In All Sizes

Just when I thought that I had run out of heroes- ker wham!- Greta Thunberg!

Now, if you come around here often, you've gotten used to me whining about the demise of my beloved rock'n'roll. Okay, let's be honest- you're bored sick of it. Geezus, it hung around for decades. It was meant to last for a year or two!

Not all of my heroes have come from rock'n'roll, of course. In fact, Roy Rogers was the first. It doesn't escape me that he wore glitter suits and played guitar while he sang. In what for me was a logical progression, Elvis, and then the Beatles, provided most of my inspiration for most of the rest of my life. 

While the trvialist ninnies argue over exactly what event signaled the official end of the fab four, we can all agree that they have been gone for nearly half a century, with only half of them walking on the planet. I have been rudderless for more than half my life. My long life.

Of course I have writers and race car drivers, poets, hookers and sons of god; doctors and scientists, movie stars, cult leaders and ventriloquists whom I tend to put up on wobbly pedestals. I try to talk like them and dress like them and comb my hair like they do. Well, I don't comb my hair all that often, but, if I did, I would try to comb it like James Dean combed his.

Finally, it seems only fitting that I am thunderstruck. 

This is the real thing. This is a hero.

Greta Thunberg is the sixteen year old Swedish student who began school strikes in 2018 to bring attention to the climate catastrophe that the planet faces. She is currently in the U.S. speaking to various groups and organizations to bring awareness to a wider audience. I feel the same excitement that coursed through my sixteen year old body when the Beatles first came to the states.

As you might guess, a great number of American adults are finding time to ridicule, harass and even threaten this brave, young prophet. Oh, it's not strictly an American thing. Jerks and jackasses from around the world, who happen to submit to profit over science, are in on the opposition.

The wise sixteen year old takes it as a sign that she's dealing with truth. I do, too.

Welcome, Greta. You're just in time.

One Search

The search feels like such a lonely endeavor, and yet, it's all the same search. If you're naive enough, you'll never lose your innocence. Of course, you will just seem dumb to most of the folks you meet. I have suggested that we leave the decisions to the poets. I'm gonna guess that that will be considered naive.

My jokes and my philosophy share brainwave space. It's handy. Of course my favorite comedians don't tell jokes. Never did. 

Oh, I ramble. That's what I do. You don't get good at rambling, but you don't get tired of it, either.

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

Born Lonely

They slap you on the bottom to make you cry in the beginning and they keep on until it's over. When someone takes your hand and loves you, it makes you wonder why it's not all like this.

Maxine and Lottie always insisted that I was the smartest one. The most handsome. They told me that I sang prettier than anyone ever had. 

Now, I'm not particularly smart, but I was always smart enough to know that none of that was true. It taught me about love and I suppose that was my lesson.

Teacher's Pet

It's not about the guru. Everybody's got something to teach you. There is no design, no plan, no righteous path. Children will show you kindness, and dogs and cats will share joy with you.

Everybody gets hurt on the journey and that's just the way it is.

Seems to me that those of us who have been given everything should be honored to share the love with everybody around us.

Go, cat, go.

Go Cut Me A Hickory Switch!

The morbid angels keep an eye on them. Once they slumped on green benches. Now they belly up to the bar at the Emerald. No rush. Bars are dark and the good ones are cold. It's all part of the preparation, I suppose.

It's all about kindness. Pity the ones who find out too late.

What key? What's the difference? Sing with all your heart and mean every word of it.

Pale Blue Jawbreakers

Seems to me that the validity of miracles is really just an exercise in semantics. It's all a miracle to me. Boy, I woulda' traded that island for those beads in a wink of the eye. Still would!

Now, I've never tried to tell you that I'm smart. What if I convinced you and later you found me out? I would like to tell you that it's more important to be happy, but I'm not always happy, either.

With me, what you see is pretty much what you get. Problem is what you see tomorrow might be something else. Oh, I try to tell the truth, but, honestly, that keeps changing on me, too.

While you're beating the swords into plowshares, melt those danged guns down, too. 

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

Wine and Chartreuse

My crystal ball sits on a bookshelf, gathering dust. One of the problems with eccentricity is that folks don't know when to take you seriously. Seriously.

When I tell you that I'm not like the others, believe me.

The lucky ones don't have a clue as to what others think of them.