You don't want to do this !

As Adam Duritz of Counting Crows pleadingly instructs  in Murder of One "You don't want to waste your life!" Hmmmm, of course we don't want to waste our life, especially given that so many caring, talented people die young , and others with great potential live in countries where their skills are repressed or bring punishment.  

But remember what Spider man taught us, that "with great power comes great responsibility."   

In the good ole' US of A, pretty much everyone's potential is unimpeded by external forces , although money, connections and the proper ethnic profile certainly help. 

You can pick and choose how you want to give back, to charities, or embracing volunteerism in many ways, be they religious, political or cultural.  One could argue that by giving back, contributing to the greater good, we can securely conclude that we do not waste our life.  I beg to differ.  

"Now some guys they just give up living, start dyeing little by little, piece by piece. Some guys come home from work and wash up, and go racin' in the street." This Is Bruce from Racing in the Street  off the Darkness album.  I do believe it is true that when you ignore what your talents are, and stop doing what truly gives you your identity, then yes you do start dyeing, or at least that magical force inside you that makes you unique starts to die.  So keep racing in the street, even if it is en route to the early bird special at Red Lobster.    

I had an ancient history teacher at Manhattan College who was asked by an engineer why he needed to know anything about ancient history.  Professor Hazeltine responded: "when you graduate and get a job you must decide whether you want to come home from work each night and watch TV and drink beer in your tee shirt. Is that a satisfactory life?"  I guess the point was that we must be open to all types of knowledge and never stop learning.   

We are in violent agreement with you Adam, we don't want to waste our life ! 

To distill all of the above into one  sentence, y'all better fulfill your potential by doing what you do best to the nth degree and in the process make this world a better place. If, ny ding so, you happen to make 12 trillion dollars and became a national hero/heroine, then God bless you.  

Murder Mystery:

Only recently did I come to know that a "group" of crows is called a "murder of crows".  Thus the autobiographical "Murder of One" mentioned above. The whole crow story in the song also sounds like a reference to Don Juan from the Carlos Castaneda books, who did happen to turn into a crow.

Basil Report:

Normally it is mid-May when I feel safe from the frost to plant my precious veggies. Given 

the recent insane temperatures, this year it may be June or July. 

Keep the faith brothers and sisters.

Sent from my iPhone

The Holy Trinity

In my speech to the academy I will thank the holy trinity for making this blog possible. Linda for gifting me the new exercise bike, Kaila for reminding/inspiring me to blog, and Kristin for donating her old iPhone 5 to the cause. Aha, you may ask, how did these 3 occurrences intersect to make this blog  happen? 

This simple formula shows the relationship:

 (Exertion on the bike + desire to blog) * music from Iphone = creative result 

For me the creative energy starts to percolate as my heart rate increases, especially as the sweat starts to flow (bringing me closer to God),  as exertion creates relaxation and some type of portal opens. Unfortunately I do not lay pen to paper regarding my thoughts until much later. The primary ideas are now created with some details, but the fleshing out is a future activity.  Another formula pertaining to the efficiency of the final creative result:

Quality of music * (100 - days between workout and blog completion) = blog quality.   

Now that you know the mechanics, let's get to the subject matter:

U2's album (I use that term in a nostalgic, sarcastic way, protesting the fact that current musical media has no cohesive or logical quality) "How to dismantle an atomic bomb" is the value of the 

 

music from iPhone 

 

variable In above equation.   On to the review of the album and my life so far:

Vertigo: great starting track, when I heard it on the radio so many years ago  I thought it was "a band trying to sound like early U2"

Miracle drug: it exists, but you must make it yourself, not with a chemistry set, but by determination and a keen sense of perception and trust. Sometimes though it has no effect and that is why you need your coffeemaker.  

Sometimes you can't make it on your own: so simple and so difficult for many to learn.  In the midst of doing the right thing and making your loved ones proud, you may forget this.  Don't worry, we (and Bono) will remind you. 

Love  and Peace or else: ah yes irony at play here.  This song came on 10 years ago when Bob Denk and I were riding in the car and  I advised him that this was U2.  "I'm not that old. I know it's U2". You go Bob ! Given the state of the world where, in fact, is Love and Peace? 

City of Blinding Lights: anthemic, cascsding, innocent, you can't fool

us though Bono you ain't so sensitive and vulnerable are you?  And that group "ooh, ooh,ooh, ooh,ooh actually reminds me of the end of Born to Run.  

