Mad Englishmen and Dogs

For some of us it's hard to accept that there is no hurry. I don't know where we're going but I'm pretty sure we're all going to the same place. The very idea that old men continue to trick young men into fighting breaks my heart. Oh, I remember when I had such high hopes for mankind. That was, of course, all before Milli Vanilli.

Time marches in that one direction and I continue to have everything I've ever wanted. When they tell you to be careful what you wish for, just ignore them. They're the same ones who told you that the meek will inherit the earth.

Don't trade your soul for green paper, either. Slow down. Enjoy dreams. Love wildly, carelessly.

Give us peace on earth and end this dreadful, dreadful war.

 

When It Rains

 

This is it, isn't it? It's not really that there is no meaning to life. It's just that this is it. Of course I don't possess the vocabulary to describe it, but neither did Einstein, Buddha, Elizabeth Barrett Browning or Pythagoras. 

It's the end that we learn to dread. Few of us have the imagination to imagine whatever life is without us. Except for history majors, we're mostly arrogant enough to conclude that everything that came before us was just an opening act. 

Listen pal- I may be an insignificant speck on another insignificant speck in a vast cosmos, but I'm just as significant as any other speck on his own. Enjoy yourself. It's later than you think.

 

 

Formal Attire

While I grieved my loss of rock'n'roll, I kept my mind off other loss. Real loss. It finally dawns on me that rock'n'roll was merely symbolic of my youth, my innocence. It could have been football or religion. 

If you're looking for the meaning of life, searching for truth, well, buddy- this is it. 

Turn the love up to 10 and live. Hotcha!

 

Train Time

What a night! I was nine years old and I had just watched Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers follow the Drifters onstage who had brought out their special guest for the evening, Clyde McPhatter, who was home on-leave in his U.S. Army uniform. 

We were waiting for Bo Diddley and the Platters; the Teen Queens and, of course, the headliners, Bill Haley and the Comets. Great goodness!

Suddenly the familiar riff from Tweedlee Dee wafted through the cavernous armory walls with that wondrous clang of the holy cowbell. The spotlight shone on the sequinned shape at the foot of the stage steps. LaVern Baker raised both arms and snapped her fingers. Two of the guys from the band dutifully dropped their horns and ran to the steps, lifting Ms. Baker by her elbows to the stage. Her dress, above the crinolinely flare, was too tight to walk up the steps.

If that wasn't the height of Western civilization up till then, it was close.

 

Never Said Never

 

Stories use me. Yeah, they probably get frustrated with my attention span, or really, my lack of attention span. There's a real world and there's perception. I've lost track, somehow, of whether this is the dream or the reality. 

Kindness is the key and love is the answer. Everything else is filler.

I've meant to tell you that I love you.