Eastbound on the train: the Spirit of the Rockies

The river, flanked by highway, however sensitive the architect, pains me in the same way releasing an arrow into the heart of a delicate creature would. It is necessary, sophistication; destruction in order to feed the mass. With no emotion, cars, trucks, pointed east or west, drive in the rain leaving behind a mixture of water vapor and pollution.

It rains in the Rockies. On a train, the gentle jostling, two stories above the ground looking down as a bird in flight might. Every detail cataloged until the sum is seen, then the gaze grows as sheep graze pasture. Beauty abounds where any third of the the whole is nurtured.

These mountains and rivers, this land, known to me as mother but to many more, as Colorado, stretches on, steep the south, steep to the north. The names of these places or these people come and go like the rain on the window. My full view; my total attention is paid to nature and I know not one single word or name to call her by. I only call her "mother" for she bore such beauty as only the female of any gait, wing span or otherwise, could. Snow falls and I remember.

It was two years, on this same train even, rolling through the Rockies, I said good-bye to the mountains and deserts that had occupied my life for so long. I had grown, tethered to intention and held by passion in the fissures of mountains, climbing high above the themes that weigh down most in this culture. I traveled humbly in the canyons of the desert, learning solitude; silence. I was letting go, I was promising my love to another. I was to grow again as a sailor.

All of that was behind me. I travel east today with no ambition; I am complete, ready to grow again.

I see the footprint of sophistication expanding in its irrepressible absurdity: Tyvex covered plywood, bare concrete foundations; New houses closer together than poles on a horseshoe pit. In typical American "style", houses built in stark contrast with their surroundings. This is what it means to live in the Rockies; this is the rugged romance of life dying before my eyes.

These houses, strangely enough, remind me of my indian; the shred of my soul that remains man after my total disillusionment. I feel the mountains, even aboard the train. I feel the comfort of the cold, of the presents of the mountain goat and I feel the forests of the north west as the precipitation passes high above them bringing the snow to cover these peaks for another winter, as it has been for since the vastness of recent history. I feel the canyons, the vessels who carry the frozen ocean melt through one of the driest parts of our world, onward to home; to the sea from which it came. Even though I know sophistication has brought an end to that cycle, I still feel it; it is the the intention of mother and it is still. I feel a part of this world; this intention; these winds and rains and the snow; these creatures; these goats, more than I do among the sheep who graze on the browned grass of a culture holden to a prosperity, not of intention but of rejection of nature. I've graze with them until I choked. I spit it out and now everyone offers me some of theirs.

I am not ungrateful. Though I appreciate the efforts of many and the offers of community, I breathe better in the mountains. I feel better drinking the water from the stream.

Now the snow, pines and shrub stacked against the sky, fly high beyond where I can see from this window. I think how the people of these mountains moved down to the plains before winter came. The were led by the elders; by wisdom. The tradition was passed from father to son; from chief to warrior; from spirit to man. When the wisdom has been forgotten; when the elders advise the young to "sophisticate"; to shun nature in their prosperity. It is warrior spirit alone that rediscovers the path.

Without a boat, bicycle or much to speak of, I'm growing again, returning to the beginning, to begging again as a warrior in spirit, to travel the path away from sophistocation, far enough to find balance.

I turn to this pen as so many turn to the hand-held attention clinchers that sound and giggle in their pockets. I express not to another under social scrutiny, but to paper; a mirror of my thinking. The indian in me sings in this land. Even aboard this steel chariot a connection is made. Rhythem transcends. Rolling along the track, through the canyons and meadows of the rockies, which a harmonica; a voice, the rthym rises from deep. The song is simple and sounds true to the heart; the body that produces the sound- it is the song of the human, sung long ago but the people who lived under the sun, sanf in the rain and prepaired for winter. Thirds of the whole- one is enough in troubled times to show connection to intention. As seed grows to tree, and tree to fruit: mind body soul; thirds of the whole. I feel my nature calling out, the male beneath the fabric, the man dumbed with deodorant and fine grooming screaming a war cry.

