california creation myth

Well it's alright, riding around in the breeze
Well it's alright, if you live the life you please
Well it's alright, doing the best you can
Well it's alright, as long as you lend a hand

You can sit around and wait for the phone to ring
Waiting for someone to tell you everything
Sit around and wonder what tomorrow will bring
Maybe a diamond ring




Well it's alright, even if they say you're wrong
Well it's alright, sometimes you gotta be strong
Well it's alright, As long as you got somewhere to lay
Well it's alright, everyday is just one day

Maybe somewhere down the road aways
You'll think of me, wonder where I am these days
Maybe somewhere down the road when somebody plays
Purple haze



Well it's alright, even when push comes to shove
Well it's alright, if you got someone to love
Well it's alright, everything'll work out fine
Well it's alright, we're going to the end of the line

Don't have to be ashamed of the car I drive
I'm just glad to be here, happy to be alive
And it don't matter, if you're by my side
I'm satisfied




Well it's alright, even if you're old and grey
Well it's alright, you still got something to say
Well it's alright, remember to live and let live
Well it's alright, the best you can do is forgive

Well it's alright, riding around in the breeze
Well it's alright, if you live the life you please
Well it's alright, even if the sun don't shine
Well it's alright, we're going to the end of the line

lyrics from End of the Line by the Traveling Wilburies

lost manuscript of new directions

The opus of my life is made of myriad movements, large and small, stretching forwards and backwards in time beyond any perceptible horizon. Most of the events that are remarkable in my heart I won't recognize until afterwards, looking backwards and seeing it all again for the first time. Some movements that ring particularly beautiful for me:

- getting a final sign off for occupancy on the house I built at Magic over four years
- a Valentines Day/welcome to Thai farmer's party in Berkeley in 2006, with an indescribably vegan chocolate cake (go Cara, kick your heels up :-)
- a canoe trip with an old friend in the Ontario wilderness
- running in the foothills of the Alps on a family vacation near the French Riviera
- watching the lives of the twin girls at Magic unfold
- my 29th birthday and subsequent New Year's activities - swimming in the ocean on New Year's Day
- running in the snow on a quiet, swirling snowy night in the Quebec countryside with a wonderful friend

Sometimes it's hard to see how they weave together, and indeed I wonder if I ever will. I can feel the patterns more than I can see them, I can taste them and smell them but can't spell them out. I feel like it's less of a direction in life than an expression of an underlying order that is bigger than my mortal mind can comprehend. I'm a cowboy taking a drink from the banks of the Snake River, knowing what water is like but seeing that the river is so much more.

What are your moments? Where are your signposts from the past? What might lie in your future?

parting the red sea with a 2x4

Standing on the threshold of 2007, I've got my hands in the warm pockets of my jeans and I'm looking up at the sky. Climate change is creeping in the front door steadily (72 degrees in Central Park today), wars rage on in sandy, far away places with real consequences, I'm idling and hanging out with good friends, and my heart is full of love for all the insanity that swirls around us. It's like a coriolis effect of positives and negatives, hope and despair, twisting together and spiraling all over this sphere of my mindscape, cirrus clouds of delight preceding thunderstorms of cathartic flash floods, moved back to clear skies and sweet smell of ozone in the starry clear sky the night after.

I'm helping a friend build a house again (alittlehouse.blogspot.com for pictures of it and yours truly) and enjoying the feeling of old buildings pass through my hands. Wood milled once and assembled a long time ago by past craftsmen gets rebirth through Matt and I as we cut it, plane it, assemble it, stain it, and admire our work at the end of cold short days. It's something I do love, creating small pieces of tangible structure and order from earth, metal, wood, and glass. Satisfaction is my sweet reward for resisting (never give up!) entropy if only for a little while as I sojourn on the earth.

2007 will be a time of coming together again, big changes, tectonic sonic booms of culture on the rocks, touching discoveries as we bravely walk in the undiscovered country, the silent magnitude of a swiftly tilting planet hurtling unimaginably and effortlessly around the sun. What will we do different for this little piece of paradise and time that we have undeservedly found ourselves in? How can we honor our good fortune to be alive, with friends, food, rest, hope, and choice? I'm aiming to be a photon for peace, love, and intrepid exploration, coming to a retina near you with a story to paint on the inside of your mind. Maybe with the right tools we can go Jackson Pollack on each other's worldviews, blow out some cobwebs and drizzle creative love from up high on the gigantic expectant canvas of our opened minds. Or perhaps we can make some popcorn with a little dill and salt on it, and snuggle in front of cold windows hoping for snow...