All Because of You: Very simply, we can interpret this to mean that we are a product of our environment. The collective "you" has made we who I am and created my frame of reference and my world view. But in more personal terms we all have important people in our lives that have made us what we are. Thank those people every day.  

A Man and a Woman: Is that high-pitched vocal at the end Bono or The Edge ? My money is on The Edge. "When the soul needs, the soul waits". What is so magical and important about waiting? Don Juan emphasized this with Castanada: "A man of knowledge waits, because that is all he can do. He waits and he sees. "

Crumbs from your Table: Bono's range takes us to "The Edge".  What does the song mean ? Who cares, this is the quintessence of U2 and cannot fail.  

One Step Closer: "to knowing". Hanging out to dry in my old clothes.  Does Bono have old clothes? Yes we are all searching for knowledge, often in dumb places.  

Original of the Species: apologies to Chuck for the title. A typically simple U2 diddy, with Bono's great voice and clever lyrics making it all work in a way that makes you think that things come way too easily to that Irish lad.  

Yahweh: yes yes Bono is spiritual and any Christian must trace his roots back to Yahweh, Hebrew for "I am who am".  Just as you think it's boring The Edge wakes up and chimes in.  Sufficiently religious sounding that it makes you feel guilty about not liking it.  

David Bowie RIP: wow he is gone.  A key contributor to the soundtrack of my youth. When they open the Ziggy Stardust exhibit at the Smithsonian in 5 years, Bowie will have written, produced, performed, or influenced 50% of the music being listened to on the personal  headphones by the attendees, and perhaps people around the world.  Ziggy....played....guitar !  

Basil Update: To plant seeds now or just buy plants then, that is the question ! Please help me decide. 

Keep the Faith, and pray for Trump's barber !

Seize the moment - shoot the praying mantis !

This post is about  my last post so it could be called a meta post.  But my last post never happened so I am not sure......about anything. I created it as a note on my iPhone and while doing some final refinement ....poof it was gone. I googled the issue and went to the App Store and looked for a backup on the cloud. Needless to say it is still gone. 

Ironically the lost post was about time. Integrating it  with my current theme makes me wonder if I waited too long to post it. Or perhaps I didn't spend enough time backing it up,saving it to the cloud.  Was I too hasty in making my changes and thus the fatal error?

Recently In Arizona I noticed a praying mantis on the outside wall of our house just above the garage door. As most people these days, instead of savoring the moment, I ran for my phone to take a picture. Once inside I was distracted and forgot about the religious insect. The next morning I remembered the little green guy and went out with my phone. He was gone. I had missed my chance to get a photo, and also the chance to simply observe at close range this beautiful unique creature. The fact that we rarely see these alien-like life forms makes any sighting a special moment, one to be valued. 

So what is the lesson here, pertaining to time? As Patti Smith said, we must "seize the possibilities".  We must take advantage of the moment, now, because we don't know quickly it will be gone, or how many other times we will experience this unique opportunity. How purifying to live totally "in the now" with no thought of tomorrow's responsibilities or yesterday's mistakes, or even the next breath. 

Although these may be thoughts for the "high and lofty", I think slowing down and taking the time to understand the uniqueness of each moment and certain special occurrences, helps counteract the frenetic, random pace we often live at. Well gee, it looks like I am out of time, so I leave you with this: remember to seize every moment and possibility you can, recognizing the unique joy and lesson it provides. Now back to work, and don't miss that deadline !

Basil Update: the basil is now hibernating at the Arctic Circle , staying warm beneath the torsos of snoring polar bears. Sleep well my children. 

Keep the Faith !

Breathing ? I don't have time for that!

Time is very important. What would we do without it? Without the order maintaining dimension of time, I would dress for work before showering (messy),  floss after brushing (heresy!) and get cremated before I die (ouch!). But many or most of us think we don't have enough of it. I don't believe this is true.  

Most of our lives are quite busy, quite complex , because we actively choose to juggle work, family life, wellness activities and the arts. "The arts" is a very subjective term which runs the spectrum from going to the Met, ballet or museum, to spending  time at the shooting range, chicken fights or watching Duck Dynasty. It is the effective prioritization of these time consuming activities that will allow us to have the quantity and quality of time that we desire. Unhappiness occurs when we incorrectly prioritize the activities that are competing for our precious time.  You see, our time on earth is not infinite. Ben Franklin said  "you may delay, but time will not".  Wow do you hear that, gentle Ben is telling it like it is. You can delay your fatherly duties by missing your daughter's dance recital or tennis match, but by the time those activities bubble up to your priority queue, it may be too late to make a difference or you may be dead.  

