25 Random Thoughts

Last week, I was prodded by a friend whom I have not seen for a long time and in catching up, prompted me to return a list of 25 random thoughts about various aspects in life today. I thought I would publish the list here as well as on facebook, for any soul misguided (or perhaps guided) to this blog spot. The sun shines with promise today, though the cold air hangs and clings.

25 Random Thoughts

1. I find myself getting lost in constancy…my attention is jogged by
the aberrations that bump into the edges of the flow.
2. Have taught myself, sometimes still unsuccessfully, to be mindful about taking action in reaction, with a pause.
3. Upon turning 60 yr. old this past month, I am still embracing the notion of magic thinking, though the window shrinks a bit with time.
4. Barren islands, such as the outer Hebrides on the coast of Scotland and the Dodecanese in the Aegean Sea, have a great appeal to me, putting one’s
place in the Scheme of Things in proper perspective.
5. I have a fondness for the peaty flavor of the Islay Single Malts, particularly Laphroig Cask strength.
6. Experiencing Love as a total physiological, chemical, emotional
and psychological collision with another soul was worth all the suffering that resulted from my inability to receive it-just listen to die Winterreise
by Schubert, or most R&B and Blues tunes. Joy is only half the story.
7. “You are the Music-
While it lasts.” T. S. Eliot….a wonderful insight into what makes music such an important piece of our Lives. If on a desert island and I only had one genre of music to listen to, I do think it would be Indian Dhrupad vocal music-embrace the transcendence.
8. In difficult times, I read Pema Chodron’s writings on the Buddhist tenets, for my emotional soul, and Steven Jay Gould’s essays in book form, for my rational being, both give me a good place to shift perspectives and broaden the context of being here now.
9. The most important and exciting time is Now, the Present, a difficult place to stand without falling backwards or forwards.
10. I do not like to shave, and have exposed my face in all its nudity only twice since 1967-once in 1968, once in 1974-I do not know what is underneath, only that my chin would seem to be tiny in comparison to the beard.
11. I am finally turning around the years of accumulation of images/ ideas/ sounds and beginning to establish a series of digital beachheads peeking out above the aether.
12. I generally do not like nor participate in chain messages such as this, but then again, I never went to a class reunion before attending my 40th H.S. reunion year before this passed one-I think as I get older, finding instruments like this list I am writing now that you are reading now, is a short cut to establish some fundamental aspects of ones self to share with others, those select few, out of the billions and billions of people we will never meet.
13. The Dark Side of being Human, is the lesser side, but is always our Shadow, no matter how effusive, how brilliant the Light is. I believe in the innate predisposition to Goodness in the Human Spirit, and find comfort in the seven novels of Charles Williams, member of the Inklings (along with C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien).
14. I have been struggling for a few years with the Blending/ Glazing Liquid, that has been my medium for my work on Residential surfaces for the last 20+ years, and realize that it is time for my self-reinvention. There is less and less joy in dancing on the walls with color and light, given the evermore constraining nature of the chemical composition of the Liquid, and to be honest, the struggle of my Body with Gravity.
15. I am an ochre and sienna kind of guy, colorwise.
16. Although I have learned to de-Mythologize my take on my Family Experience (we are not part of Norman Rockwell’s America), I feel blessed that my Parents and Siblings, and the accompanying Spouses and Offspring are all a wonderful group, each and everyone of them. I always look forward to the ways in which we make time to be together.
17. I have made many mistakes in my Life, and have some deep Regrets, but would not alter my Pathway then or now.
18. I am a music Junkie and own thousands of recordings, in various media, Vinyl, CDs, Cassettes, MiniDisc, and Reel to Reel-I have a leaning towards the Marginal in music-Improvisational, Ethnic, Ambient, Psychedelic, as well as more traditional forms…music is an altered state.
19. I still like altering my State. [From what to What?]
20. I am in the longest relationship in my Life (23 years) and have been in Cambridge for the longest I have lived anywhere (24 years).
21. Feeling spiritually uncentered, I still seek that portal into the Flow.
I have glimpsed it briefly, and heard about it in anecdotes.
22. I do not have expectations that everyone that I send this to will respond likewise and that is okay. It is not like having Egg on your Face.
23. Collage is the media that I enjoy working in the most, for my self expression, but am starting to do more video/ sound montage, in a stage of infancy right now, but feel that ultimately the Message/ Montage is to be the Medium.
24. My appreciation of Poetry continues to grow with more and more exposure…I am fortunate to have friends who love it enough to plant the seeds in my Garden, with confidence of taking root-and it has.
25. I have been very fortunate to live in the time and place I have. And am looking forward to this next part of the Path.