Tuesday, August 30, 2016

the demands my possessions make on me




Suddenly dumped from my domicile, i've been thrown into a tizzy. Yes, life slipping by, and being such a homebody the last few years, i've hardly noticed. This is an opportunity to re-evaluate. Shall i take a new room, sleep on the boxes of diaries, letters, and photos from my past, as i have been doing? It's not as though they're eggs which will hatch!

And my body, how much longer can i trust it? This past winter i worried i wouldn't be able to climb the tower, carry up groceries and ukuleles. I did make it and gradually regained my step-upping power. Yet, a knee, a foot, a leg, it wouldn't take much to make working impossible. Yes, the lack of cataracts has help, and a slow fire season so far. Alas, eyes can't do the work of hands.

So, here i am with a shorter future, still able to motate. And i'm working up the travel fever in my blood. Better do it while i can! And i can't think of any more poems to write, plays to produce, pictures to take. In fact, all those would simply add to my load. Yesterday i felt completely free, contemplating putting the whole lot in storage and going on the road.

First, i realized my huge laptop demanding to be warmed up in the morning, the moment my eyelids parted. And i'd jump into email, and with this election year the news parasite invaded my brain. I kept thinking, what can i do to keep a certain lout fromn being elected and starting a race war? Thank goodness huge numbers of intelligent people working toward that goal. I don't have to do it alone.

Last week i buttoned up the laptop and set it at the end of the bed. I switched to using phone and tablet. They take up a lot less space on my desk and i have a better view of the fire-threatened landscape. True, i'm having to learn how to do a lot of things in this smaller way, exercising the weak underbelly of my brain. 

And i have already gotten rid of two hundred boxes of books, maybe five remaining. I even downloaded a lonely planet guide to australia to read on my screen. Yes, i've learned to read by the light of the moon, and i can carry two hundred boxes of books on my phone. All this contributes to welfare of the nomad. Not to mention it works as a tv, a time traveler and flashlight. 

I do have a problem: as a taurus i'm doomed to love having a home. Yes, it can be temporary, seasonal, and i can find garbage cans in which to hibernate. Unfortunately, i remember bleak times in beautiful places, where the stones of greece turned to skulls and the streets of berlin wove swastikas through my brain. 

Used to be, i'd meet a lot of people in my perigrinations, mostly do to a fiery libido. Now that i fear love like death, i'm less likely to make servile approachs. I would like to be more social, and i try to believe throwing myself on the flowing waters would make me bump into people and yelp, thus starting a conversation.

I just read a fine quote: "Everything you could ever want is just outside your comfort zone." Comfort, yes, i've fallen for it. And as soon as i'm in my igloo of pots and pans, bookshelves and clothes-closets, i sink into a stupor. Maybe i can escape them for awhile. This is my chance, easy to contemplate on this warm summer's day in the mountains. Do it before your blood and the weather turn cold, i tell myself. Stay tuned.