to agree with.  This proves the usefulness of twitter.  We never really did have long attention spans - it just seemed like we did because of what we remember as a culture.  What we remember is what's put into libraries.  Now what we remember is saved as a news feed in a database on  a server - and there's too much of it to remember it all.  We should write a program to take the collection of knowledge accumulated from these sources and write a book.  We could use a search algorithm to connect sentences together into something coherent.  I bet you that we have repeated ourselves a million times - and that the book would not be that long - but it would definitely have a chapter about cats.

flows

Like an infinite time warp I spend this life in an endless stream of thought. bubbles bursting across the river in a blaze of peanut butter and popcorn. there is no sense in the order of what you think is right and good. there is more sense in what you think is chaotic and meaningless.  you and me and all of us we try to bring order to that which we don't understand but its the kind of order that only makes sense to us. then we because we are all weak minded and foolish grasp on to whatever order flows the direction that most often intersects with our own.  top hats and cherry trees and people running around in naked photo shoots on cherry wood stair cases in apartment buildings converted from old homes backed by stained glass windows. please hide him from me. i don't want him to see me like this - she says...  i should have known - but it doesn't matter i was crippled as I am now.  i run into corners and cover my face in plain site for every one to see but not notice.  she did.  i don't like that she noticed my face - that she knows my name that she looks at me with those eyes.  that i think - that she is on my radar - that i can't help that among that millions she creeps into the ones that i latch onto.  there are days when the blackness would have been much simpler when the flows would be easier if they didn't come out like a thousand branches of a very complex tree that grows in and connects to every tree in the world and sees every branch that it connects to.  i know it's not really like that it just feels that way. every clear day in the world should generate cupcake colored clouds that pour liquid happiness into our brains like an opiate so that when we have the cloudy days we can always be happy when it's raining.  I love the rain. I love thunder.  I love when the condensation in the atmosphere becomes too heavy to maintain it's vaporous state, falls, and hits me in the face.  I walk in the rain without an umbrella...  I laugh at people who use umbrellas when it's only sprinkling.  Like water is the worst possible thing that could touch them - and they get wet anyway...  my jacket might not be made of bacon, but it keeps me looking nice enough. i guess.  I suppose I have image problems, but I don't think they are based on some kind of psychological issue. anthropology...  I'm not a good looking person. I take comfort in the fact that a lot of people are in the same boat.

A first at first

A week of firsts has left me feeling just a little more lonely than I was before.  Over-thinking, wishing, trying...rince; repeat.  My nerves are frayed; my hands are shaking; typing this seems impossible; I'm having serious trouble understanding why...

From all fronts my mind is torn when it comes to how I feel and what I should do. I honestly didn't know it was possible for me to feel this way. A big part of me thinks (knows) that any step I take other than "do nothing" will be a mistake.  I'm not keen on  putting people into awkward positions for the sake of getting something off my chest.

My friends say that I couldn't possibly know he outcome of putting myself into these situations.  "What's the worst that could happen?": has been bounced around a lot the last couple weeks.  Also posit the situation where I get what I want...maybe too much of it...measure your happiness  vs the angst of possibly loosing a friendship that isn't even a real friendship.

I look into her eyes and feel the pointlessness of my endeavor.  "Prove me wrong," I think, "and I'll prove you wrong."

The first time I really considered being wholly honest with her.
The frist time I looked hard at someone for a long time.
The first time someone made me feel special.
The first phone number.
The first date, though that's not what it was.
The first time I didn't feel completely alone.
The first time someone made me feel really wanted.
The first time someone saw what I was really feeling.

It wasn't the first time I hid.
Not the first time I thought too much.
Not the first time I was confused about what I want.
Not the first time I made someone run away.
Not the first night I didn't sleep.
Not the first obsession.
Not the first time I felt like disappearing.
Not the first time I kept it all inside.
Not the first time I didn't act on my feelings.
Not the first weekend alone.
Not the first Monday running away for some time alone, wishing that someone was here to interrupt it.

This is how Alex would see you.

He sat by himself in the corner of the room away from the loud crowd that filled the old pub.  This was his normal routine on any given weekend evening.  He blocked himself away, hiding in one of the busiest and most social places you can be at this time.  He usually went unnoticed by the general populous of the bar; even to the regulars, which he was one of, he was a complete stranger.  Part of him liked it that way, but he admitted to himself that it was obvious he wanted some kind of human connection or he wouldn't come to a place like this.  He worked, as normal, on finishing his only beer of the evening.

When she walked through the door he couldn't help but notice her presence.  She looked quiet and unassuming, but not really approachable in his mind because he saw instantly the power behind her eyes.  She paused as she entered the room and looked around.  Her head shrank slightly into her shoulders as she measured the general attitude of the people in the room.  Alex noticed a few other men looking her way.  She also noticed the glances as they were much less subtle than Alex about when and where they were looking.  The awkward stares and obvious ogles made her feel uncomfortable; not only because they made her feel exposed, but because she was internally unused to this kind of attention.

