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.
The only way to find the limits of the possible is by going past them into the impossible.
September 20, 2009 - 11:10 a.m.
I slept later than I wanted and I have things to do today so I'm going to force myself to start writing. I got through my email much faster than usual. For some reason I've gotten about half as much as normal the last day. Does nobody lo9ve me anymore?
Yesterday I went to the Madison Square Studio to see Natalia Zukerman and Woody Mann. Natalia was listed as the opener and the blurb said that Woody Mann needed no introduction but I never heard of him. Neither did most of the people I talked to. Neither did many of the people in the audience as at least a third of the audience left after Natalia's set.
When I got to the park I saw Chris at our usual table and joined him. He was saving two more seats for friends. I was hoping to see Lori (not LORi) who said she'd be there for her birthday, but I never found her.
Before the show started I decided to try out the Shake Shack custard, I've only had the shakes and hot food before then. It was really good. I picked one up for Chris too. When I got back I found Richard and Viki sitting with us. I like having "a crowd."
As an extra treat Natalia was joined by Erin McKeown. I've only seen Natalia a few times. I know her through John Platt and Abbie Gardner. I'm getting to know her better. I made sure to give her a The Budgiedome card.
After the show I went over to the Burlington Coat Factory a block away. I need a new trench coat and a new light jacket. The trench coat was my main objective. They had exactly what I wanted in larger sizes. In my size all they had was black. I don't want black. I want tan. I want to look like Humphrey Bogart at the end of Casablanca.
I did find a great faux suede all weather jacket. It looks spiffy. I also picked up some shirts. The only thing I need for my wardrobe now is the trench coat.
So that was my adventures for the day. I took the subway home and spent the evening in. I had something new for dinner. I tried the prepared barbecue ribs that I had bought. They were great, the meat fell right off the bones. They went well with the oven roasted potatoes. For desert I finished off the watermelon.
Let's see if I can find time to do some shopping today. I'm doing merch for The Kennedys this afternoon at the Turning Point in Piermont. I would really like to be there by 2:30 which means leaving by about 1:30. This is the CD release party for Maura's new solo album! You can buy it digitally at the bottom of this page.
I could just call this quits. I've written a perfectly good entry but that wouldn't be being emotionally honest. I want to write what I was thinking last night.
I was thinking about death, my death. No I wasn't depressed. This wasn't me being Woody Allen. Oh, and I'm not dying. At least as far as I know. That's the point though. I'm going to discuss the 800 pound gorilla in the room. I don't have insurance and I have not been seeing doctors like I should. What if my cancer has returned? I have no reason to think it has and I'm not sitting here obsessing about it. I assume it is the Crohn's. But I want to prepare myself for if it isn't.
So here's the thing. I think I wouldn't be devastated. I think I could handle it. I know what I'd do with time I had left. Pretty much what I'm doing now but more so. I'd make sure to not put off anything I wanted to do. I'd see all the people I want to see.
Sue has planned my funeral. It's going to be appropriately enough a concert. She'll ask my musician friends to play. I wish I could go!
Now I'm getting to the part I thought the most about and I'm having the most trouble finding the words. I can't figure out how to phrase this. I'll do what I always tell people to do. I'll just write it any way I can and not worry about how good it is.
There are people that I care about a great deal that I don't have the relationship I want with. Obstacles have been put in our way. What to do with them? Forget the dying part. This is something I think about often even when I plan on living forever. If I could resolve those issues I could face things easier.
One of my favorite movies is The Man Who Would Be King. They were two British adventures who went into the wilds of Central Asia to become kings. They succeeded for a while. At the end Danny (Sean Connery) is being executed. He turns to his friend and partner Peachy (Michael Caine) and says. "Do you forgive me?" When Peachy says "yes;" Danny says, "Then everything is OK." He walks without hesitation or fear onto the great bridge that he built as king and his people cut the bridge and he falls into the abyss.
John Platt is playing all Leonard Cohen covers as I write this. That's the perfect music to accompany these thoughts. Perhaps not as apropos the song I kept singing to myself last night was Hang Me oh Hang Me..
Hang me, oh hang me, and I'll be dead and gone
Hang me, oh hang me, and I'll be dead and gone
I wouldn't mind the hanging,
It's the laying in the grave so long poor boy.
I've been all around this world
I wish I could find a video of Dave Van Ronk singing it.
OK now I have to make my breakfast, shower, and go shopping in a couple of hours. .
Fort no Piano - September 25, 2009
Ace Kree - September 24, 2009
Ragin' Cajun - September 23, 2009
PIGS IN HADES - September 22, 2009
O Solo Maura - September 21, 2009
Email me: GordonLew at gmail
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. Horvendile September 20, 2009
