10 days ago I accompanied Aimee and Kellen to a weekly drum circle that occurs on the beach in the town that I live in.  Kellen had been the previous few weeks, and I had been busy on Thursday’s since returning from my summer travels, so I was excited to finally get to experience it.  I won’t spend many words describing the drum circle, as it was a drum circle, and I feel like that is self-explanatory.  The drumming was great. The company was great. The weather was great. A great time was had.

While there, I met a chef who had just finished her second day of work at the nicest restaurant in my town.  It should be said that my town is small but saturated with people, and considering it’s size, it has many food establishments. Over 100 food establishments for a town of 30,000 in 6.5 square miles. That’s quite a bit, especially compared to the last small town I lived in which had around 15 food establishments for a town of 10,000 people. She had had a good second day, all things considered, no complaints.  She had been on the island for just over a month. She had been camping on the beaches of Oahu for most of the time she’d been here. She was a chef at the nicest restaurant in one of the nicest towns on the island and she was homeless.

Needless to say she’s been staying in my ample-sized house since that night, on some nights accompanied by her friend/travel-companion/co-chef as well.  Why did 1 minimalist man with 1 dog buy a 4 bedroom/2 bathroom house last September? Because if you have room, you will find things to fill it. If you have an aversion to ’stuff’ then you are left to fill it with little else but people.  A year ago I lived alone, 1 of 1 (and Maxine), in an attempt to distance myself from everyone and much of what I knew. Today I find myself 1 of 5 (and Maxine), full of great food and exhausted from good times and the energy of great people. I’ve got so much to give.

There is no after-life where I will be rewarded by good deeds in the here-and-now. There is no tax benefit to allowing dream-chasing transients to live with you under your roof. There is no call from a long-dead prophet that I feel the need to answer (or even consider). There is however the guilt of knowing that you didn’t do something when you could. There is that nagging voice that whispers to you in the middle of your sleepless nights that the terrible world in which you live could be so much less terrible if everyone put their words into action. There is the truth that you get what you put out. Be generous in ways you can, put out your heart, and you just might get one back.  If not, coconut curry risotto with sauteed tofu/eggplant/sweet potatoes/asparagus is a close second.

One Of Many Karma Meals

It’s sad (not in the way that I actually feel sad about this kind of thing anymore, but sad in the trendy ‘think about it for 2 seconds’ sad, but that’s what good old fashioned New York cynicism will do to a person) that we still live in a country that is sussing out issues like this (discrimination, genderism, sexism, jerkism, etc.).

I’m glad in the last two weeks we have been actively becoming the country we pride ourselves on being.  I don’t care how cool you say you are, it doesn’t change how cool you are.  I also don’t care how great a country you say this is, it doesn’t change how short it falls of greatness at times.

Here’s to one more step in the right direction.

Thanks Ashley.  And thank you The South (I rarely give you much credit).

I made a conscious decision when starting this site, not to turn it into a factory of regurgitating links/sites/videos found elsewhere on the Internet.  I’m a firm believer that if you don’t have anything unique/new/distinct to say then you shouldn’t say anything (in a public forum). However that being said, sharing things found elsewhere on the web is not a terrible idea, especially some of these less-obvious gems.  I have stock-piled these three videos for your enjoyment.

James Valley

James Valley is the mayor of Helena-West Helena, Arkansas.  The town is in a pretty poor state, so Mayor Valley implemented a curfew to keep the streets safer and protect the tax-paying citizens.  Sounds like a good guy just trying to do his best to clean up the town. As he states, the curfew is a ‘zero tolerance, they’re going to jail’ type of curfew. I like that, everyone knows the rules, swift justice for those who violate them.  The last seven seconds of the video though, Mayor Valley’s real sense of justice is revealed when he let’s us know that instead of putting the drug dealers and hustlers in jail, “we gonna pop them in the head.” I wonder how he became mayor?