They say that time is money, so these  2 commodities are certainly linked. When people feel that they have no time for "play" (sports,the arts,wellness activities,snake charming) because money making activities are more important, trouble is brewing. In addition to showing your friends and family that they matter, engaging in play isolates you from your work life, enforcing the idea that you actively choose your destiny, and are not a slave to work or "the man".  That meditation class may cost a few bucks, but if the deep breathing lowers your blood pressure, it is worth it's weight in gold. Funerals are expensive ! 

So choose wisely, as it truly is your choice. They say that "you can't take it with you" and that is true. You also cannot take "them" with you. So spend your money wisely but spend your time with your loved ones even more wisely.  Only you can be the judge of what your time is worth.   

Basil update: the basil plants are gone, victims of a nasty rainfall and that gluttonous Parsley plant (I hate him/her/it). Next year that Parsley gets put in a corner - and it will still flourish. Sweet basil planted from seed is flourishing with a pretty yellow hue. As one dies, another is born.  

Keep the faith y'all and please pray for the pope !

Did You See Us ? We Saw U2 !

This past Saturday night Linda and I were at MSG to see U2 kick off the NY edition of their Innocence and Remembrance tour. Kristin and Kaila gave us the tickets as a gift, and boy are we glad they did. The tickets were marked "BS" so we wondered if our daughters had pulled out all the stops and gotten us back stage passes (let's get there early Lin so we can visit with Bono), but as we soon learned that stood for bar stools. The seats were great and that's no BS !

In 1982 a band in New Jersey named "The Watch" played the gamut of popular New Wave tunes and that was my first exposure to U2. They played "I will follow" although I did not know at that time it was U2. Saturday night Bono stated that "when we started out, we were classified by some as a punk band. And in many ways we still are". After 33 years, its nice to get that genre classification from Bono, although U2's complex music and profound, relevant, socially conscious lyrics are far from punk to me. But who am I to question Bono, the Pope of Rock'n'Roll ?

About 3 songs in, The Edge played the opening chords of "I will follow" and I began to realize that seeing U2 live is unlike anything I have experienced. The crowd was now jumping, fists pumping, and shouting the lyrics as the rules for the evening started to emerge. Perhaps more than anything else a U2 concert is a major technological extravaganza, and although I had heard and read about this, I was pleasantly caught unawares. A huge screen ran the length of the real estate between the main large stage and the distant smaller round stage beneath us. It was 50 feet high and displayed live close-up feeds of the band, video footage, special affects of the live action, animation and U2's famous word association stream of consciousness.

The band never stayed in one place, all members walking, dancing, and running  from stage to stage, under and through the massive main screen, based on how high it was hanging.A rollicking Mysterious Ways was played to a reggae (calypso ?) beat, Bono dancing with a fan  from the crowd. Bono invited 2 fans from the crowd to dance and hang with him, apologizing to another holding a sign "great guitarist", saying that "I've gotten into trouble with the band before by doing something like that".  Bono plugged the smartphone from one of the fans into the main input feed and her texts, icon's and Bonos face and all activity flooded all screens.

Larry Mullin strapped on a portable drum kit reminiscent of the Fife and Drum bands of the American Revolution era for a very stark, stripped "Sunday Bloody Sunday". To think the Fife and Drum era preceded our own civil war by 100 years made this song about a watershed moment in the Irish Civil war even more poignant. A full drum kit was moved twice between the 2 stages, and when a piano appeared on the stage beneath us, with just Bono and The Edge visible, we knew something important was about to happen. As The Edge played the opening notes, I thought "One", but I was setting the bar too low. "October, when kingdoms rise and Kingdoms fall". Wow, I think this was the high-point of the concert for me. From the 1981 album of the same name, this very short diddy features just Bono's voice and the piano. Afterward, his voice I am sure recovering from notes designed for a 1981 Bono, he revealed that "I haven't sung that song in  25 years".

Bono explained that his mother Iris, died when he was 14, and dedicated the song by the same name from their latest album to everyone in the crowd who lost a loved one at an early age.

Crowd pleasers Vertigo (the only offering from Atomic Bomb), With or Without You, City of Blinding lights and Until the End of the World (1 of 3 Achtung Baby titles), Bullet the Blue Sky (1 of 5 from Joshua Tree!) were notable. Encore of Still Haven't Found what I'm Looking For, Where the Streets have No Name and One (sung mostly by the crowd) sent everyone home happy.

