Winsome, Lose Some

Sometimes it's obvious to me that I just need to step back and take a better look at this world, my world. Every time that it seems like I've backed up about as far as I can, I discover that the binoculars can be turned around.

Paul Ehrlich died recently. In the late '60's and early '70's he was an authority on predicting the future. His book, The Population Bomb, scared us all silly, warning us that the earth was overpopulated and beyond any reasonable carrying capacity. He was the most visible futurist out there at the time, a serious version of The Amazing Kreskin.

Now, of course, any economist worth his hedge fund can tell you that the big threat to any culture is a shrinking population. Not enough babies being born. Fornication took a big hit when TikTok came along. The Chinese went directly from fining couples who produced too many offspring to rewarding couples who procreated. Keeps the cigar and baby buggy industries chugging.

Even though most of what Dr. Ehrlich forecast has come to pass, his message regarding our quality of life with too many of us on the planet is out of fashion. What good is clean air and clean water if the nasdaq index is down. Who cares about a famine in Sudan if it doesn't affect the Tech Bros? Eventually Jeff will have the drones delivering deli items and Leon will have charging stations all over Khartoum, and it will all work out. Don't count out the gentrification of Mars!

As Red Green would say, "Don't forget- we're all in this together."

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Orjbwv8H9zM

 

What You Wish For

Yeah, I know. 

Here I sit in a spectacular natural setting, the sea all around me, on an island, cut off from the boring "real world." Everything's slow here. There's a human scale that seems to have gone out of fashion in most places. Traffic's sparse and dogs are everywhere. They all seem slower and calmer, too. 

Work's not plentiful but neither is ambition. 

Smugglers and sailors and pirates make up most of the history and the tales of the area. Hasn't been much money around here since the navy pulled out. The navy's loss.

Cruise ships bring folks in to gawk at the locals and the natural beauty of the place.

No, I'm not sitting here, hunched over a laptop and a Bloody Mary at Pepe's in Key West. I'm settled on a soft sofa in my living room in Portland, Dorset, my home for the last three years on the English Channel.

Yeah, I'm sure the world will find us. Honestly, we would welcome a few hippies and queers and perverts and drunks and pirates. A few bucks from the more adventurous artists and writers and celebrities of all stripes would go a long way towards patching a few potholes and caring for a few hedgehog orphans, too.

I know that I'm lucky. I won't be here to wring my hands and tell the newcomers what they missed. These are the good old days, my friend.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsvW9db5So8&list=RDEsvW9db5So8&start_radio=1

 

Paradise & Utopia

Floaters. Remember floaters? Seems like they were like hula hoops or pet rocks. Every now and again, during an eye examination, a doctor will ask, "Do you ever have floaters?" The fact that I'm supposed to know what he's asking about confirms that they exist, or, at least that they once did.

Mostly I seem to remember that the more you tried to look at one, the quicker it drifted away. Floated.

Happiness is like that, isn't it? Meditation. Thoughtful living. Give a beggar a mansion and he's gonna worry about upkeep, insurance, the neighbours fence.

I'd like to advise you on accepting this beautiful existence. I would if I knew.

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

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h79TPsAIWjs
 

Rain Barrels and Monkeys

They're not the boss of you. You hear some version of that all your life, and yet you stay in line, nose to the grindstone and your pants pulled up. Well, I suppose I've lived a little out of the mainstream, but only a little. No more. From this point forward I'm living like my party's in power, the good guys are in charge, my team won.

My team, by the way, consists of the underdogs, the kind ones, the folks who understand that it's a short ride and every second that you waste is a second that you've lost. A good nap, by the way, is not a waste. Neither is any time that you spend making someone, or something, happy.

There's plenty of tragedy in this world and there always will be. Use your love like a fireman uses water. You're the boss.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4loLXZutaiM

 

Why Quit Now?

Most days I desperately want to quit. Social media, that is. I'm so sick of spilling my coffee, only to be inundated with ads for paper towels before I can get to the kitchen. Oh, yeah- I don't want to see the big, bold headlines that Willie has died again and that Neil has passed out onstage in front of six million fans while debasing Donald Trump, whose mother had a secret bible that she got from Mary Magdalene.

