Happy Birthday Charlie Darwin

painting by Werner Horvath



Happy Birthday Charlie!



I love this guy. Yeah, I tend to think his ideas about evolution were at least leaning in the right direction, but it's not just that basic agreement that makes me like the guy. Look at all the shit that this guy stirred up. I mean if you want to talk about about a rebel, Charlie's your guy. Just a little book and a few lectures among Britain's intellectual elite and this fellow set people to arguing for decades (Feb 7 =200 years) and the fire is still going strong. Come on! Wouldn't you like to come up with a simple little thought that would create a bubbling pot of shit that would still be causing book burnings and really fun to watch school board meetings long after you've departed from this world?



The Pius vs. the Atheistic Scientist, ahh, now that's a match. Okay, I know it's not that simple to most people, but you've got to admit that a lot of people who have never read anything by Darwin, nor really understand his real position on evolution have very strong opinions on this. Actually, he has caused just the right amount frustration and animosity and chaos which let people on both sides get angry and vent in all kinds of ways, from ugly to comical, yet he hasn't sparked any wars that I know of. We can probably be thankful that he didn't claim any divinity 'cause that might have pushed it over in to the war zone. But, Charlie, I'd like to believe that somehow, somewhere you're smiling about the whole fuss.

Stairway to Heaven

Stairway to Heaven.

Ok, ok, maybe not sitting around all blissed out talking scriptures with JC and Big Daddy. Not even an oasis full of virgins waiting to service my every need, but, hey, it's heaven. These are the stairs at the beginning of a nice little loop trail just as you're approaching Cloud Croft, New Mexico. Stepping up each of these is a step toward heaven. Yeah, I know, I huff and I puff and I can feel my knees begin to burn. But, I'm alive. I'm smelling the pines, and listening to the birds. Zig zagging between tall pines and firs, I find myself walking off the trial to avoid the ice, vistas of White Sands and Cloud Croft present themselves as the trail winds around the mountain. Mountain meadows, covered in last week's snow lay beside stands of, now denuded, aspins as Kamala, Halalujah and I meander along the trail until the ice on the trail tells us to turn back.

It's a cool, crisp Saturday and we are the only ones on the trail. I used to watch a lot of sports on TV, but about 12 years ago I gave it up. I loved it, but I just got tired of watching and made a decision to stop being a spectator and get out in IT. It was a really good decision. Now, I'm not a fanatic about it. If we go over to someone's house and they are watching a game, I watch, I participate, I can still appreciate a good shot, a good play, a nice, bone crunching tackle. but, frankly, none of them can come anywhere near the feeling of a walk in the woods, or a ride on the bike, or a paddle across the lake in a canoe. It's the DOING, that make the difference. I have gone to High School sporting events, not for the thrill or the excitement, but because I knew the students playing in them. I got excited for them; yelled in support, felt great when they won and sad when they lost, but, I've got to tell you watching the most exciting sport doesn't even come close to "climbing that stairway to heaven". Nike had it right in their slogan, "Just do it" . And, here's a little secret, do it with a really good friend and it's like icing on the cake.

With hard economic times upon us I think the time is ripe to put this "retro" stove on the market. That's right, the Hobo Stove that you loved and used during the 1930s is poised to return to it's time of greatness. A 2 gallon can of beans or hominy, a drill, a can opener, and a pair of tin snips and we are set for production. I figure we could recruit an army of out of work bankers to go dumpster diving to find the tin cans. Since the tin is even lighter that it was in the 30's, even a dull drill will work. Snip the legs and bend the section between the legs in to make the support for the bottom, which, of course, is the cut out top. Drill a few holes in the bottom and the side; zip, zip and you have a finished product. At a couple of bucks apiece, we'll be millionaires in no time if times are going to be as bad as all the newspeople seem to think. How about it?
You in? I know that is so easy to make that you might think that people would just make their own, but, hey, 70% of the newly poor don't even know how to program the clock on their VCR. Most just resort to taping something over the flashing numbers. I tell you the market is going to be big.

The Ultimate

This James. He's from Australia. He's a cross country cyclist that came by a few days ago. He stayed the night with us before pushing on to Albuquerque. We had an enjoyable encounter and he has gone. You know there was a time when I thought that the Ultimate was some kind of blissed-out state (high) that one got when he or she was able to "give up" this life. (Ahh, my misunderstood Buddhism). I'm sure that most good Christians would call me an atheist. (I'm not) but I sure as hell can't see the Ultimate as sitting around and breaking bread with God and Jesus, talking about pious stuff. I'm sorry, but I can't even make myself believe, and I've certainly tried, in an anthropomorphic god. But what I do believe in is relationships. Whether they are brief encounters like James floating through our lives or like Kamala who profoundly and deeply effects my here and now. That delicious pressing together of two or more spirits, not possessing or capturing. but simply EXPERIENCING the suchness of other sparks of life in the currents of space. Those experiences of relationships, good or bad, (And, frankly, at the risk of being out of touch with my Zen nature, I have greatly preferred the good even though I realize those assholes in my life have added luster to all the others) brief or long, deep or superficial seem to me to have a greater value than any possession, or destination, or even my very soul .(should one actually exist along with Santa and the tooth fairy) I just want to thank all of you out there who have ever shared that touching of spirits with me and, by damn, I think we ought to do it again before it's too late.

