don't project your own decay

onto the world! this is tough. as i grow older and feel my body falling apart, the opportunities diminishing, i rather naturally assume the world is collapsing as well. ah, but it's not, not really. as my friend jeff shore said years ago, "it's a matter of our technology keeping ahead of our stupidity." so far, the circuit boards are keeping us afloat. computers saved our bacon, making better use of the resources we have. and look at normality returning to kosovo, croatia booming with the tourist trade.

yes, luck plays an incredible part. i've no way of telling how much. the world can be made to fit any paradigm and thus remains a mystery. the nice thing is, i can interpret it anyway i want. so, i'll be a doctor on a space ship next time. (except, right now, simply not existing after the demise seems more relaxing.)

perhaps i've said it before, but it can't be repeated too many times. my grandmother told me on her 80th birthday, shortly before entering another dimension, "do it while you can." friends have died at 11, 12, 23(2), 36, 37, of bullets, cars, cancer. albert camus wrote, "there's no substitute for a long life," but some people like egon schiele pack a lot into a short time. as ramana maharshi recommended, "put one thing in practice."

ah, thanksgiving. how fortunate i've been, 42 years without health insurance, traveling in 40 countries with almost no money, good friends, interesting family, time to read 71 books in one summer, paid for looking out the window. actually, i was much more pessimistic at 20 than i am now.

count your blessings, cut your losses, and keep moving.

latest pics moody early morning shots: www.pbase.com/wwp/creek

the soldier's wound

last night i attended a new play 'another day in bagdad' by david a. tucker, II. based on his experiences as a reserve officer in iraq, it reminded me so much of vietnam i had trouble sleeping after. summary: the call-up is followed by a year's duty, two killed, one wounded, and ends with a second call-up after that. the show ends with a projection of names, those from this area who've died. as an afterward, the playwright answered questions very thoughtfully. he had, however, no resolution to the conflict, but said the situation in afghanistan demanded attention and to fight a war on two fronts classically disastrous (not to mention the possibility of three.)

first thing this morning, i did find an echo of my own thoughts: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/02/us/politics/02obama.html?th&emc=th i'm sure like nixon going to china, this is what's necessary.

though i never showed it, and it was never performed, pruned and fine-tuned for production, i did write a play about vietnam in 1967: www.pbase.com/wwp/red this is what it felt like on the home-front. and david said last night the disconnection of the american populance from the present war very troublesome.

i've never felt too good writing about politics, for a poet lives in the world of absolutes and perfection. in reality we must operate in the realm of the possible.

ah, getting back to this world has been tough. i've been out in the park taking fall pictures at least every other morning: www.pbase.com/wwp/creek