My warrior spirit is not violent for the bloodshed yields to solution to the plight of a people. The violence is simply frustration in response to sophistication; it is natural, violence, but it is expressed as a tree in a city- coerced in its growing and groomed to fit the surroundings. I cry my war, I don't throw it through windows or shoot it into cities. I disagree with those who give in, who say there is no good in refraining from the way of sophisticated human economic pursuit. I accept my role as the one to be left behind; forgotten by the glamor of stupid animals. I will in the lest, know the taste of fresh water. And if I find a woman, if we have a child that child will know the taste of fresh water. That child will know the beauty of nature, not the blackness of strict desire.

Just as nature itself is no longer understood, my love as well is as a whisper in a city. I yield to the flow to show me. I give more space to the rest become whatever it will. The foundation is not worthy of redecoration; the walls are stained with the blood of innocent, the same walls upon which we hang our art. Senslessness prevails. We preceed on momentum alone; out-of-control.

Means to an End

Love

Hawai'i is far behind me. What I've gained is strength. The way ahead is further still, but I move now without hesitation.

These are jack fruits hanging over my head. Their about 50lbs each and the inspiration for the flavor of juciy fruit chewing gum.

It was high up in the coconut tree that I found my place in Hawai'i. Sometimes swinging in the breeze, others high and peaceful, seeing the jungle all around. Perhaps the best definition of "abundance", the coconut tree is perhaps the most useful tree in the world.

Strangely enough, the coconut tree is actually a grass. It provides water and food, both of which can sustain one for quite a while. The palms can be woven in to anything from a hat to a wall. The trunk is used to make drums.

Where the cocnut grows is a place that can be free from the system for the strength it takes top harvest and utilize the gifts the coconut tree provides is the same strenght it takes to be indipendent.

Solution: Root #1

commercialized egos must be put in check;sophistication must be exposed:

divisive/ destruction of true community.

This is the product of our culture.

Coorporations thrive off of dysfunctional communities; organized communities need nothing but the abundance of nature.

How to get there from here?

ralley around nature, the time is now.

andy's blue

aloft
thrown up like a hand full of change
coming down like a feather

adrift on a thought in the wind
the sun shines and the wind never stops
I found you once in the breeze
I followed you before I knew your name

I heard a song on the sidewalk
I let it go
now I sing it to the wind:
will I find you again

Return; continuing

I've traveled to many places

I've seen the most beautiful faces

and oh, did I fall in love

I've traveled far in automobiles

even farther on bicycle wheels

and I have smiled and laughed from the fissures of mountains

high, above it all

I got educated and held signs in the streets

but all along the wisdom was right here at my feet

Sun is shinning on me

I think I'll go see the garden

on my hands and knees

And on to the next, my Hawai'i is soon to be a memory. I sit scheming for my departure, a quick hop back to the contenent of North America.

The space I occupy in this world has continued to decrease. In addition to my person, I will be accompanied by a backpack and a guitar. No more shipments; boxes for things I can live without. Things.

I find comfort in company, security in solitude. The world in between is my destination. The first 35 years of my life have shown me the field of possibilities, my questioning mind is beginning to find satiation. It is the rock that brings ease. Though it has been two years since I have climbed, the lesson unfolds still. The world has been reviled, it is peace of mind that finds it as such- the mystery is in the name, the nameless is the transcendence.

I Return with confidence. In a conversation I recently had with "mainlanders" visiting this island in retreat, I was told I never say "I" in my line of commentary. A few weeks before I was asked "what is your point". My sadness has evolved. My strenght grows from within; it is not a product of "perscribed self-affirmation" or unbridled imagination. It is on behalf of those who cannot make it that I lament; that I must continue on with a lifestyle of biocentricity and expression of the cyclical nature of our physical world.

My mantra was taught to me by the wind and water in the mountains, desert and in the jungle through discipline and flow. Yoga is the word many equate to this, but the Westernized "Yoga" is not what I speak of. A thrid of the whole, the physical expression of yoga is a misunderstanding for it is the action of living that is the point. Let your Yoga transend the mat and infuse it with it all: energy in equals energy out; yoga. Now wash the dishes and find the ultimate in contentment. Sweep the floor and be a star in the sun. Shine as if it was everything.

