With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.
The good life, as I conceive it, is a happy life. I do not mean that if you are good you will be happy - I mean that if you are happy you will be good.
Too much sanity may be madness and the maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be.
I enjoy paying taxes. With them I buy civilization.
June 14, 2004 - 2:42 a.m.
I’m exhausted but lets see what I can remember of the weekend.
I left my house around 3:25 and got to my sister in New Paltz around 5:20. I’d have made it earlier but I had a few mishaps along the way. We had a more important mishap before I left but we didn’t know it till I got there. I went up there to see Christine Lavin. Alison told me that when she called nobody answered. When I called I got the voice mail and I didn’t leave a message as I figured that she had. She hadn’t, the machine didn’t answer when she called. We immediately called the place and found out they had sold out. I have a perfect record in getting into sold out shows and I wasn’t about to give up. I decided to drive to the venue and see if we could work something out. As we were leaving Alison’s friend Sharon pulled up, she had come to join us. So the three of us set out to the Unison Center. When we got there they confirmed that they were sold out. I asked if I could say hi to Christine. As I expected when she saw us she told the guy who runs it that I’m a friend and asked that he let us in. He said probably no but we should come back later and see.
When we got back we got him to let us stand outside on the porch and see if we could hear from there. The problem was that they wouldn’t keep the door open even though it was a beautiful night. We were getting discouraged when I noticed that there were three seats open right before the show started. We went to the box office to see if we could buy tickets. Alison knew the woman working there and as there were empty seats she sold us three. So Alison’s connections proved more useful than mine.
Now I said seats but they weren’t exactly seats, they were more devices meant to make it easier to sit on the floor. On the bright side they were right up front by the stage. We didn’t get to our seats till Chris had finished her first song.
It was a small venue and I Chris knew a few people in the crowd. In addition to me and Betsy, who illustrated Amoeba Hop There was a group a women that she went to high school with. Unbeknownst to one of them she was actually thanked in Amoeba Hop. The sample of pond water she brought to their science class was the inspiration for the song.
Once again I didn’t win the beauty contest, someone else was crowned Mr New Paltz. I did come up with one of the rhymes that Chris used prompted in the song that she co-writes with the winner. When we talked to her before the show she asked us with rhymes for New Paltz. I came up with. So I guess I can say that I’ve collaborated with her on a song.
I liked Alison’s observation about Christine. That not only was she funny and nice but she it feel like she has a personal relationship with everyone in the audience, not just with the people she actually knows. She treats everyone like a friend.
After the show we decided to get ice cream. No place was open but the convenience store at the gas station so we went there. The mayor of New Paltz was there too. Believe it or not you have heard about him. He is the one that has was performing gay marriages till there was a court order forbidding it.
This morning after a waffle breakfast Alison and I went on a hike at the Mohonk Preserve. The plan was for a short walk but I couldn’t resist at least going to the tower on the top of the mountain. The walk was beautiful and great exercise. We decide that I need to go up again for one of the more natural walks, off the beaten track. I had trouble resisting trying the labyrinth, a tortuous rock climb today, I’d have done it if I had more time and were dressed for it.
I ended up staying quite a bit longer than I planned. I got back with just enough time to change my clothes, check my email, then go out to tutor Hillary, Roy’s daughter. That’s how I spent most of this evening.
I’d have written more now but I had to get offline to talk to Leah aka the most annoying person in the universe. Now I’m too tired. I think you should all send her a thank you note.
The International Jewish Banking Conspiracy - October 07, 2008
On the Road to Westchester County - October 06, 2008
Inside the Madison Square Studio - October 05, 2008
I'm a Bosniac and I'm debating like I've never debated before - October 03, 2008
Islands in the Stream of Consciousness - October 02, 2008
Email me: GordonLew at gmail
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. Horvendile June 14, 2004
