Archive for January, 2010

Second Lesson From A Tree

Sunday, January 31st, 2010

moon-through-trees-sarah-mcternen

It was Friday night at about 11:30 and a beautiful full moon was out. It was a bit chilly and while I always enjoy my night walk with Abandon through Central Park, I was looking forward to getting home and into my warm house, whose electricity is now powered 100% by wind energy, which I was told would only add about $7 a month to my bill when I switched but seems to have had added an additional $30 or so each bill, which has resulted in me thinking, “Fuck the polar bears!”

Since it was pretty cold, I thought I would cut short my visit with my tree friend. I shared a few breaths and was going to go but was called to lean my back against him like I usually do when it is more temperate and just like the call to urinate or defecate, I couldn’t resist the call. Actually, I have resisted the call to urinate, like the time when the Six Million Dollar Man 2-hour Bigfoot episode was on and I had to take a piss but held it in for the duration, but you get my point. Uh, just in case you didn’t get my point, it was not that I can “hold my water, Cybil!” but that when something calls deeply, it is impossible to resist—unless a classic Bigfoot show is on, of course.

Looking up through my tree friend’s branches, I saw the full moon blazing away. I was suddenly drawn into the moon, the same way I was drawn into the guitar during one of the The Allman Brothers Band’s long jams when I went to see them at the Beacon Theater after I took a puff of the marijuana cig that was passed down my aisle. I remember thinking, “Maybe music and drugs are not such a bad thing,” soon followed by, “I love you, man!” eventually followed by, “I could really use some chips about now.”

As my vision locked on the bright full moon, the branches that were moving in the wind faded into a background blur of subtle movement. And my tree friend’s next lesson was implanted all at once, without the need for time or space.

He showed me that when one focuses on the light, all the wild movements that tend to occupy one’s attention essentially disappears. If we focus on the light inside of us, meaning our love and our passion, the little frustrations in life takes a back seat, for our heart’s joy is as entrancing and mesmerizing as the full moon. If we focus on the light in another, meaning their inner beauty and their child-like innocence beyond their idiocy, all the silly nuances that tend to frustrate us pales in brightness. He shared with me that it is not that the inner light inside of us or anyone else fades, but only that our focus shifts from Truth to distraction.

The lesson was done; my tree friend didn’t need to expand on what he had shown me so simply and clearly—and I was glad, as it was a little too cold to be listening to a long dissertation. As I walked away I thought about all the “branches” I had focused on and how many “full moons” I had been blinded to instead of blinded by.

Footprints

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

footprints_in_sand_wallpaper

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the truth will burn clean

falsehood leaves a residue

please leave no footprints

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The Baseball Mitt In The Garbage Can

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

My Ted Williams Mitt2-1

The son said to the father, “I want to be a professional baseball player!”

The father said, “Only 1 in a 100,000 become professional baseball players.”

The son smiled, “Well that 1 is going to be me!”

But rather than playing with the son and helping him to hone his skills and guiding him to come to his own conclusion as to whether this was his real heart’s calling or not, the father kept telling the son how impractical his dream was…in words, in looks, in lack of support. He filled his son with practicality and mistook it for love.

And so one day the son finally walked past a garbage can and dropped his mitt into it. And when he got home he told his father what he had done. He still had the smallest hope that his father would say, “No! Let’s get your glove and get to work!” But all his father said was, “That’s a good thing you did, son.”

And on that day something died inside of the son. It was not just his dream of becoming a professional baseball player. It was his very dream factory itself that closed down.

The son got good grades in school and his father would tell him, “That’s a good boy!” He got into a good college and graduated top of his class. His father elbowed the man next to him and pointed at his son as he was handed the honor. He started his own company and became very successful in his business, making a lot of money and achieving some recognition.

And at his father’s funeral he stood there, handsome in his fine black suit, his wife and two small children standing obediently by his side. As a silent tear rolled down his face, he mourned not only the man who lay under the ground but the son with dreams who had been buried long ago.

Lesson From A Tree

Monday, January 25th, 2010

2362770-3-weeping-willow

I went for my nightly walk with Abandon in Central Park. When I saw my tree friend, I ran up to him and gave him a hug, as life’s challenges were weighing on me and I really needed if not to be held then to hold another. I had seemed to have lost my smile; I was thinking of checking Grand Central Station’s Lost & Found, as this was where I had recently lost my wallet and my inline skates [http://rebelyogi.com/thieves-amongst-us.html].

