Lost

A lady was lost
And asked me for directions.
I should have told her I was lost
And had no direction, but I didn't
A lady is lost but with new directions.

Leonard's Mountain

         
             I spend a lot of time indoors. I'm either working on the re-write to my book, or writing and recording songs. If I'm not doing that I'm learning songs to play around the campfire. All of it takes time and it doesn't help that I have attention deficit disorder. I hesitate to call it a disorder. It's more like a condition that allows me to focus on six things at a time for a few minutes.
             At day's end I'll look out the window and see the sun setting. That's my cue to get up and walk. I like to walk on trail that is on a steep hillside. When I get to the top of the hill there's a three-hundred and sixty degree view of the city. I can see downtown and the skyscrapers, Los Feliz and the observatory, and if I turn around there's a great view of the mountains. My eyes stop when they get to Mt. Baldy. That's Leonard's mountain I'll say to myself. Leonard's mountain is covered in snow right now and it looks mysterious and wise.
            When I see Leonard's mountain I'm reminded of what it means to be a great artist. Leonard did the work. He spent the time alone. He was constantly searching, seeking, wondering, and learning. I admire Leonard for that, but most of all I admire him for his humility. He seemed like a good person. 
             When I was a kid I'd look to Mt. Baldy after a storm to see if it had any snow on it, now I look to Mt. Baldy and say hello to Leonard. 

Count By Tens, Eat Mackerel

         
            I did five-hundred sit-ups and I barely felt a thing. I counted by tens. It's my new approach to exercise. Why count by ones when you can count by tens.
            Counting by ones is discouraging. It feels like a lot of work for little reward. Counting by tens, on the other hand, is way better. You can do fifty push-ups just like that.
            I discovered something else. Mackerel gets a bad rap. Maybe it's because of the saying Holy Mackerel, or cultural elements, who knows, but mackerel doesn't get the same respect as say, salmon. Even trout gets more respect than mackerel. I took a chance and bought a can of smoked mackerel to use in a sushi roll. I've been making sushi rolls at home, but I haven't used raw fish. It's an art form I'm still trying to perfect, but I'm working on it. It turns out smoked mackerel is delicious. It was just as good as the smoked trout I bought, and more bang for the buck. 
            It's like I said, the mackerel gets a bad rap. 

            
            

Cures For Road Rage

         
           I have a new strategy for driving. Rather than becoming aggravated by bad drivers, I'm trying to be more sympathetic. When someone's driving too fast and tailgating, I'll tell myself, oh they probably ate spicy chiles and need to find a bathroom before they shit themselves. And if someone is driving too slow I'll tell myself, they probably have a baby in the car, or a cake, or four large Cokes from In N Out in a flimsy cardboard holder. 
            If someone does something stupid like pull a left turn in front of me, I'll say, oh they probably just had brain surgery. And if a driver drives selfishly, my answer is, they're probably royalty.
            I'm having fun with my new game. It doesn't always work. I still lose my cool from time to time, but at least I can amuse myself. I'm easily amused.

The Quiet Revolution

         
           How do the rich and powerful influence governments? Answer: money. A lot of money? Not really, you'd be surprised how cheaply you can buy a congressman. 
            I haven't really said much about our new leaders in government. From the outside looking in, it looks bad. And I'm sure from the inside looking out it looks even worse. I've read the Facebook posts and from what I can tell people are well intentioned, but their ideas for resistance are anything but focused. Some people are talking revolution, and others are trying to form an underground, but if you know anything about history you'll understand that violent revolutions are rarely, if ever, successful.
             So I'd like to make a suggestion to my liberal friends, those good people who are trying to do right. If money is the basis of power, why don't we start with that and divest from banks and institutions that aren't contributing to the greater good of the planet. If you're a liberal and politically active and still banking at Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, you're missing the point and not using your power. In fact you're wasting it by giving it to corporate structures that have no concern for nature or people. Find a good credit union. Buy products that help instead of hurt the planet. Try to be good the best you can. It's not easy I know, but start with where you put your money.
             How we spend our money is the new revolution, it's the quiet revolution in which the enemy structures to people and the planet have absolutely no defense. 

Facebook Gurus

         
           I tend not to listen to people who deem themselves spiritual. I'm not saying I'm not spiritual, I'm just saying there's a lot of lost mother-scratchers out there who are pretending to be wise. Wisdom doesn't come from a book, or just one teacher, it comes from a lifetime of discovery and making mistakes. It's the wise old man, and the wise old lady that we seek for answers. It's never the kid wearing diapers in a playpen. You don't need to be old to be wise, but you need some time to discover, and sometimes it feels as though newfound discoveries are confused for wisdom when they are just small pieces to the wisdom pie. 
           When I was younger it was important to me to be right, to win an argument, to express my beliefs, to convince others to think like me. I don't feel that need as much anymore. The fact is, I've learned over the years that some people are just plain dumb, and no matter how you try to explain it to them, they'll never understand it. 
            But I digress. Newfound gurus, people who are on the search for answers that are right in front of their eyes, they're just as confused as everybody else, but for some unexplained reason they have the need and desire to suggest they have all the answers. 

         
            

Flipping Bills

         
           I was at the grocery store buying a couple of tall-boys.
           $6.48, the cashier said. 
           I pulled out my wallet and started flipping through my bills. I had just gotten paid and I had more money than usual.
           I was peeling back the bills trying to find a five. I had a bunch of twenties, but I didn't want to use a twenty, because I don't like small bills and change.
           I usually organize my money. I'll put the twenties on the bottom and the ones on top and the tens and fives in between. The president's heads have to face the same direction, but I hadn't the time to organize, so there I was searching for a small bill. I was peeling back the bills as quickly as possible so not to hold up the line, when it occurred to me that it felt good to have a wad of bills and for a split second I fell in love with my money and started to show it off to the cashier. That's when one of the twenties pulled between my fingers and ripped right in half while I was flipping it. I felt dumb after that. I was holding half a twenty. 
            "Oh man, I ripped a twenty," I told the cashier.
            "Just take it the bank," he said. 
            For some reason it really bothered me that I ripped a twenty in half. I couldn't stop thinking about, as if somehow I had cheated myself out of some money.