Beyond belief is the sum of it all; energy. As a function, lies can only be belived. Therefore it is to you and leave belief, for the sun is simply a star, and I and simply in love with it all.

ALOHA, hasta, hola; not good-bye or hello but love where ever you go; where you are. ALOHA

Revival (revised)

The Blossoming of Wisdom

At times it can be difficult to see the promise of the heart, the root of the soul of a people. Today, as opposed to the day of Nov. 6 2006, the day the seed of Gandhi Flower was sown in me, the world as expressed by earthlings is more naked; we see clearer than ever the depth to which the insidious grasps of the greedy holds firm to the progression of the people. We see today, as well, the vibrance of wisdom, the resilience of the land and a collection of those who have stood up in obscurity and stand still for community. The only hero there will ever be, still, is in you.

No civilization is forever. Ours is clearly showing its age. We can make a choice: Hold on and sink, or let go and go from "civilized" to biocentric and grow again from the roots. Civilizations fall but people carry on. May you reach past material and grasp something real; something that grows in your hands! Something that shows you today, this culmination of unyielding irresponsible consumption, gross commercialism, commercial war, holistic pollution and the persistence of love be proof that anything is possible; that this day of unreasonable war will pass if we choose to move on in our lifestyle. Practice life, not the many abstractions.

Quit your job, sell your car and grow a garden in your backyard and anywhere you can sew a seed. Any things is possible. There is no great spirit "watching", no miracles, only those who are willing and of one mind who make the wonder happen. Time shows us, those distracted and stricken with belief have always underestimated the power of commitment; the boldness of people, they have even gone as far to persecute those with imagination; the fertile ground of what is. Simply observe the sun as it shines. See the light reflected and feel the warmth of color- its all energy; its all we are.

If there was a purpose, or meaning of life, it would be secondary to the nature. If there is an over arching condition that facilitates our departure from truth it is our ever increasing distance, in a holistic sense, from the natural world. Wherever you live, go outside and find it. Where you live, protect it and begin to nurture it. A dandelion growing in the cracks of the sidewalk; that weed is nutritious food with medicinal uses. Our living is sustained by the roots that grow in the soil. even below the concrete and asphalt nature waits. Exploit the cracks; get your hands dirty.

Eat good food, love as much as you can, and grow more of both with your hands!

&E

Happy Gas: The American Dream and Darfur

Whats the reason for every environmental disaster or the common practice of cultural pacification/genocide of native peoples? The Pursuit of Happiness, of course.

Add 'Empathy' the the list of extinction. It is out of hand! Too many people believe it is more important to "be happy" than to sacrifice. I'm not talking about "jesus christ", I'm talking about the excess; the waste. How important is the industry of Football in the age of awareness? Is Football freedom? Or is it merely the modern-day chains that prevent the minds of slaves from thinking too much about things? What about money? Can anyone understand the "service industry" and "slavery" is semantics.

Many confuse empathy for pessimism, or, anger. ITs not simply that the world is a sad place, it is that is gets sadder with every day that passes where affluent nations, the only ones that can, refuse to sacrifice their comfort and convenience for the betterment of the world community. War is a much easier way to keep poor people from revolting, and just look at how many jobs it creates!?

Empathy is indeed disappearing from the face of American Society. It is being replaced with an irrational drive to be "happy". Junkies on vacation. Junkies dancing all night. Junkies eating at the new restaurant and buying a pint of Ben and Jerry's anywhere, 24-hours a day 365 days a week.

I eat ice cream still, but its rare. When I do, I consciously acknowledge I am about to participate in gross indulgence. Do I enjoy the ice cream less? Yes, I do. It is called evolution, or, refinement of entertainment. I even will change my mind in the store now, and walk out without buying ice cream. I don;t worry about being happy, I don't worry at all. I walk true steps and feel deeply content at my commitment to "living simply so the other may simply live". I don't worry about over population, or use it as a n excuse rather, to perpetrate the thoughtless acts of indulgence that are the body of American Entertainment/life.

