Paradise Lost

If you live in a country ruled by a dicktator, I feel sorry for you. Heartfelt sorrow. 

Because I am sure your life is miserable. You have no one to protect you and look after your best interests as a human being. Your beloved dicktator is most likely doing everything in his power to destroy your life financially, health-wise, security-wise and every other way he can.

Because he doesn't even recognize your existence.

He did before he was elected because he needed you. Needed you to believe his lies, to believe he would protect you and improve your life so he could win the election. He won. Now he doesn't care if you live or die. In fact in some cases, probably a lot of cases, he wants you to die.

And if that dicktator is a cold-hearted, vicious, greedy and stupid man who cares nothing about the citizens of "his" country, you must be really hurting. A dicktator who feels it is perfectly OK to kill citizens who disagree with him. And then perfectly OK to lie about those murders in an attempt to turn it around and blame the victim.

It must be awful for you.

I am lucky. I live in the United States of America. A country conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

A Democracy. We have free speech. We can say what we want and be whoever we want to be. We have a Constitution to protect us, and laws, and a legal system, an ethical Supreme Court to interpret those laws with wisdom and compassion in a non-partisan way. We have principled elected representatives who think about nothing else but our welfare.

We are safe from exploitation and manipulation and violence. All of our citizens love and support each other because they understand that we are all in the same boat.

The people who live in this country are well educated and actively engaged in our political system. So they make wise choices at election time, which is what protects us from dicktator-wannabes. Serpents are not welcome here.

I am grateful.

The United States is truly a Garden of Eden.

Bob Weir (Requiescat in Pace)

Lately when I hear about the death of a musician from my generation, that announcement is followed by "leaving ____ as the only surviving original member" of the band.

I am sick of reading those words, but that is where I am in life.

You get to a certain point in your life where you can palpably feel your generation quietly slipping away.

In 20 or 30 years my generation will exist only as a memory.

Luckily for me and many others, the people who affected me the most were musicians, authors, and actors. Creative people who I can enjoy until the day I die.

And that's exactly what I'm gonna do.

Here's hoping

Working pretty hard. "I got blisters on my fingers!!!!"

I am digging through shit two feet deep to get to my soul.

Here's why.

"The soul does not love. It is love itself.

It does not exist. It is existence itself.

It does not know. It is knowledge itself."

From How To Know God, by Deepak Chopra

If I ever come face to face with my soul, my transformation will be complete. You probably won't recognize me right away.

But you might respect me a little more.

When Asylums Were in Vogue

Todd stumbled out of his decrepit house, down the rotting stairs, tripped and fell face first into the snow.

He stood with fists clenched at his sides and screamed like the lunatics used to when asylums were in vogue. Then he picked up the gun he dropped and continued across the yard towards his truck.

His next door neighbor, Myrna, walked out onto her deck and called "Hey Todd, what's happening, man?"

Todd whirled and shot her in the face.

Then he started dancing in the snow, a madman's dance, jerking around like a drunken marionette. Shouting "I did it. I finally did it. They can't take it away from me. I got proof. They call me a loser but they're full of shit. I showed 'em today. I won. I'm a winner. A winner!"

Todd turned and headed back towards his house, slipping, sliding, and giggling like a child.

It was a very good day.

WW

 "What whiskey will not cure, there is no cure for."

Irish Proverb

This is an entirely reasonable proverb, spoken by a hearty civilization that has done the homework.

Let's face it - vodka drinkers are pretentious, sipping their cocktails with pinky finger raised. And they are sneaks - smuggling nips into work so they can drink on the job, on the premise the boss will smell nothing on their breath (I know - I've been doing it for decades, even though I'd much prefer to smuggle whiskey).

Tequila drinkers are insane. Tequila is liquid heroin. I love the stuff but I can't drink it because one drink leads to another until I am passed out on the floor with my pants around my ankles.

But whiskey drinkers, well, we are merely pursuing health. A cure for a cold, or the flu, or a bad marriage, or a shit-ass job, or a broken down car.

Yeah, baby - whiskey drinkers got, well, wisdom.

Go Ahead, Make Those Resolutions

 "Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account"

Oscar Wilde

Maybe, Just Maybe

Usually I slide ass down into the new year.

Kicking and screaming because I have accomplished nothing and expect to continue more of the same.

Birthday #72 is motivating me; Jackson is motivating me.....this/next year.

I believe I can get something done. Something to fatten my wallet and lessen my fears, something to bolster my ego, something to get me across the tipping point from depressed to happy.

Something to heal and release my soul to the world, which would be an explosion of enormous impact. My soul has never seen the light of day.

But really, we all got to get our shit together. The world becomes increasingly more depressing, dangerous, violent, vicious every second of every day, especially in this country.

All of these things are out of our control.

But we have family, we have friends. They are our security blanket. We got to cling to them, spend time with them, appreciate them for who they are - human beings who would never hurt us, people who defend us, people who love us. You cannot get that any other way or any other place.

My brain is being pried open through therapy and meditation and I am realizing that love for and from my family is powerful stuff. Life affirming. I am being swept into 2026 on a wave of gratitude for this amazing family, my family.

I am not asking that all people show a little love for each other. We are not evolved enough for that. In fact I believe we are regressing, cultivating more anger, jealousy and hatred daily.

Fucking sucks. Humans are petty and stupid. Shortsighted. We are all in the same boat, those of us without financial independence, we all share the same burdens so we should all be brothers and sisters. But that has never been the way and never will be the way.

I'm just riffing here, layering my emotions, hopes and dreams on you, for what that's worth. My life certainly does not justify me giving advice. But I do think if people focus more on the bond of family in these sad and troubling times, maybe it can soften the jagged edges the world wields as weapons. Maybe it will soften the focus, or sharpen the perspective a bit.

You have to find a way to be happy or you might as well be dead.

I have no clue, really. I am not 100% convinced that I can pull this off.

But it feels good thinking that maybe I can.