I released my arms from around his powerful trunk and stood with my back against my friend as I looked up through his wispy branches, now bare from winter, to the sky above. And then he spoke by showing me, instead of by preaching to me like humans are prone to.

When most people preach, there is a level of condescension always underlying their words. “I know better than you!” “You’re a sinner!” “I can’t wait until this sermon is over so that I can get high and sleep with someone who I am not married to, preferably under the age of twelve.” When trees show, their teaching contains nothing but love.

His branches moved with the wind, matching the power that was applied to them like a tai chi master, so that they would move but not break. Looking through his latticework of branches I could see his thick trunk, solid, grounded and steady. In my minds eye he showed me his roots, which had grown deep and spread out subterrainally just like his branches above the ground; nothing short of an earthquake could uproot him.

Life is the wind, filled with challenges and difficulties, and it will blow us around. Only a domesticated tree inside a house will be able to avoid the gusts. But it will also never know the full experience of treehood, of feeling sunshine warming its leaves, and rain soaking its soil, and animals and people climbing and sitting against it.

It is up to us to build a strong foundation on love and consciousness and what’s important to us, so that we can allow our branches to “go with the flow” and keep ourselves ever-grounded in Who We Are.

Last night, Duck and I had a strong disconnect in the dysfunction of the “small box” of Instant Messaging, one of the limited forms of dyscommunication that we currently use to traverse the 3,600 miles between us. Perhaps it brought clarity to both of us about challenges we face and whether they are insurmountable or not. I hope we can both remain grounded and that the only uprooting is of the weeds that keep us from growing to our full height, whether together or apart.

Waking Up From Dreaming

Friday, January 22nd, 2010

Dreaming

“All desiring is dreaming and all dreaming takes you away from you…The dream can exist only if you go away from you. The dream has to be a falsification of reality; the dream has to be something else than reality.”

—Osho from The Man Who Loved Seagulls (pp. 192-193)

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On Martin Luther King Day, I dug through my papers and found a piece I had written a few years back called “I Have A Dream” and posted it on “Enlightening Nonsense” [http://rebelyogi.com/i-have-a-dream.html]. The first version was “I Have A Wet Dream” and involved me, Martin and his seven mistresses in a tour de orgy, which I sold to Ebony Penthouse Forum in exchange for a handjob from that month’s centerfold. When it was published, they had changed my name to Leroy and made my cock only 12”, feeling that by taking off two inches the readers would be less depressed when they sized up their own assets to my manhood.

The very next morning I was on the crapper reading my daily Osho when one of the first things I read was saying that dreams were bullshit and to stop dreaming:

“Desire is a dream and to work for a dream is doomed from the very beginning, because a dream can never become real. Even if sometimes you feel it has become almost real, it never becomes real—a dream by nature is empty. It has no substance in it.” [The Man Who Loved Seagulls (p. 195)]

When a seeker is driftwood, whatever he reads on any given day can change the current of his whole belief system. He may believe that Avatar was the best movie ever made but when he reads one bad review about how the story was weak at best, you will hear him asserting to all his friends like a born-again movie critic, “How could you like that movie? The storyline was totally non-existent!”

I am not driftwood. I don’t change my tune as quickly as the average American changes the station as he channel surfs the brainwashing box. I reflect, I ask and, if it comes to it, I am willing to destroy any false belief that was only propped up on hot air and not fact—even if it comes from a particular group that I support or something that I have firmly stated as fact and will look friggin’ stupid when I have to write a retraction that says, “Uh, my bad. I was wrong.” But I won’t implode a belief just because someone I respect says the opposite. Truthfully, all “beliefs” should be destroyed, for they are nothing but calcified ways of living in a world that requires flexibility. But I still hold onto a few, like the one that says not everyone in the world is a complete moron—despite not finding any evidence to the contrary.

A quote attributed to Napoleon Hill who was an author who wrote about personal success is: “Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” This quote has also been attributed to best-selling author W. Clement Stone and ripped off by Jesse Jackson who said, “If my mind can conceive it, and my heart can believe it, I know I can achieve it,” which helped contribute to it becoming the Black Fathers of America’s slogan regarding their children: “We conceive them and be leavin’ them—the black man’s greatest achievement.”