And yes, in both my own thinking and in fact, I am a better person than I was, at least from the perspective of the land and the life that lives. I feel much better everyday than the fleeting happiness a pint of Ben and Jerry's could bestow.

Evolve, people! Let go and grow.

for over a month now I have have been living off grid and eating local food, most of which I have gathered from the jungle of the island of Hawai'i. I have begun bread labor; climbing coconut trees for my local farm and helping to keep the jungle from taking over (weeding). In exchange I pick from the garden, all the green goodness I need to maintain a healthy life.

For me this is a "dream job". I live in a place most of the world calls paradise, and spend less for my entire needs than the average american spends on gas. I work hard, but have the majority of my time free to refine my life as it were my art. so true is the expression borne of freedom; only by fulfilling the responsibility of your living: food, shelter, excersize, community involvment; only by moving beyond the slave wage economy can one express truth. What is truth? Its whats in your heart.

"Live simple so others can simply live". "Be the change you wish to see in the word".

Someone who I respect asked me if I care too much; that "you can't save all the star fish washed ashore". The anology does not fit; we need not fight nature, but if it were a machine tossing star fish ashore we could unplug it. If I didn;t care as much as I do, and settled for a place in line with the american progression towards fascisim I would be "happy", but I would not be doing anything that nets change. We must all "care too much", so much to understand that today we must stop and return to reason.

We can't love if we don't respect. We can't love with we don't sacrifice. Though I live in paradise, I have left nearly everything behind and learn a new way of life at the age of 35. I care, not too much, but with everything that I am about my actions; the ripples they cause. There is no excuse for today other than greed.
IF you don't do it, it will never be done; change.

Love, good food and music.

back to life

letting go of convention; as an animal that needs to keep moving. Nothing is natural in the east coast; there is so much development and pollution that nature has been compressed into tiny sections and then damaged by air, water and light pollution. There is an essence to life that exists in the sum and when you wipe huge swaths of living energy or force it into submission that essence is lost. Just go to the zoo, you'll see it in the eyes of the animals on display. Then go to a city and spend the day walking around, you'll see it in the eyes of the animals there too.

'Subtlety' would be a defining characteristic of essence. The best tangible example I can give as to the subtle loss of essence in the loss of the night sky. If you've ever wondered where myths/religions came from, and if you were objective enough (free) in your thinking, you would at some point understand that myths come from our nature, both inherent and surrounding habitat. The reason there are so many different myths/religions is because we come form different places but we are all the same. If I don't make sense learn about Joseph Campbell, he put it like this: though [myths] are clothed in the motifs of a particular time and place, they draw nonetheless on universal, eternal themes.

If we take away the night sky, how would that effect the myths told since the dawn of time? How would it effect the imagination of a child if she was inspired, not by nature but by 'urbanized nature'? What if we take away the sacredness of rivers and mountains; if instead of believing there is magic (something unexplainable) in the wild places we choose to believe there is nothing magical about mountains or the wilderness. Or worse, that mountains and rivers and seas were "made for us" and we can do whatever we wish; they are OURS.

(the mountains of west Virginia are being leveled for coal; the most profound current, the gulf stream, which circles the entire Atlantic ocean is not a waterway for raw crude oil, the air is still being polluted without any sort of decrease ever since. Statistics will say whatever you want to hear. Use your eyes, nose and heart. All this pollution is a result of Our consumption:TV, 24-hour grocery/convience stores, new sushi restaurants, etc. We pay the greedy; we are the greedy).

When you can't see the night sky, and when you don't see the significances of having your nature erased before your eyes, you can't begin to understand what I'm talking about. So leave it to say, that when you loose your nature, you have lost. For instance, anthropogenic global warming is not a challenge, it is a consequence just like a heart attack. The damage is done. Change is no longer a choice but a consequence. In an evolutionairy sense, we enter into a period where our adaptation will be tested, or simply, the demise of a species.