Observation: Bono is a huge presence, and truly seems to care about the fans. He introduced the band at least twice, and explained what a large part they play in his life. His stories and philosophical meanderings were priceless and left you wishing he did more of that. A Springsteenesque story-teller he is not.

Startling Observation: perhaps dues to the lights and effect of the video and animation, Bono often reminded me of Robin Williams. DOH !

Grade: B+, if you are a fervent fan, or have never been then upgrade to A.


After seeing U2 in the greatest city in the world with Linda, what can one say other than:

Keep the Faith and Grow the Basil !

Say nothing ....do nothing ....

On this the 15th of June, the first day of my 56th year, I was taught a great lesson. This is the same lesson that I have been learning for at least 40 years. Wait for it........

Our world in 2015 demands immediate, informed action, especially in NYC where time is money and he who hesitates is lost. But often, over and over, I have wished that:
1) I hadn't sent that email so quickly
2) I hadn't rushed to judgement
3) I hadn't listened to my colleagues, my peers , my rabbi (oy!), or the media and had just let things play out.

Not sure why this seems the logical choice, whether waiting a day or 2 allows us to cool off emotionally, or if it's the fact that the universe takes 24 to 48 hours to converge and restore all dimensions to normalcy.  Obviously this knowledge is "anecdotal"

This is why I am not a day trader, or a general on the ground directing troops to victory or their death, or a suicide hotline operator.  Where split second, devil may care decisions are needed, deep knowledge and vast experience make those decisions instinctive. But equally instinctive, in normal life, should be the decision to act or wait.

Given the influence of media and technology on our society (more data updated constantly) I think we need a default reality check that says ignore your first reaction and maybe your second, and see if reality has changed. When it does, and you take a breath, you can now synchronize with new data arriving, and gauge how quick and decisive the appropriate response should be.

At my age, once you've resisted the first and second impulse to respond, you've forgotten what the problem is. Ah, the joys of senior citizenship. My next post will deal with procrastination, the dangerous result of taking the above mentioned philosophy too far.  Will have that post... well not sure, whats the hurry, whenever.

Basil update: those pesky tomato plants are shielding the basils from mother sun, so they are skimpy. But once the weather gets hot (I mean hot !), nothing will stop my basil children. Also growing basil from seeds supplied by a famous producer, and in weeks they will join the ranks.

Keep the faith, and share the love (and basil).

I Love that Tree...Let's Kill it !

This past weekend we finally dismantled the final, dead, piece of the Rhododendron tree in our side yard. This was the tree that flowered in all its glory for 2 weeks a year, as a huge living impressionist painting, a staple of our lives.

Recently, it was just a tree, and we noticed its declining color and health matter-of- factly, coldly viewing it as a nuisance, an obstacle to the spreader each time I fertilized. But I remember when.....

Originally our side yard was such an overgrown wilderness, that we had no idea that the tree existed. After we blazed a trail with our machetes, chain saws and Miller High Life, using more chutzbah than expertise, this pink and white giant dominated the landscape. We used the lower branch as a swing for Kris and Kaila, as endless numbers of film store developed pictures can attest. When Kris and Kaila got older, they used it as a swing for the younger  neighborhood kids, and the tree's legacy grew.

Over the past 10 years,  more and more of the tree died, but since the girls were out of the house, it carried little emotional meaning. This past weekend, the final death march was performed.

The tree came down quite easily, as the branches and trunk were brittle, void of life as the saw buzzed through  its minor girth,  my shaking arms offering more resistance than the tree itself. After much ado about cutting and cracking and creaking and pulling,  the site of so many years of life, laughter, joy, remembrance,  and nostalgia, consisted of a large hole, and a somewhat resistant root. I, in the role of executioner, and wielding an ax long dormant in our shed, was ready.

But alas, this was a labor of love, like burying an old friend. Ironically, this friend was not being interred in the earth, but freed from it. The final result was a perfectly neat, fairly level circle of grass and top soil, ready to sprout and be green, with no sign of the beautiful, living treasure that enriched our lives and was a unique part of our early family.

As we learn each Spring, and with the passing of loved ones, life moves on, and we get back to our normal routine, our regular loves, fears and passions. Those no longer with us will forever inspire us, guide us, define us, comfort us, but we march forth to the next challenge, living, creating and embracing life. That's just what humans do.

Keep the faith and spread the love y'all !