Just like the Law of Attraction, I was pretty certain that one had to be able to “dream” his “desire” before he could attract it, but it seemed Osho was saying that both dreaming and desiring were the tools of the idiot. So I asked.

“It seems to me a principle of the Law of Attraction and manifesting that if you want to achieve something, you first have to dream it. Are you saying this is not the case?”

Osho answered me rapidly and succinctly. “The problem lies in when you continue to focus on your desire and constantly daydream about it. When you do this, you fall out of the present and live in the future and then the dream becomes poisonous. If it is right for your soul’s growth and happiness, the Universe will bring it to you in its proper time.”

He was saying that I could use the Law of Attraction if I wanted, but I shouldn’t allow it to distract me from being in the present moment, which is the most important thing. Most who desire something, like riches or the perfect relationship, are easily pulled into the fantasy of a future filled with luxury, happiness and ease—their own version of the Heaven myth. Osho says that consciousness is the most important thing and this does not have to be “attracted”…but released. Suffering consciously would be much preferred to living the high life unconsciously, that is, if you want to wake up from the dream, the illusion that Hindus call Maya, the mind’s projection onto reality, and see reality as it really is.

And this got me thinking about Slow Duck and me. Ever since she moved back to Peru, I have been spending a lot of my time preparing and sending “surprises” to her in the mail, emailing her, IM-ing her, talking to her on the phone, thinking about being together with her and looking at and even dancing to her framed picture that I keep prominently displayed. Clearly the dream had become poisonous to the present.

The last time I obsessed like this, Jessica Alba had to file a restraining order against me. In my defense, the brick I threw at her window was just an escalation from the pebbles that I was throwing that didn’t seem to be getting her attention. I also didn’t realize that being naked with a bow around one’s penis violated decency laws in California, as this was perfectly acceptable courting dress when I was in Nebraska. Then again, there in Nebraska fucking sheep was also fair game. I won’t even start about the restraining order that Baa-baa-ra the sheep sought against me. In my defense, not being fluent in Sheep-eze, I mistook “Baaa, baaa” to mean, “Yes, yes!” instead of “Get the hell off of me, you sick bastard!”

jessica_alba_hef_10_big images

The challenge I face with Slow Duck is that without a lot of work on both of our parts, 3600 miles will kill any relationship, whether budding or fully flowered. It seems that one has to become a fusion of Osho and Martin Luther King, Jr., to have a dream but then to forget about it while your eyes are open so that you can live fully in the present moment.

I dreamed this morning that I woke up in my bed and Slow Duck was in my arms. I was totally happy lying there spooning my love. She then popped up and told me that she had to go to the bathroom. I was aware that this was a dream and thought, “A dream person doesn’t really have to go to the bathroom.” She kept the bathroom door open and as I opened my eyes to look at her sitting there, she disappeared from the dream. I closed my eyes halfway, desperately trying to keep the dream Duck alive. She reappeared and I was happy but new I couldn’t keep this dream going forever.

Suddenly we were outside and she was leaving in a rush. I barely got to say goodbye to her. From far away I saw some young boys harass her and even push her down. I ran to catch up to her but couldn’t find her. Finally I got to her and asked if she were alright. She said yes and was gone. I realized that she is too far away for me to keep safe and that we are too far away for me to protect the budding flower from the oncoming lawnmower.

And when I woke up, it wasn’t her but my dog resting in a ball in the concave of my spoon.

Dreams are meant to happen when our eyes are closed. Sometimes I wish my dreams would remain when I open my eyes; but they don’t. And life is meant to be lived with your eyes open.

dreaming25570bphomer-dreaming-of-doughnut-posters

Your Royal Highness

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

© January 20, 2010

sexy_black_queen

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I come on my knees to lay down before you

Bringing all that I am, longing only to know you…

What could I bring to honor your majesty?

What song could I sing

that would move the heart of royalty?