She walked over to the bar and found a spot nearer to Alex than he would have liked considering the amount of looking he had been engaged in.  She smiled and spoke very clearly to the bartender; she ordered a Coke and shuffled into a seat near the corner end of the bar.  From his table just catty-corner from where she was sitting Alex could see her clearly.  She had a very pure and natural beauty.  Long dark brown, almost black, hair tucked into a bandanna that was tied back like a headband.  She was wearing a tee-shirt and very close fitting pants with some comfortable looking yet stylish shoes.  It was clear to Alex from her fatigued demeanor, the clothes she was wearing, and her purposeful attitude, that she had just gotten off work from one of the eateries near by.

She didn't have to try to look beautiful.  She has those unique qualities that make her appealing without all the pretense that comes with the dolling up our society expects of women.  One could measure the exactness of her figure in micrometers.  Her ears were perfectly round at the top and formed a drawn line to her jaw which curved at precise angles to her chin.  Her neck flowed smoothly to her clavicle which was just showing through the neck of her tee shirt.  Something about her face looked incredibly familiar.  Her features were symmetrical to the point that no noticeable flaws could be found in her form.  The curve of her nose and eyebrows gave the appearance of well placed brush strokes on a brand-new canvas.

Alex could see that the familiarity he felt came from her eyes.  Something about the way they were shaped, their size, the position of her irises when she looked at something, reminded him of something or someone that he couldn't quite place.  He realized when looking at her eyes that he would divulge himself to her if she asked; something he was extremely unaccustomed to doing.  As she smiled the brightness of her eyes stood out even more.  Alex felt himself mock a grin when he noticed a smile approach her lips.

She stood briefly to adjust herself and get comfortable in her seat.  As she stood Alex's eyes followed her long neck across her square shoulders and down the length of her arm to her delicate but well used hands.  This thought made Alex smile; someone who wasn't afraid to get her hands dirty.  As she turned to adjust her shirt back to its proper place she placed her profile exactly in Alex's view.  She arched her back slightly in a long awaited stretch.  Her back ellipsed to her backside which was unbelievably perfect on its own and incredibly hard not to notice because of its definition that kept with her general shape.  As she stretched her shirt raised slightly exposing enough of her abdomen for Alex to derive that she put at least some effort into her physical fitness.  He did his best not to speculate on her bra size, but the alluring proportions popped into his head before he could stop himself.

She sat as Alex took the last pull from his glass into mouth.  Satisfied that he had gone unseen, he stood  and draped his jacket across his arm and onto his back swinging it slightly to seamlessly breeze his other arm into its sleeve.  He kept her in the corner of his eye as he walked by; she never raised her eyes to meet his glance.  He approached and turned close enough that he could smell the sweet aura she let off, informing Alex's senses that she was a genetic match.  He shook it off knowing any advance would be met with skepticism and antipathy.  He finished circling the corner of the bar and walked to the door where he had seen her enter.  He glanced out the corner of his eye to see her finish a sip of her Coke, her other hand resting on the bar in front of her.  A brief sigh of relaxation passed over her that indicated this was the point at which she was done for the day.  Alex smiled and continued out the door into the darkness;  the thoughts of this stone beauty carving into his memory forever.

Place behavior

Individual behavior and dynamics are fun and interesing to analyze.  Something else that's really fun to do is sit and measure the dynamic and behavior of an entire group of people. When that group has something in common, like the love a particular place, the dynamic moves in a sort of syncopated dance that is really interesting to feel.

Think about music for a second.  Rhythm, melody, harmony, flow...  a place has these same things, especially when filled with the people who devote a part of themselves to that place.  The real interesting places are the ones that have a very dedicated following, like the place where I'm sitting tonight.  The people speaking to one another creates the melodic harmony that I'm talking about.  The room fills with the sweet flowing sounds of a hundred conversations and crescendos to a plateau of rolling sound.

Individual conversations tend to take on a really specifc rhythm.  This is something I've noticed while listening and talking in a couple of deep, long conversations.  We tend to match tempo with the other people in the conversation. It's subtle, but we all have a pattern built in to our speech.  The pattern depends on the words you use, the length of sentences, accent; every syllable has a place in the pattern which creates a rhythm. We alter our patterns based on who we're around, topics, etc. In the long run we all, in the conversation, will end up speaking in time with each other. Listen for it next time you are in a long conversation you'll never be able to unhear it.

Multiply that by 20 conversations in a small room.  They come and go like waves; they have accents, drop offs, brass and the quiet wood winds; each has a chorus adding to the whole with its own set of rules but ultimately they all fall into their place.

This is a good place. Sophistication mixed with boystrisness.   The hunt, the prowl, the lonely sole, the leaders, the belongers... some basic common interest brings us all together.  Something more interesting keeps everyone here.

Wow - Did I really just start my book?

The story of my birth isn't fantastic in any way.  I was born in a hospital in the middle of the night with doctors, nurses, and my father hovering about.  I realize at this point the effect that I've had on the world and what it could mean to the people who don't really know better.  The thought popped into my head that in the future those same people might wonder about my birth and then make up some ridiculous story.  I wanted to put it out there that my birth wasn't anything magnificent.  My mother and father were married, my mom and dad had a daughter before I was born, and I'm the youngest of my father's seven children.  I popped out; that's it.

