Monday, August 21, 2006

Memo to Self: SOLUTION FOR FRUSTRATION-OF-LOSING-CAR/HOUSE-KEY again

TRIP TO BEACH: Remember how good it feels to take shoes off,
walk on sand, sit on the grass, watch the freaks at the Venice skate park
feel the warm water rush up the shore and wrap around your toes
- listen to the drum circle beats surf merge sky fade and try to be quiet

Friday, August 18, 2006

Baby blue is back.

Blue mandy is back.

It's been awhile - a strange three months, but time to get back in the saddle, and as my dear cousin Jon Haidt aka the happiness expert and now proud father of a beautiful baby boy, would say: RIDE THAT ELEPHANT BOY, RIDE HIM!!!! Now the elephant i'm riding would have a monkey for a companion, but let's slow down.

For those of you who don't remember, cousin Jon wrote a wonderful book on how our consciousness is like an elephant, powered by those messy old emotions, and our head/reason is the rider along for the journey. Now, I'm no academic myself - yet - but my reason ain't no rider. IT'S A MOONNNKEEEEYYY.

No, seriously, a good friend described my head as a very special house of mirrors and once I go in, I sure ain't gonna ride out anytime soon.

Now, I wonder what our friend Jack Bauer would say about the whole consciousness/reason/mind/emotions/body split question. Of course, last time he left us, Jackky boy had more pressing things like getting his ass tortured by the Chinese.

Oh well, all I know fellow Monkeys is that life is very wet, very slippery. You can learn to surf like Blue Mandy has been. There may be days when you drive one hour to a special beach, go there specifically because it's a great beginner spot, the waves suck, you can't even improve on your last time out, the beauty against the Ventura mountains is overwhelming, you get stuck in traffic for two and a half hours on the ride back, which almost ruins the buzz, walk into your home, receive unexpected news and your life changes forever.

But Monkeys fall and elephants get up and Riders ride.