As your spirit flows free let it find within me

a heart that beats to praise you

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“Audience of One” by Big Daddy Weave

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Lie back and let me take the heavy load of the day

Out of your arms, off your shoulders, from your mind

I will gladly carry their weight

For I live only to serve you

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Release…Relax…

Remove all barriers to receiving

Spread yourself so there is space to enter

Allow me access to your hidden chamber

So that I can bow down

And honor your Royal Highness

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I will rub you slowly with my healing salve

Softly painting your Royal Highness

With the slippery slide of wide strokes

Using the tip for detail work around your Crowned Jewel

My brush lovingly lapping your liquid

As it mixes with my paint

To form a color crafted on communion

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Let yourself become engorged with the pleasure of life

Stimulated by this poor artist’s tool

Who admires the masterpiece that lies beneath him

As he inhales your perfection

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Allow yourself to arch, shake, yell, scream

No inhibitions

Nothing holding you back

Knowing that every sound, look, touch, taste

Is music that even your smooth, sultry silencers

Cannot stop me from hearing

I need no ears to hear your song

I dance in creation with you

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Go to the unknown place with me

Where an explosion can leave you in pieces

Or make you more whole

Let my juices be the glue that brings all your pieces together

And my love be the hands that raise you like a treasure

For the whole world to see

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Let me remind you that your throne

Is not made of gold and gems

Passed from parents

But is formed of pure glittering essence

Gifted from God

I Have A Dream…

Monday, January 18th, 2010

Martin_Luther_King_Jr

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You may say that I’m a dreamer

But I’m not the only one

I hope some day you’ll join us

And the world will be as one

—“Imagine” by John Lennon

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While I may not be as eloquent as Martin Luther King, Jr., or as brave as our Founding Forefathers, nor as visionary as a shaman medicine man, I, too, have a dream…

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I have a dream…

that we will live in a land where one can park his bicycle anywhere and leave it there without a lock and it will be there when he gets back. That bicycle locks will no longer be made and any existing ones will be melted down so they can be used for something productive.

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I have a dream…

that we will make the tire that doesn’t wear out, the battery that lasts forever, the pantyhose that doesn’t run, and all other items that we already have the capability to create but aren’t due to the overwhelming desire for profit, and focus all that energy not into putting a dollar into our individual pockets but creating a better world for the collective trouser.

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I have a dream…

where no one can pass someone homeless, hungry, or just down on their luck without feeling not an obligation, but a need, to assist this person in anyway she can.

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I have a dream…

that one can travel anywhere, be it to another town, another state, another country, or another planet without having to furnish any permit, passport, or other form of identification in order to exercise our God-given rights. In my dream, no one has any claim to a piece of land, parking space, or country and would actually take pleasure in having others enjoy that area.

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I have a dream…

where everyone is doing the work that their passions have led them to pursue and not just something to pay the bills or buy nice things. It will be encouraged to pursue your artistic and creative endeavors and we will all want everyone to express their passions and will feel unsatisfied unless they are allowed that opportunity.

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I have a dream…

where we don’t rely on chemicals or drugs to provide health but that we rely on the answers from love and nature. No one will be charged for receiving treatment because it will be everyone—the doctor and the neighbor’s—ultimate desire for everyone to be able to live optimally according to his desires. Since we will all be neighbors, no one—be they next door or in the next country—will be left out from our loving wish list of health and prosperity.

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I have a dream…

where families rely less on television and Game Boys to pass the time and more on discourse and discussion. Cellular phones and MP3 players will not be a source of self-absorption but something to remind us of where we came from and how dysfunctional our communication has grown.

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I have a dream…

where the best present a parent can give her child is the gift of her time and love. Where a child will run to her mother before she runs to a gift-wrapped box containing a present. Where we will see the wisdom in children and they will help us stay true to the wisdom we have gained and clarify the wisdom we have misunderstood.

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I have a dream…

where majority doesn’t rule but where each individual’s voice is heard. We don’t discard 499 voices out of 1000 because 501 people decided a certain way. Where we won’t rest until we find that majority only “rules” when the majority consists of everyone.

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I have a dream…

where the only label we have is that of “a perfect soul” and not others based on color, religion, sex or which sex with whom we prefer to share intimacy, profession, economics, social status, or any other item used to separate and not unite.

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I have a dream…

where we will realize that animals are sentient beings, here to live out their lives to their utmost, and not here for us to use for our personal pleasures and desires. Respect will be given to all sentient beings and not just our fellow man.