'Back to life' is my direction. I'll die a fool rather than keep living in a zoo. I leave the Continental US to begin a journey in the west. Where? Well as adventures go, I won't know until I get there but my first stop is Hawai'i. I take to the sky and depart for a tropical island where I will live for a few months in the least.

This blog is over of a while.

Food Democracy Now; Michelle Obama: Distractions from the Issue

The words of Roscoe Bartlett, House of Representatives: "On July 30, 2009, H.R. 2749, the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009 was passed in the House by a recorded vote of 283 - 142. The problems in the Georgia peanut processing plant and the concerns with imported foods highlight the need for enhanced food safety laws [but] this bill missed the mark. Instead was aimed at the farming community. Specifically, there were concerns regarding the role of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulating farms which would not contribute to a safer food supply but would rather increase costs to farms and ultimately the American public. I was told that many of my concerns were addressed but since a final version of the bill was not available for serious review before the vote was called, I felt I could not support it".

Michelle Obama's call; "Its time to Make Healthy Food for all America's Children" is nobel. But farmer's know where healthy food comes from: seeds planted in nutrient rich soil. The issue has long since been ignored and America's farms have been neglected by US Government Agriculture Policy, if not targeted for extinction. Where we are today is defending the last of the soil-rich family farms from bills like HR 2749; the increased regulation on community farms.

We do need healthful food in schools and we do need to address childhood obesity, but we need to start with creating a system of agriculture to produce the food that once and for all places importance on the healthfulness of food not the profit it yeilds. One is growing, all on its own right now but in the lihgt of soon to pass legislation we can kiss it good-bye and see a future dominated by the Monsanto Movment. School lunches will work out just fine is we protect and encourage local, chemical free farming.

We can support the growing food movement by buying produce at farmer's markets and from Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). You should be aware however, at Farmer's Markets large food retailers, the ones that sell food to Safeway, Albertsons; National Grocery chains also sell at Farmer's Markets. Its important that everybody be aloud to participate in farmer's market but we need to know who is a farmer and who is a corporation.Capitalism is a means to get food to the table, not the other way around. There is areason people go to farmer's markets and not grocery stores.

Michelle Obama is creating the demand for healthful food while the legislators are increasing the costs. Its classic American Capitalism and no change at all. If we care about the food in our schools we'd look into the reason there is junk in cafeterias in the first place: Healthy Food is TOO EXPENSIVE and the system of Government has invested far more in war than our children's education (fact). New legislation will make healthful food even more expencive, if not gone entirly form the market.

I cry

to the promise of tomorrow

from lips of fools; heart true; love

I cry idiots idology and idealsits blindly sigh: Tomorrow will be better; I believe

I die a little bit, think on

intot he oblivous frame illuminated by the same light

a stamp upon the moment: it rots from within; today; tomorrow; for 200 more year, it rots

I lie to myself; I can make something of myself:

A musician

A mountain climber

A lover

A student

I am the manifestation of inspiration; love made and became me

I am not the dreamer

the dream is me

I am not the energy

the energy is me

I loose the percpetion of moon light

I see my present in the sun

I look so hard my eyes, they are ash

and my memories of one thing

"I" never was but a moment

I never became me only something imagined

we were but we never did see the other

it was one eye we had

it was the same picutre we saw

you looking at me

me looking at you

eternity and never was

one sum

On "Climate Change"

"Climate Change" is simply a symptom of the condition of irresponsible consumption. Those who would divert attention from consumption to the argument of the validity of Anthropogenic Global warming are simply contributing to the effort to distract you from the truth.

Conservation is not a far fetched approach to our nation's woes. Just a s cigarette smoker who accepts the habit as unhealthy must deal with the quitting challenge for a better health so too must the culture deal with it's addiction to material and instant gratification. This is manifested in our unquenchable thirst for supply limited/on-demand energy resources like coal and oil. To further express our addiction, we even incorporate these fuels in our proudest conservation effort: Recycling. To pin conservation efforts on fuel prices, such as with the nation/state/local recycling programs is unwise and a complete contradiction in conservation.

