23 Rainbow Gatherings, 3 burns, 75 countries...


this arm... this leg... this eye...er...no wait, that was 'The Bionic Man'...


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Dig this! I knew that Stevie had performed wit da Muppets, take a look at this great retro 70's sesame street episode, check out that kid in the red shirt...DYNOMITE!

Stevie Wonder 1972 (it was a good year...)

www.youtube.com/watch

Blips of thought come to me...make me laugh... some inexplicable passages...vingettes...bardos...

When I was at the Utah national rainbow gathering a couple years ago, I lost my bankcard. That was o.k. for a while I had some cash on me, and one never needs cash at a gathering anyways. But later on I started to feel the need.
I also got sick, a wired combo of fever, constipation and diarrhea, which only aggravated my hemorrhoids...
Having to shit like that and it burning too...
At one point we went cougar hot springs and it was just what my 'burning ring of fire' needed-
Jonny Cash folk songs and jokes aside.

I felt some anxiety, and wasnt sure when I would be pulling through, but at one stop along the rainbow caravan, a organic farm/community 'Buen Provecho'- my fever broke, the diarrhea dried up- I still felt week, but I could see the finish line coming- a great big organic home cooked meal on its way...
I watched amazing incredible well trained plow horses move through their paces and later on I rested up in a tree house when chores were called.
That trip ended up far better than it started...
But what inspired me to write was that feeling of joy, with being so sick and hungry, and knowing that great food was on its way...
So as they say "appetite is the greatest spice".
L
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Sometimes as I walk through various cities, the images start to blur...Georgetown starts to look a little like Quito Ecuador, Havanna Cuba, Recife Brazil... Although the boardwalk is safer than any of those countries, yet not near as exciting...
I remember swarms of teens 'making out' in Recife with the ocean waves for a background. Couples getting it on, hardely out of site along the Havanna malecon.
Somehow I cant imagine these things happening in safe Georgetown...
I am enjoying the colonial buildings- pretty groovy!
L
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Ah' memories of Cuba... I remember walking down the Malecon in Havana,
late at night amongst the tourists and the locals.
The Cubans were hassled by the cops for their I.D.-
I suppose to see whether they were from that district
(the Cuban government has a policy of sending those without permission back to their respective provinces).

I saw a man who just could not keep the funk beat in. I think it was Isley Brothers playing from a nearby building ((Cuba is just saturated with music))
- he was with a group of friends (the cops had cleared off) they wanted to walk and he could not...stop...dancing!
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When I was a child we were often victim to the sponteneous party syndrome (life with my mother). Beware, a party could happen at any moment.
Cuba often seemed to me a place were a party could happen at any moment- really isnt that what most folks would rather be doing- instead, a certain amount of work was required...

L


Some interactions and altercations, hard to explain

Passing through the afternoon street in La Union El Salvadore, passing the police station, with numerous silent women on one side of the street, numerous shirtless men in 'the cage' on the other. I'll never know if it was fear or angst of there husbands disapearing, perhaps seeing them for the last time... or confronting villans... speachless. Not a word, my wife and myself walked straight through them...

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I remember walking to around my Brazilian Servas host's compound Recife/Salvadore/Fortaleza I am not sure now... I remember seeing an old skinny black man sleeping on the narrow stoop, lying flat out like a plank- it seemed a strange sight to me in the full moon light. Something from the slaving era. I can only assume he was 'early' for work- not homeless.

Also the class distinction and 'proper' behavior of domestics. All these black women siting flat on the floor- they will have better circulation and flexibility...


I used to have this Roommate. He really hated to hear music in the house. At first It seemed like he hated everything, then I learned there were bands in particular that he hated more. The wails of anguish when I rediscovered 'Jethro Tull'...Trill that pipe Ian Anderson...
L

Coming over that hill...
I remember a big American summer rainbow gathering- I think it was Montana...
Everyone converging on main circle, coming over the hill- like a demented mob of new age soldiers- freak flag waving...
And then there was this couple- both double amputees- with artificial legs man! they could really stride, they had ski poles for balance- but the artificial legs- no disguising that incredible scene with a ohm circle of thousands and a cacophony of drums building in the background...
Oh' but it was the determined look on their faces...that I'll never forget.

L

People say I'm crazy doing what I'm doing,
Well they give me all kinds of warnings to save me from ruin,
When I say that I'm o.k. they look at me kind of strange,
Surely your not happy now you no longer play the game,

People say I'm lazy dreaming my life away,
Well they give me all kinds of advice designed to enlighten me,
When I tell that I'm doing Fine watching shadows on the wall,
Don't you miss the big time boy you're no longer on the ball?

I'm just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round,
I really love to watch them roll,
No longer riding on the merry-go-round,
I just had to let it go,

People asking questions lost in confusion,
Well I tell them there's no problem,
Only solutions,
Well they shake their heads and they look at me as if I've lost my mind,
I tell them there's no hurry...
I'm just sitting here doing time,

I'm just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round,
I really love to watch them roll,
No longer riding on the merry-go-round,
I just had to let it go.

J. Lennon

...it wasn't optimism. It was the deep realization that, while the world was busy digging its grave, there was still time to enjoy life, to be merry and carefree, to work or not to work." -- Henry Miller.

Emotions, in my experience, aren’t covered by single words. I don’t believe in “sadness,” “joy,” or “regret.” . . . I’d like to have at my disposal complicated hybrid emotions, Germanic train-car constructions, like, say, “the happiness that attends disaster.” Or: “the disappointment of sleeping with one’s fantasy.” I’d like to show how “intimations of mortality brought on by aging family members” connects to “the hatred of mirrors that begins in middle age.” I’d like to have a word for “the sadness inspired by failing restaurants” as well for “the excitement of getting a room with a minibar.”

Jeffrey Eugenides