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I have a dream…

where no one will ever forget that they are perfect, where no one will ever go hungry, where everyone and everything is treated with respect, be they human, animal, insect, plant, dirt or rock. Where everyone sees this dream as not something to wish for but something they cannot live without. My dream is that we work at this dream and make it a reality, and whether we achieve it in our lifetime or not we won’t stop striving for it and we will be just as satisfied knowing that our children will be living it even if we never do. And in my dream, our regular state of being is beyond any dream imaginable and so we no longer spend our time dreaming of the way it could be, but instead we spend it appreciating the way it is.

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I wrote this piece about three or four years ago. I didn’t change any words, except where pronouns were a little off. It is now 2010 and it seems my dreams are still yet to manifest. But my dreams will never be thrown to the scrap heap of surrender.

Most of us have stopped dreaming because we have been told somewhere along the line that dreams are not practical. I would beg to differ. I think what is not “practical” is to continue living like we have, with no heart, no soul and no respect for others or ourselves.

I have one more dream to add today to my list:

I have a dream…

where I once again have my love in my arms…and I hold her and kiss her and never let her go.

May all your dreams come true. And they can, if you don’t hold onto them and believe that all is possible.

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REFLECTION:

What are your dreams and when did you stop dreaming them?

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MEDITATION:

Imagine there’s no heaven

It’s easy if you try

No hell below us

Above us only sky

Imagine all the people

Living for today…

Imagine there’s no countries

It isn’t hard to do

Nothing to kill or die for

And no religion too

Imagine all the people

Living life in peace…

Imagine no possessions

I wonder if you can

No need for greed or hunger

A brotherhood of man

Imagine all the people

Sharing all the world…

You may say I’m a dreamer

But I’m not the only one

I hope someday you’ll join us

And the world will live as one

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-up2xyRvN2U&feature=related

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech

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Brokeback Swami

Tuesday, January 12th, 2010

gayswami

To avoid confusion regarding the title of this piece, “Brokeback Swami” is not going to be a story about how I went to an ashram in India seeking self-realization and the next thing you know I’m fucking some fellow swami in the ass. This happened but that’s not the story I’m going to tell now. Let’s just say his name was Bindu and his ass was as tight as a 5-year old Arabic girl who can outrun her father.

I never saw the movie Brokeback Mountain but I quickly grew tired of closet queers praising the movie as a modern “War and Peace.” Now before you call me homophobic—I’m not. Homo comes from the ancient Greek, “Homonus,” which was the name of a tailor in ancient Athens who was famous for his ability to fix one’s cuff length with expertise, as well as sucking a mean cock, and means “faggot.”

Phobic comes from the Roman Phobiathus, who was a pansy who was scared of his own shadow—like the government-created pussies of today who if they see an unattended piece of toilet paper on the floor will throw their arms in the air and scream like they just saw a mouse until the Great Protector, the government, will come and not pick up the piece of toilet paper but make them go through toxic full-body radiation scanners and have TSA perverts look at the image of their naked bodies and laugh at the size of their penises or wack-off to the pictures of their young daughters—and means “afraid.”

So homophobic means “afraid of faggots.” I’m not afraid of them. I hate them.

I don’t hate poofs for what they choose to put in their mouth or ass. I couldn’t give a rat’s ass about that. Speaking of rodents, I just rented Pretty Woman and, inspired by Richard Gere’s real-life antics, at the moment I’m writing this, I have a gerbil up my ass. I hate butt-munchers because they’re pussies.

When I say they’re pussies, I’m not referring to the fact that if you comment on their pink silk ascot not quite matching their red socks that they will burst into tears. That’s just funny. I hate them because if they valued expressing Authentically what they do—which is interior decorating, fashion designing, acting on film and stage, sucking dick and taking it in the ass—then we could all just get over it and actually see Who They Are, which is more than a collection of limp-wristed cocksuckers.

I had a personal training client who on our first session, almost nonchalantly said, “I’m meeting my boyfriend later and we want to go to dinner in the area. Do you have any recommendations?” He was not a total fembot and didn’t act like my non-obviously gay clients who never used pronouns when describing their social activities, “I went out with my significant other and when they saw the menu they didn’t know what to order so my partner then looked at me for a suggestion.” Nigga, please! With this client, it just was what it was and that was it. No ponderings, “I wonder if his ‘partner’ is a man or a woman…” because it was said straight up, pardon the pun, and not apologetically. And the result was that it was a complete non-issue, other than me wearing a bathing suit when we hit the steam room together.