Why is Kamala hiding?

Why is Kamala hiding?

She's hiding from work! After 8 months of retirement there is still that gnawing feeling that we are supposed to be at work. Even here, on this mid-week hike in the Franklins, when all of our friends are busy at work, there is that touch of guilt that we are playing hooky or something. The other day we were over in the Northeast, near Irvin High School, where we worked (and played) for many years and we both had the urge to check around and see if anyone had spotted us so we could duck if we had to. Added to that feeling that we are enjoying ourselves while others toil away are these comments by people we know.

"Where are you working now that you have retired?"

"Are you substituting?"

"That's great Kamala, now you can use your CPA background to do taxes at Tax Time."

Just what part of RETIREMENT do they not understand? I feel sure that these "naughty" feelings that we are getting away with something (not working) will eventually fade, but for the moment, we are keeping a low profile and relishing them.

Discovery: Dragon's egg

Hi guys, I thought I'd let you in on this discovery before I go public with it. On Christmas day this year we were exploring a huge, dry arroyo just east of Presidio Texas. And then, there it was, right in front of us, a strange object that looked like a rock inside a rock. We did not realize what it was at first, neither of us having seen anything like it before, but then, bang, an eureka moment, and we realized that we had discovered a dragon's egg. It was obviously shaped like an egg and as hard as it was, what could burst out of an egg like that? Yep, it has to be a dragon. So now we are just waiting for it to hatch and I'm sure that won't be long because the rock like, outer layer is already starting to peel. We've sit up a little area in the workshop with a heat lamp on the egg. I can hardly wait. I've always wanted a pet dragon. I wonder just how long it will take before it's big enough for me to ride and it can take me flying. I'm just not sure whether I should call the National Inquirer now or wait for the hatching. I'll keep you posted.

"Dreams are real while they last, what more can be said of life."

I had number of coaches through out my adolescence, and to a person they were all idealists. "You've got to believe that you can. If you believe, then you can". I mean most of them would have loved "The Secret" , as long as they could have seen the movie and not have had to read the book. "Just believe and all things come true." In some form or another most people are attracted to the idea that we can do things with our mind. "He's going to miss the field goal, miss the field goal, miss it, miss it, miss....", "I'm going to take my last few bucks and buy a lottery ticket."
Of course, if you don't win the game or you don't mentally block the other team's free throw then it's because you didn't believe enough. Today was a consequence of my unbelief. What was actually a pretty good day, fell short of a great day because I got a speck of (%$!!UCK##) in my eye. And being, rather weak in my spirituality lately, I was unable to "think" the damn thing away. It would have been depressing as all hell, it I wasn't able to compartmentalize my own philosophical approach. I was not a victim, but merely exist in a mechanistic material world that has all kinds of minuscule specks blowing around in the environment of which I'm just another part of and that speck and my eye met up. Actually this having different reality paradigms, often quite conflicting, seems to be the norm rather than the exception, like a Christian Fundamentalist who believes in dinosaurs, or that a woman could be a preacher. As a psychological gimmick it not only relieves a lot of stress, but lets the scientific fellow enjoy the ghost stories. It is only the fanatic that seems to be able to hold only one paradigm and give service to only it. But all in all, after all these years the real truth is probably that they all equal, and all are hollow. It's that some are a little more entertaining than others. Anyway, my eye feels better now just talking about it.

Kamala and I have finally completed our project of restoring the little pop-up trailer. Kamala has done a fantastic job of sewing the canvas. I mean great. Not having sewn very much in her life and to take the old canvas, cut a pattern from it and sew the heavy material together is just amazing. I have played more of a support role, you know, giving my opinion, making Kamala a cup of coffee, putting a microwave dinner on or telling her what a wonderful job she's doing. It's been a little tough, but fun at the same time and now it's ready to roll, so we are taking off for a couple of weeks. The list has been checked, the bike and the dog packed and we'll be rolling out tomorrow morning. Actually it's just a little test run around West Texas and eastern New Mexico as we have to be back in a couple of weeks, so Kamala can do her civic duty as a juror and then I have my own jury duty the first week of January. I've been thinking of committing some minor crime, not enough to go to jail, but just enough to get convicted of a felony so I won't have to do this jury crap. I'd rather dispense soup at the homeless shelter or give free condoms to hookers... ah, but that's another rant for another time.