Who knew that I would ever miss the good old days of imaginative fake news headlines:

"Pitbull Eats Mobile Home"

"Hillary Pregnant With Alien Baby"

"Arthur Godfrey's Three-legged Son Makes Olympic Team"

If I lose track of my dear friends' birthdays and funeral notices, I will have cut nearly all ties to the USA. Keep reading these blogs. The fact that I haven't said anything important yet increases the odds that I might at any minute.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7X7mdCx7SZA

 

 

What This Town Needs

Expats leave homes for different reasons. A new place becomes home. If we're all just walking each other home, let's just keep on walking. Keep loving. Rock breaks scissors but love conquers all. Tell 'em Groucho sent you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kGaKT7dMyQ

 

Write Real

Sometimes it's easy to forget that there are more good people than bad. I won't debate the definition of "good" or "bad" here. The ones in charge have succeeded in having us argue about politics, religion, immigration and equality. I still know a good guy when I see one and I'll bet that you do, too.

Be still.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0ae6WXvMA0

 

Waiting For A Bus

If religion and politics are basically control tools, I have a suggestion. Don't play. 

Do any of those jokers in government or in the pulpit ever look like they're having a good time? No, of course not. Take a look at a kid in a mud puddle. Watch a cat with a box.

Whistle a tune and you're a songwriter. Paint animals and sunsets on your shoes and you're an artist, a fashion designer. 

Get your mind into the gutter and keep it there. Love like your life depends on it.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JW3VNAkCf-4&list=RDJW3VNAkCf-4&start_radio=1

 

So They Say

As always, some things are better, some things are worse. Do you suppose we're near some end, or do you see a Golden Age on the horizon?

Today's villains are world class. I suppose we have Marvel comics to thank. That, politics and religion.

Heroes seem scarce. Maybe I just don't know where to look anymore. Bruce and Lucinda are still at it, more fiercely than ever. Jesse Welles is here. There are some old school journalists sub-stacking here and there. A young  reporter couldn't find a job. 

Don't give up. Peace and love have been down before.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fK7dNU_8myA&list=RDfK7dNU_8myA&start_radio=1

 

My Favourite Planet

As I watch the news from across an ocean, I struggle to keep even a flaccid upper lip. The struggle for attention and power and revenge dominates most all of any media coverage. Folks who wanted to be famous but had no talent and men who craved wealth but weren't born to it battle cruel people with no empathy and bad guys who were bullied or abused, by parents or schoolmates, for attention and revenge.

Here I sit in a little corner of paradise, cut off from the everyday kerfuffle, and try to make sense of it. Of course there is no sense to be made of it. 

If one of the madmen drops the big one, then I disappear like everyone and everything else. Short of that, I have to file the sad state of human affairs along with the other sad factors of life. 

Love is the only alternative. It's easy. Its value is incalculable and its cost is free. 

The deck is stacked, dear friends. It's their dice. I salute the brave combatants who keep the struggle alive and I would love, more than anything, to be proven wrong. Looks to me like cheaters win.

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

 

What A View

On a day like this I feel like the oldest dog in the pound who just got taken home to live like a king for his remaining days. As Kurt would say, "If this isn't nice, what is?"

I am finally learning to tune out the static from the news. Oh, I'm still outraged and my heart is broken on a regular basis. I care as much as ever. Anguish that I'm unable to convert to action, however, won't change the world.

Did I come along at the right time- you know, Elvis, hot rods, peace & love- or do I just romanticise the life I've lived?

Who cares? I've sung my songs to the sweetest folks in the world.

 

The Last of Jazz

The last things in the world that I want to fight about are religion and politics. Really, I would rather not fight at all, with anyone, about anything. I'm probably a little better at avoiding conflict than I was as a young man. Not much.

There are patterns that became obvious to me that endure as I watch the world spin. First and foremost, there are good guys and bad guys.

Don't tell me if your candidate is a Republican or a Democrat; is he a good guy or a bad guy?

I'm less interested in the color of your immigrant than I am in his plans for the future. I'm not that interested in the deity that he prays to unless he is looking to blow up some of the others because of a message from that god.

Yep, good guys and bad guys. Wrestlers, cowboys, politicians, bankers, soldiers, preachers and whatever else you've got.

History is written by the victors. This new batch, if there are books in our future, should be fascinating. If I'm around, I'll rush to look up slavery, fascism, living wage, climate change...

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

 

Too Tight To Fight

Don't run out of dreams before you run out of steam. Life, for me, has gotten better in fits and starts since I was a kid. There are days when I think maybe I had better use up some of this love and luck, just to keep from having it go to waste at the end. 

My will is pure poetry, boys.

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