burque

I was over at a friends house the other day and I was introduced to "things Burquenos say" All I remember was that the college age woman was attractive and "Ombers" which I had not heard since Agua Fria elementary school. So today I went down to Burque (something us Santa fenos usually only do under threat or to go to the airport.) We actually have an airport in Santa Fe but only people who can afford their own planes go there. Anyway it was a short day so I decided to hang with my high school friend who lives in Burque and claims to be a santa feno even though he did not move here until he was six. I told him about Burquenos and of course his son knows the star.He did refuse to introduce me. Oh well . To this day I do not know the origination of ombers which is something w would say when somebody did something that could get them in trouble.
   We laughed and remembered only the good parts of high school and talked about R A Lafferty ( a catholic who wrote science fiction) He took me to a fast food joint that served real beef with plastic buns and velveeta. On the drive to the food place I saw something that I never thought I would see in my life, a gated community full of mobile homes. Every other gated community I have seen has been specifically designed to keep mobile homes and those of us with the lack of moral fiber that would even consider mobile homes OUT. I could not help but wonder who the mobile home park was trying to keep out. Trailer trash?   Naw maybe it is all those evil banskters I keep hearing about.....
       
  

Iconclast? continued

The ideal of being different is very important in American mythology. The different one always saves the day from the Reacher novels to Travis Mcgee from Dirty Harry to the Duke and Shane we love the Iconic "other". In life we seem to all want to think the same in a different dress. Everyone has been around the tragedy of matching dresses. However if anybody dares to think differently from the group we as a group seem to get very upset and can even become violent.
So the illusion of otherness is very important and the reality of otherness is very scary.  We hang the witches and sorcerers while we worship the very attributes which caused our fear.

Thus continues the dance between fear and curiosity which creates what we call progress. The changing state of self awareness and knowledge of the universe we lived in balanced with the constants of human nature and unchanging natural laws. Act too quickly on new information or ideas and risk falling out of balance with natural law. resist change too much and get left behind by the ever-[changing conditions of existence

Creative language

The othr day I was home with Ben,Soren and our friends kids Spencer and Liam. There were out in the back yard playing with the Hose I saw that Liam was turning red where I had not gotten the sunscreen. As I was walking out to catch him and apply sunscreen his dad called as I was answering the phone I stepped down on a board with very sharp rusty nails sticking out of it.I barely managed to communicate that no I was (probably) not dying and that I could keep the kids till 5. Then as the pain got worse and I tried to remove the board I started cursing as Ben was asking what happened. between G*d*m and sonova... mfer  to show him the board and nails and use up a few minutes up a few minutes. After the ninth or ten repitition of sonova... Ben said Daddy you already said that. What could I say? I mfing know that G*d*mit. I guess I better brush up on my language skills.

moonlit run or goodbye

For th first time in 20 years I am running in the dark. Not quite because of the full moon. I am reminded of the olden days when I would strike out from the house on Agua Fria street into the Caja Del Rio across the Santa F river and through the territory of La Llorona. I could tell when she or her fellows were near when the hair on the back of my neck would rise in a primeval response to extrasensory threat. Boy was I fast then. I would run until exhaustion then turn for the hard run home. I would challenge myself to keep ahead of my ghost with a real sense that if I was caughr by myself I would die. I would run faster and faster until there WAS no speed left and then I would hold on for the eternity of the imaginary finish at the river or the road. I would drag myself the last few yards home cook a 2lb bag of spaghetti dump a can of tuna and a block of cheese on it. drink a gallon of watered down cranberry juice and sleep the sleep of the just. (or the just damn tired)
 I remember distinctly the day(night) that I lost my hometown. 4 miles out at midnight and I turn for home. Something is terribly wrong . I cannot see the ground in front of me because I am blinded by lights. It had crept up on me like the fog had crept up on those poor Los Angelinos in California. I had to try to saty on the road because of the loss of night vision.
After that night I took to wearing a hat. If the hat was at just the right angle it would block the lights of the...City.
The magic was gone though. I no longer communed with La Llorona and her ilk and one night I ran into a 4 foot high cholla. I ran home on adrenalin could not  work for a few days and within a few weeks I said goodbye forever to the Caja without knowing it.

empathy

During spring break the boys and I were invited to join a trip to the Albuquerque zoo. Friday afternoon we headed down to join the group. When we got there we discovered to my horror that everybody else in New Mexico had the same idea. After a mild panic attack(real men don't experience this) I made an executive decision and we bagged the zoo trip.
  The boys were disappointed so I decided to take them to lunch and a movie. We came back to Santa Fe and hit the Plaza Bakery by the new theatre on the west side. I ordered breakfast and the boys ordered chips. When the bacon and pancakes came Soren decided he wanted bacon and took all of mine. Ben was working on his chips and Guacamole, he looked up and said "Wow I love pancakes with syrup!" We all set to serious eating for 2-3 minutes. Soren (Who is 5) said "Hey Daddy you could give Ben some of your pancakes." I was surprised and felt a little embarrassed that a 5 year old would be paying more attention to subtleties than I. Needless to say when I asked Ben if he would indeed like pancakes right now the answer was affirmative.
 I handed over some pancake and we all happily had lunch and went to see The Lorax.

Iconclast?

I have a need to be different. To be accurate, I have a need for the illusion of being different. A subtle but important difference. The fact that there are 7 billion humans on planet Earth makes it highly unlikely that there is no one similar. Until the news came out the population was approaching 7 billion I was under the misapprehension that  there were already 8 billion. Anyway back to the subject matter of being unique, or how to maintain the illusion. The point being that I cannot realistically claim to have unique properties, but I can pretend the same
   I have always thought of myself as a runner. In grade school a matter of survival and in later school an identity an emotional life-preserver if you will(where does that phrase come from?). During the secondary years I held on to a semblance of sanity through being a vital part of the "Animal" relay on my high school track team. During basketball season(I did not participate because I could not organize rides home from practice. I would go out in empty land across from my home and run in the dark. Nobody but the coyotes and rabbits to keep me company.  Out of time more later