Why does the
date Easter falls on
vary so much every year, falling in either March
and April? It’s because Easter
is always the first Sunday after Passover, and Passover
always falls on the
first full moon after the spring equinox.
Today
is the spring equinox. Wednesday is the full moon. This year, as only
happens occasionally,
the week lines up the same as it did in Biblical times, with
Passover on
Wednesday (or whatever they called the days of the week in those times).
Today
is also Palm Sunday, the same day that Jesus (against the wishes of his
followers who said the Sanhedrin, the Jewish leaders, would kill him if
he did)
went
into Jerusalem to celebrate the high days surrounding Passover.
He
rode on an ass and the people threw palm leaves on the road so the
donkey’s
feet didn’t touch the ground.
80
is the new 70. We know how to live longer now: lots of veggies, little
red
meat, Nancy’s
yogurt from the Springfield Creamery, bicycling (oops), naps and
cordyceps mushroom powders
from fungi.com.
Stay
fit
by
working
on
strength,
balance,
agility
and
endurance.
Stay
away
from
the four killer drugs: alcohol, tobacco, sugar and pork.
I
was born at a very early age and grew up being imprinted by all the
values of
the world
and thought the game was rigged but I was smart enough to beat it and
that lasted until the
Sixties when thanks to lsd and psylocibin and peyote
mushrooms which enabled me to trip
up and down the dna ladder. I realized past
and present and future were happening all at
once and we put it in a
chronological order to think we understand it but that’s a laugh, it’s
too big
and vast to understand, but we are blessed to have been given a glimpse
of the
underlying
truths that are important and try to live up to them and pass them
on to others.
So
I'm
awake
but
barely on my 2nd
cup of coffee and something in my head says put
some whiskey in it and I think
where in the world did that come from, is that some kind of
thing lurking inside
me and it pops up like those ads on the side of Facebook? I tell it to
shut
up
and go away just like I never read those ads.
Just
like
we
have dual
personalities, one which we think of as the real us, the kind,
competent
person; and the other is the role we play to impress the boss, we have
dual
voices in our heads,
the good decent righteous thoughts and the getting even
doing something different in our pasts;
just like the cartoons showing the
person with the devil on one shoulder and the guardian angel
on the other, both
imploring the person, do this do that.
Trick
is to make room for the good thoughts, don’t deal with the bad. As
Cassady
said,
“Went through life a balanced man at last.”
Kesey
said
the
most
important
currency is that of the spirit; be upbeat and of good cheer
no matter the
situation, you will come through it in fine shape, but be aware there
are also
spirits
at work looking down on us and wanting to get into the game on the
material plane and the only
way they can do it is to get into a person’s head
and be one of the voices, like the one telling me
to have a shot of whiskey in
my coffee.
I
see
them
as
malevolent spirits
and I’ve named their leader, Mal. There are also benevolent
spirits working on
us and they are led by Bene. The trick is to recognize which one is
working on
you,
tell Mal to take a hike and let Bene give us the goods.
So
the
battle
goes on,
not only in
the material world, but inside our heads. We only get one trip
on the material
world so we want to make the best of it. Realize we are not perfect
beings, we
are
going to fuckup but we can’t let the fuckup be a hangup. Someone asked
Kesey if he had any regrets
and he said, “Anyone who says he has no regrets is
either lying or an idiot.”
So
we
go
for success
in terms of completion
and getting our works out into the world, but we
never caught the golden ring
and as Kesey said, this was our saving grace – to always fail and
return
home
to our family and friends and community. We are rubes, but we are God’s
own
rubes, born to
be duped, striving for success, destined to fail as we romp
through life all in our places with smiles
on our faces what a wonderful way to
start each day, our feet on the ground our heads in the stars
our bellies in
the kitchen give us each day our daily bread.
Another
good
Keseyism
is
when he
said his best advice on marriage is, “Don’t say it,” speaking
of when you get
into it with your other half, for words once released cannot be sucked
back in.
One
time Paige Browning came over to Kesey’s when I was there. Paige was
all in
a dither. “I’ve finally
figured it out,” he said, “A woman’s job is to give men
shit.”
Kesey said, “Yeah, but it’s a man’s job to eat it.”
I added, “And the enlightened man likes the taste.”
Paige shook his head. “I’m not there yet.”
Paige
saved our asses one time. We read about the scientists in Holland
opening the
third eye
in a guy’s head by cutting a hole through his forehead, thereby
letting previously unknown thoughts
and revelations in. Kesey and I decided to
try it. We got out the electric drill, flipped to see who would
go first, Kesey
lay down on the table, I aimed in with drill and the power went off. We
were
surprised
but found out quick when Paige came in and said, “Did you think I was
going to let you dumb fucks
drill holes in your heads?” We didn’t go overboard
thanking him but were nevertheless relieved.
Neal
Cassady was the bridge between the Beat Generation and the Psychedelic
Revolution, a
foot in each one.
Kesey
and I fell in the crack between the Beats and the Hippies; too young
for one
and too old
for the other.
But
we were revolutionaries then and revolutionaries now. Under the
asphalt. Plant
the seed,
grow some weed.
We
work for the good, that’s understood, but we don’t seek protection and
we don’t
run for
election.
We’ll be what we’ll be and what we’ll be is be free.
When
Kesey was giving a talk one time some guy in the audience yelled, “What
ever
happened
to the revolution, Kesey?”
Kesey thought for a minute and then began to sing:
When you walk the streets you will have no cares
If you walk the lines and not the squares
As you go through life make this your goal
Watch the donut not the hole.
“This
is where the revolution’s at,” he said. “Where people in the know are
optimistic.
They sincerely believe the carrot is better than the stick, that
mercy comes before justice, and
that love is the only thing you can trust to
guide you down the mean mainstreets of moneymad America.”
Oct
27th, Eileen and I went to Portland and the hotel we stayed
at had
free bikes so we
went for a ride along the river on a concrete path. My handle
grip came off of my bike
and I fell ass over teacups and hurt myself bad:: my
elbow and my head and I haven't
been able to type or do anything since.
The
accident happened on Tuesday morning, We drove home. I went to my
doctor
Wednesday morning. He took x-rays, sent me to the orthopedic surgeon
who
decided to
operate the next day on Thursday, Oct 29.. He put a big plate in my
elbow, grafted in some
bone, put in 8 screws, cleaned out all the broken pieces
of bones and put my arm in a big
splint and I've been recovering very slowly.
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