I think though that people will find my childhood to have been quite interesting.  My very first memory is that of my father teaching me something.  "Don't mess with the new dog or it will bite you.  You're not fast enough to do that yet."  I watched as dad carried the kennel with the German Shepard/Timber-wolf mix pup in to the pantry.  Then I sat in the middle of the living room when he let the dog out of the cage and it ran circles around me. Then I watched dad grab her paw and pull away quickly when she started to bite.  Dad taught me this lesson because I thought what he was doing looked like a lot of fun, so I decided to give it a try.  When I told my mom this story she didn't believe me; because dad picked up Lobo from the airport just before I turned two.  It's funny because I remember understanding everything that was going on; something that adults tend to think very young children can't do.  I have flashes of memories after that, about our animals mostly. Opossum the three legged cat, Fluffy the miniature golden lab, her puppy "Puppy", and of course Akita Lobo.  I remember camping as a toddler and some of the important things that happened, like Puppy running off a cliff to what we were sure was his death 50 meters below, and him running back up a path a few moments later because he landed on a ledge after falling about 3 meters.  I remember finding out what a nettle is - the hard way.  I remember camping in the middle of a field, without a tent, with nothing between us and the stars but a doubled over army surplus sleeping bag.  Then I remember getting ready to go to school.

I learned some valuable lessons before this point in my life.  I knew what breasts looked like because of the poster of a naked black lady in my dad's study.  I knew that my sister was my worst enemy and my best friend.  I had a decent understanding of general language.  I knew and was pretty damn good at hide-and-seek.  I had a good concept of things like privacy and secrets.  What I didn't have were any kind of social skills.  My next most brilliant memory was walking up to the school for the very first time.  I balanced myself on the concrete ledge as my mother and I walked up to the doors.  I met Mrs. Romeral my kindergarten teacher, Mr. Stern the principal, and the school nurse.  Then I met my new classmates; Matt, Johnathan Caps, Courtney Romeral, and Cathy; my kindergarten crew at School 58 in Indianapolis Indiana.  I learned what city we lived in when Mrs. Romeral had us make up emergency contact sheets to take home.  That's also how I learned how to write numbers.

Kindergarten at that school was amazing.  We had exercise time every day where we learned how to do push ups, sit ups, and jump rope.  We had music lessons a couple times a week with a teacher who specialized in teaching young children about music and art.  We had art time every other day.  We had nap time every day; I was more intrigued by the way Mrs. Romeral held the books with one hand while she read to us then I was with the generic children's stories she was reading to bore us to sleep.  We watched PBS every day where Le' Var Burton and Big Bird taught me about thinking, reading, and being a good person.  I also learned that people can be vicious and mean and that I was willing to take any measure of abuse from people if it meant that I got to understand more about how they work.  From  the time I was 5 years old I was obsessed with people's motivations.

What happened when I was 5 was the basis for how I was to live and be the rest of my life.  One of the kids in the class asked me about this thing called "church" and wanted to know which one I went to.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Don't you believe in God?"
"What's that?"
"You're going to burn in Hell!  You're going to burn in Hell!"

I had no idea what this "Hell" thing was, but I sure knew I didn't like burning.  Burning was that thing that wood does when you put it in the fire pit where it turns into grey dust.  It was also that horrible thing that happens when you touch the red thing on the stove while Mommy's cooking. And where ever and whatever this "Hell" thing is, apparently it's where you go to burn because you don't know what "God" is and you don't go to this "Church" thing, and I didn't like it.  I also didn't like the way that kid was talking to me about it at all.

Dad was  home when I got back from school.  I remember this being a pretty rare thing and I really needed him to help me with this.

"Dad, what is God?"
"Hmm."  He walked to his bookshelf sort of nonchalantly and grabbed a book. He continued, "Here read this and figure it out for yourself."
I had interrupted him reading and listening to music, sitting in his black leather chair near the fire place. I sat in bewilderment looking at this monstrosity of a book he had just handed me; the biggest book I had ever seen.  I opened it and didn't understand anything; there were hand written notes along the sides of all the pages, with lines pointing to various passages.  I looked at him; surely with the look of a person completely lost and confused.  I played with the studs that decorated the front of his chair while he responded to my oblivious stare.
~Sigh, "Why are you asking, Alec?"
"Some kid told me I was going to burn in Hell because I don't know what God is."
~Deeper Sigh, "That's not how it works son, they don't know what they're talking about."
"Why'd he make fun of me and say I was going to burn?  And what is Hell?"
~Sigh, "They don't know any better, son, that's just what they've been told.  Don't worry about Hell, everything you need to understand it is in that book."

I just sat there on the floor in front of Dad's chair and thought for a long time while I listened to music and Dad read his book.  This God/Hell/Church thing must be pretty important if it has a book this big to go with it, and these notes, I guess Dad thought the book wasn't good enough so he wrote some more in it.  The next day I went back to school and told the kid that I forgive him for being mean to me, because he didn't know what he was talking about.