...it could be because I went Mad for the Gale and Refused to Come In, and now I can't whine as my body slams against the cliffs in the towering Big Sur surf that drove Kerouac over, bits of brain and kelp and bone matter roiling about me in pinkish sea-foam...
Or maybe I got a little too close to The Man this time, right before they blew him to flaming bits, DMT or Salvinorin A or maybe the multiple concussions I sustained as a lad cutting off all access to any decent pre-frontal lobe sense of self-preservation--
Or perhaps I was stabbed and robbed whilst in an opium/hashish stupor in a thatched hut deep in a misty Myanmar jungle, strange animal and human cries falling dead and muffled as if on snow--
Or maybe--and this is my favorite, I think-- I was ripped to death by bear, by just being stupid, camping yet again in an off-limits section of Cascadia, getting stoned while I tossed out a pad and my bag and another pad for the dog, careful to stay above the incoming tide and build a small fire downwind, then just forgetting and sleeping next to nearly a pound of smoked salmon...
The point is, the scenarios above describe arguably unsavory and untimely ways to die.
But I'll take any of them over being tortured to death or hunted for sport on another human's say-so.
4.16.2010
4.14.2010
Just a Farmer in the Empire
Shit. Recently returned from a four-month gig that involved serious winter wilderness. I sit here hunched over the keyboard, hair down to my shoulders (with serious tow-head from high-altitude UV) and a full beard, neck and all, that I had to keep trimming away from my mouth. I feel like Jeremiah Johnson and shit.
The beard is gone; the hair goes today. I'm pretty sure I've experienced what the antihero of Camper Van Beethoven's "The Lottery" describes: People see me comin'/And they move to the other side of the road.
I used to wear suits all the time, and I hated it, but I will say this: People, particularly women, aren't spooked by the guy in the suit and tie.
Yeah. Another life. Funny, though, how I stopped grinding my teeth away as I slept, and I could ditch the SSRIs and my health has improved to where I'm running up goddamn mountains as I press in on 50.
On the downside, all of the early crops except peas and raspberries have basically failed. The weather took a nasty turn in March. So there's a lot of replanting to do. Living off the land is great, but you must be willing to accept a lot of factors out of your control.
Somehow, lack of control is much easier to handle when it's just the weather, even if humans are warming the planet.
A government that claims the right to detain anyone, anywhere, forever, and torture them to death, is a far more pressing danger. A government that spends trillions in a few weeks to save corrupt financiers, then bellyaches like a little bitch about Social Security, unemployment benefits, jobs programs, healthcare, or any other crumb, is a government that Does Not Serve Its People. Nomi Prins has an excellent bit that shows just how fucking much we could have done with the bailout cash. And that doesn't include the 3-6 illegal wars we are currently waging, nor the over 700 military bases scattered about the U.S.'s quickly fading empire.
From Nancy "no impeachment" Pelosi to the Prez and his filthy, corrupt swine-appointees, to the soon-to-be-fascist-majority Supreme Court. Oh, yeah, and the Republicans.
Anyone still believe that there's a dime's worth of difference between the parties?
There isn't. Nearly everyone not in the political class or among their corporate owners, from the students to the retirees, all races and creeds, are having the same corporate dildo rammed right up our ass.
The sooner we realize it and come together, the better.
But I'm not counting on it. I've more faith in the weather.
The beard is gone; the hair goes today. I'm pretty sure I've experienced what the antihero of Camper Van Beethoven's "The Lottery" describes: People see me comin'/And they move to the other side of the road.
I used to wear suits all the time, and I hated it, but I will say this: People, particularly women, aren't spooked by the guy in the suit and tie.
Yeah. Another life. Funny, though, how I stopped grinding my teeth away as I slept, and I could ditch the SSRIs and my health has improved to where I'm running up goddamn mountains as I press in on 50.
On the downside, all of the early crops except peas and raspberries have basically failed. The weather took a nasty turn in March. So there's a lot of replanting to do. Living off the land is great, but you must be willing to accept a lot of factors out of your control.
Somehow, lack of control is much easier to handle when it's just the weather, even if humans are warming the planet.
A government that claims the right to detain anyone, anywhere, forever, and torture them to death, is a far more pressing danger. A government that spends trillions in a few weeks to save corrupt financiers, then bellyaches like a little bitch about Social Security, unemployment benefits, jobs programs, healthcare, or any other crumb, is a government that Does Not Serve Its People. Nomi Prins has an excellent bit that shows just how fucking much we could have done with the bailout cash. And that doesn't include the 3-6 illegal wars we are currently waging, nor the over 700 military bases scattered about the U.S.'s quickly fading empire.
From Nancy "no impeachment" Pelosi to the Prez and his filthy, corrupt swine-appointees, to the soon-to-be-fascist-majority Supreme Court. Oh, yeah, and the Republicans.
Anyone still believe that there's a dime's worth of difference between the parties?
There isn't. Nearly everyone not in the political class or among their corporate owners, from the students to the retirees, all races and creeds, are having the same corporate dildo rammed right up our ass.
The sooner we realize it and come together, the better.
But I'm not counting on it. I've more faith in the weather.
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