I'd Give My Right Arm To Be Ambidextrous

The following was written on the back of a box of tea bags I bought years ago, so long ago I don't even remember why I was buying tea of all things. But anyway, it was written by a Doctor Stanley Frager. "A lesson in 'heart' is my 10-year-old daughter, Sarah, who was born with a muscle missing in her foot and wears a brace all the time. She came home one beautiful spring day to tell me she had competed in 'field day.' My mind raced as I tried to think of encouragement for my Sarah, things I could say to her about not letting this get her down--but before I could get a word out, she said, 'Daddy, I won two of the races!" I couldn't believe it! And then Sarah said, 'I had an advantage.' Ahh. I knew it. I thought she must have been given a head start . . . But again, before I could say anything, she said, 'Daddy, I didn't get a head start . . . my advantage was I had to try harder!' That's heart. That's my Sarah."

It's Friday, June 20. Summer officially starts today. I'm in "cool" downtown L.A., but over the hills in the Valley they're predicting 113-degrees. (No, that's not DEATH Valley, the San Fernando Valley.) Flooding along the Big Muddy. Wildfires all over the West. Melting ice caps and dead areas growing in the oceans. Food shortages and the prices getting higher. Yet folks still want to see cheaper gas so they can drive more again, and they'd like the economy to pick back up. (Ya gotta love it.) The planet will hit seven billion people in 2012--it took to the 1800s to reach ONE billion--yet religious leaders still forbid birth control, which I think is criminal, especially in those parts of the world where people are starving en masse, and prognosticators ignore all the limits we're reaching and continue growth predictions at the present rate way into the future. "By 2050, there will be twenty-seven billion people living in California . . ." I'd cry---if I could just stop laughing.

(It's now 9:05 p.m.) I heard on the radio news that ten police and teenagers were killed in Mexico City when police raided a nightclub looking for underage drinkers and a stampede broke out. Yikes.

Today I walked by a shoe-shine stand, and I saw dude's glance pass over my canvas footwear and pass on like I didn't exist. It got me thinking about all the different things going on all the time, how people have a choice of what they actually notice. Like if you're hungry walking down the street, a sexy body looking in a store window doesn't even hit your radar. If you're horny, then that smell of fresh bread baking as you walk by the sandwich shop has no effect. I've heard and it makes sense that your happiness is like 10% what actually happens to you, and the other 90% is how you handle the ten. Like there are people in jail or with serious health issues who are having a better time than some rich and famous folks. So even if we all fry for Wall Street, we can know our mood up until the end was our choice. (Does that help any?) (Oh well, I'm trying.)

You've heard about those seventeen teeny-bopper girls in New England making a pact to all get pregnant? Heh, I'll bet their parents wish they'd only been smoking weed. (Yeah, NOW.)

I got an e-mail today from a good friend up in the Bay Area about some kind of happening tomorrow at noon. Some kind of spiritual event like the Harmonica Virgins that was billed as a big deal some years back. Kind of like praying for Whirled Peas. I'm more into the Hundredth Monkey concept. If enough people decide to get along and live a sustainable standard of living that includes most people, we might stand a chance. Like's happening with smoking cigarettes. It's simply falling out of fashion. But if say Ronnie and Nancy had declared war on cigarettes and made them illegal, we'd have another black-market controlled substance creating more gang warfare, corruption, and disrespect for the law. Same with churches; making them illegal would make them stronger. Just give them enough rope and they'll do themselves in with their own inconsistencies. The social-gathering aspect can survive just fine without all the superstition and guilt. And I think the Internet is our shot. At no time in history could folks around the world connect and share their thoughts, let alone instantly and at little or no cost to do so. I know from twenty-two years of hitchhiking that most people have a basic common sense, and that by prevailing over the few greed and power junkies who've always run everything before, they will go the way of cigarette smoking in restaurants. Or we'll all die.

Call me crazy.