Art in Schools; Social Evolution

Though most wish to ignore the severity of the implications of suppressing art in schools, our aversion to reality, that to suppress art is to suppress ideas is no less detrimental to our children’s intellectual development than art-free schools themselves. Art is the refinement of self expression; it is the vehicle for taking a voice and turning it to a vision that captures a culture. Art is many things, from the obscure scribbles on alley walls, to the music of Gil Scott Heron; art as life, is.

It was Abraham Maslow who in his Hierarchy of Needs illustrated the prominence of self expression, or creativity, holding place at the pinnacle of social evolution along with morality, problems solving, lack of prejudice and acceptance of facts. His rationale, simple: Once the basic needs are met, safety achieved, family/love established and the self realized, we can then create art, and among other things, strive for harmony. What is seen as a school activity to a child, later in life develops into a free thinker as an adult. The continued attack upon art programs in school requires, in the least, a thoughtful look at the government's priorities and purpose behind the education of our children.

For as long as I can remember, parents, educators and members of the arts community have been defending the role of art in our schools. For over a decade the people of the country have made clear, that we value art in our schools. Yet, as a shepherd in the night must be vigilant in protecting the sheep from the wolves, we have yet to see the dawn in this indirect attack on the intellectual development of our children. Why?

If our public school system is governed by our elected officials, and our elected officials comprise the government that serves and protects us, why must we defend our children from the governments idea of education? We are taxed for public education are we not? Then why should the education we pay for not be to our standards? Why does our government not protect the refinement of self-expression; the blossoming of free-thinking among the youth of America?

It takes imagination to create art. It takes inspiration to surpass convention. Albert Einstein believed “the problems of today cannot be solved by the same thinking that created them”. When asked how he formulated such advanced theories he admitted, “I simply imagine something and then set out to prove it”.

Thought history there has been one reason to suppress art: to suppress ideas. Uncultivated creativity has profound implication on a child’s future. We must ask, what have we done to achieve harmony in this world; have we achieved a status that needs no more solutions? Have we perfected the human kingdom? I don;t believe we have no more need for imaginative adults, or children who find music to be their medium for relating to and sharing love? I wish this were simply an issue of whether or not to support new lights for the football stadium, but it is an issue about encouraging and supporting our children’s imagination. It is about the future of our country and the degree to which her people will think freely. Change takes a long time, and according to Maslow, our pyramid has been crumbling, piece by piece. We must understand the evolution of our society and see change for what it is: tiny deviations from the norm.

As a benefactor of a music education, and a adventure who climbed mountains following his imagination, I look behind me, to the class of my nieces age to see who is following. I am hopeful more now than ever for the confidence is gone. I listen to popular music and look at popular art and see little to do with the world we live in. The songs Marvin Gaye sang have yet to be heard it seems. We still can’t remember what Willie Nelson meant when he started Farm Aid. There are artists today holding on to the true inspiration, that love is the first mover and life is the vehicle to express it. We must support art, from top to bottom, from left to right. We must encourage our children to create, not from technique but from free creativeness.

It is not enough to vote for most political promises never breach the ether. To stand up for our children’s right to self expression, is the least we can do, for it is clear the educational system stands for something else.

We can organize our taxes and a quantify the protion used for education and put it into our communities ability to educate our children. We can pay teachers, house them; support those who provide our children with the most valuable thing: Education. We can make a discision to invest more into the future of our, the people's, country through true education of our children; tach about the attrocities our country committed and to this day finances; teach about the ways the native americans lived on this land 10x longer and left not a scratch; teach them money is simply a means and freedom is walking down the sidewalk not sitting in a car in traffic. We can, through organization make the educational system work, we must eliveate this responsibility from our government for it is clear, the incompitence with which it deals with the minds of tomorrows thinkers.

good car

I'll admit, I have a soft spot for rusted out, unservicable automobiles. Though its hard to get by without one, I still think the sooner we retire them all the quicker we'll have honest public transit and urban (re)design. Be the change, get a bicycle and suffer for the love.

Love, Good Food and Peace

A morning in Death Valley. The sun always reminds me of love.

picture poem

There, beside yourself
inspiration to grow from
don't think about it