Virtual Hooshmand

Margaret is an Executive Assistant for a Cisco Networks executive (Marthin DeBeer).  She doesn’t want to do her assisting in the office (or even the same state) as her boss so she telecommutes everyday on a plasma screen display that is located at her old desk. Her new name placard says Virtual Margaret, and her co-workers still love to gossip with her.  One even offers her some tea/coffee with 18 seconds remaining in the video.  We’ve had web cams since the Internet went public, so that’s really not a big breakthrough.  I think that Cisco may be hinting at some new technology coming down the pipe, where you’ll be able to teleport coffee/tea to your telecommuting co-workers.  Either that or Margaret works with idiots.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lv0smG7ptcM[/youtube]

Dennis Kucinich

I’ll end on a positive note.  Where to start, where to start.  Clearly the best speech of the convention, and I’m sure most of you missed it the first time around. If Kucinich wasn’t so quirky, he’d actually get votes in primaries and maybe be an excellent President (how many other candidates carry a copy of the constitution in their pocket?)  From the “Are you ready for November” (“Let’s get ready to rumble”), to giving a shout-out to Stephanie, he owned this speech.  He stops using a teleprompter half-way through the speech, and begins to evoke the Hulkamania fever that swept over the nation in the 80’s. But the best part of the speech, is the woman at 4:30 who doesn’t know the color of the money in her purse.  That’s okay, she was mesmerized.  He finished strong, and it resonated with me.

Up with the rights of workers.  Up with wages. Up with fair trade. Up with creating millions of good paying jobs rebuilding our bridges, our water systems, our sewer systems, our ports. Up with creating millions of sustainable energy jobs to lower the cost of energy, lower carbon emissions, and protect the environment. Up with health care for all. Up with education for all. Up with home ownership. Up with guaranteed retirement benefits. Up with peace. Up with prosperity. Up with the Democratic Party. Up with Obama-Biden. Wake up America, wake up America, wake up America.

A man who clearly loves his country, countrymen and countrywomen. A man who clearly has his priorities in proper order.  A man after my own heart.

While signing the final purchase contract tonight I noticed the title of one of the sub-contracts:

Plain Language Addendum

It’s a two-page contract that states that the signer understands all the words used in the actual purchase contract.  A contract to confirm that you know all the words in the other contract.  Did I mention it was called the “Plain Language Addendum.”  I don’t know about you, but ‘addendum’ was like the thirtieth word in my vocabulary, right after ‘mom’, ‘dad’, ‘plain’ and ‘language.’ Wouldn’t the world be a better place if the plain language was used in the actual purchase contract?  Few less pompous words, few less pages to sign, few less jobs for some lawyers, but they can make things happen for themselves.

The more important thing is that the deal has been executed, and now there is the long and tedious 30-day process of inspections and titles and deeds and escrow and mortgage applications and all the really fun parts.  Yesterday I had record turn-out to the blog and many of you contacted me about the post but apparently don’t know how to use comments on a blog.  Most of the exchanges were congratulations, but a few (read: none) were about how you, the reader at home/work/school/Starbucks, could make things happen for yourself.  I can’t really answer that, but what I can do is impart some ancient wisdom that was passed on to me, today.

A few days ago I had the pleasure of catching up quickly with an old friend of mine who is Chinese over the phone.  I’m not sure if he would be comfortable with me toting his wisdom on the intertubes, so we will just call him C.W. (California Wok).  I let him know what I was getting for dinner (Orange Beef, G. T.’s Chicken), and he just did what he always does, listen carefully and repeat everything.  It’s funny, he always repeats what I say back to me, but when he says it, it just sounds different.  It sounds more authentic, more wise, and when I hear him say it, it all just makes more sense.  Sometimes, after reflecting on my words, he presents me with options in life I didn’t realize I had available to me (like white or brown).  In the end, it’s always short, but always satisfying.

Remember when you were little and your mom/dad/aunt/grandma used to write little letters on your napkin in your lunch box?  Well C.W. always sends little baked goods to me shortly after we talk and each of these baked goods contains a pearl of his ancient wisdom, and although this one was a day late for my post yesterday, I think it sums up how you can make things happen for yourself:

Pearl Of Wisdom

Now you know his ancient secrets, and mine.  Use it wisely, only for good, never for evil.  Never, never, never forget that there is free delivery within 4 miles for orders over $15.