On being good

we here in America worship success
My friend frank and I have had many discussions upon this subject
We both have separately and differently come to the same conclusion that being a good human being a good human is more important than any earthly success
 The elect

The challenge

A simple bike ride to a public meeting
My favorite frenemies show up ( fear and his/her/it's twin anger)
They remember the good old days when we raced and battled for supremacy in the dark on scary runs alongside la lotto a in the arroyos of my native Agua Fria
Ttherapthey feel confident and want a rematch 432 years later as they feel I willam old and weak and will succumb easily to their blandishments and threats
As very few know about me I have a difficult time turning down a challenge even one with little chance of victory and very little upside
The rules are simple we pick a distance and I must put forth full effort for that period or lose and suffer a spiritual death
Today we agree to best out of three
I am fresh and strong 💪 and have a secret ingredient
Easy wins two to zero
Of course fear and the referee death are cheaters so they claim I have to win three out of three
Shit
But the refs have final say so now you am getting angry
The next challenge is a long hill
I bust my ass and run out of gas and give in with a just meters to go
Forgot the cardinal rule " don't get 😡...
So a long flat stretch calm and clear for many maters as the end nears I feel fear and weakness wending their way from belly to heart to brain
Hold on by the merest margins gasping for breath quads burning but victorious
They day is won!!!
Not so quick says fear, death agrees that maybe some cheating involved
No bleeping way but the rules are set so remembering the lesson of anger we find the next challenge, a long winding hill
Easy I think and start steady and slow speeding to the exact effort which will get me
To the top of course the top is farther than the eye used to jogging 🏃 reckons so a 100 meters more than expected head down grimacing as the pain and lactic acid build
Victory by a hair!! Exhausted !!!4 to 2 good to go
As life often does the finish line moves it is now best of 9 or on English first to 5
So spent and disheartening two hard steep tricky hills now four four
Death our ref sea a long deceptive hill for the final challenge so I can quit or try
With little hope I bend my will to the task halfway the tendrils of fear and acid begin their insidious work
Just go then that funny thing happens I embrace the pain and fear and work with them as tools of self knowledge and as the quads tighten and the vision begins to tunnel one last long effort and the finish passes by as thinkers wobbles and legs tremble
Death will have to wait at least one more day

The wandering heart

So we start in the middle as all good stories must 😊🙀
A fella travels to an ocean town to court a wondrous lady she is sweet and kind and generous
Helps him reunite with old friend
Instrumental in reconciliation between long lost brother and of course amazing sister in law
Wonder lady,or girl if one prefers,( though feminism card is then revoked)
Shows him many amazing things
Yet at the end against the advice of the obligatory old wise woman in the organic garden 😢😢😢
I will not leave my seaside home
I cannot love a man who leaves his children in his desert eyrie so you must fly home all alone and leave me and not think of me again
Poor fella drags his lonely self back to high sad dwelling only to realize he he something behind
A happy heart ❤️ who apparently only does as he wishes dances on the. Each in Santa Cruz a marshmallow stick held high
In spite of his non swimmer status he plays with shark and sea lion
Enjoys a meal of trilobite
When tired he wanders up to Rachel's home for company wine and song
When tracked down by sad and lonely he laughs and says you left too soon
Come home now young fool 😡
Happy wandering heart hollers and says heck no the lovely Marta is here and here I stay happy and delighted until I decide
What the am I supposed to
Wait old fool wait
How will you sustain
Love and of course the house of Rachel he hollers back

There is a time in many young lives where their fate lies in the balance
A small nudge here or a helping hand there can be the difference between a life and mere survival
For me as a young person with no adult supervision John cheek was one of those he and Jean and Kevin took me in and treated me as one of their own
A metaphor of a young man at risk of being washed out to sea by the slings and arrows of life
A life saver thrown to him.... A life is changed

The adventure

we all experience to some extent this thing that may be expressed in English as life
A crazy mixed bag of love joy kindness fear and anger
Somehow every one seems to have the same yet unique reaction to
To the kaleidoscope of different senses feelings and some ineffable aspect of what we may choose to calll existence
From Carl Sagan to Douglas Adams
Edward abbey and Loren eiseley the gamut of the universe and thoughts feelings and beliefs are so very similar each in its very unique way

Complete sentences

So the time comes when a fella puts down in words thoughts feeelings and philosophy and finds that very few understand shat he is saying
Many tell him
You must write in complete sentences . Or there is such a thing as craftsmanship
There is also some intimation that there is hedging or avoiding difficult positions as well as an issue oppositional defiance disorder
Of course there is also the idea that one should write for themselves and not for the audience
And of of that there is a great need for the defiant.....