Instead gayblades value their careers and social standing in a repressively phony society and so we have gay men like Tom Cruise jumping up and down on Oprah pathetically pretending to be straight. It’s fine to be an actor on film but, for god sakes, in real life it’s time to be you and not a fake character that is created and directed by society.  [http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/155090]

While the term “Islamo-fascists” was created by the New World Order Scum (NWOS) to further their agenda of, speaking of taking it in the ass, bending us over a table and having us cry out, “Thanks for the protection!” because we have become terrified of a term created by ripping off the candy Bit-O-Honey, there are still many who swallow the jiz of Muhammad with bad intentions towards the “infidels,” which they define as anyone who doesn’t wear a diaper on his head, abuse women and preach that the only problem with the world is Israel.

But where are the “moderate Islamos” speaking up and saying, “Yo nigga, I don’t know what the fuck these towel heads are practicing but it sure ain’t Islam”? We mostly hear silence from these “moderate” pussies. Why? “Oh, they’re scared of being killed.” Why? Then they can float right up and swim in the rivers of wine in Muslim Heaven. Of course they won’t get any of that young, virgin poon that is reserved for the ones who blow themselves up because being a brainless idiot is apparently rewarded in the Muslim faith.

In the same way, the whole “gay” issue, while created by Puritan hypocrites who slaughtered Indians, raped slaves and preach gospels that would have Jesus deresurrect if he listened to them instead of ignore them as the fools they are, is perpetuated by fruit loops hiding like rats from the light, instead of prancing around gallantly in their ballet tutus like they have a pair.

If all the fudge-packers came out of the bakery and said, “We’re here, we’re queer—now suck it!” what would all the straights do? Maybe a few would take the sticks out of their asses and put a dick in it instead. But when their lawyers and their doctors and their florists (no shit?) and their gyno (figures—only a gay man could enjoy staring at a fish taco all day!) and their friends and Tom Cruise boldly took off their masks and proudly showed their faces, the straights would have no choice but to suck it. And besides an increase in sales for the knee-pad companies, it would become a non-issue and we could move on and focus all that energy creating an issue out of nothing into finding a cure for cancer or, more likely, onto something else to hate and oppress.

I remember my annoyance in my theatrical days of what were considered the “gay plays,” how instead of being about real relationships—regardless of whether it was between a man and a woman or two men—they became about flamboyance and prancing and sex. How shallow. I thought gay men to have a lot more depth than the gay playwrights were depicting them.

I once got a role in a show called, “Cute Boys In Their Underpants” (I shit you not!) I have a feeling I booked the role more for how the directors imagined I would look in my underpants than from my ten plus years of training as an actor.

As irony would have it, I was playing the token “straight” role. But when I got the whole script, there was one scene where I would have a dildo shoved in my mouth and another where I would have to lick some brown substance off one of the other character’s fingers and I said, “Fuck this!” and quit. They were pissed, as they had already printed up promotion cards with my name on it. But while admission into the Actors Equity union was waved in my face, there was too much dick going around and the whole thing smelled like dick cheese.

"I'll tell ya', besides my love for dick, the best part for me about being gay is the pants optional parties!"

"I'll tell ya', besides loving dick, the best part for me about being gay is the pants-optional parties!"

I would love to play a homosexual character in a play which is about a real relationship, with all its joys and struggles, it laughter and tears, and not about dicks and asses and dialogue like, “Oh, I’d like to see you wearing a thong, hot pants!” That’s just gay and I mean that in the “not cool” way. I like to believe there is more to being gay than just being carnal with people of the same sex. Maybe I need to write The Great Gay Play. If I do, don’t call me a sell-out if I keep in the “hot pants” line!

So now instead of going into a restaurant and making goo-goo eyes with the host and overdramatically throwing my napkin down and announcing that I am going to the bathroom, where he will meet me and we will proceed to blow each other like two leaf blowers, that is, if the “leafs” were Leif Garret, we instead have to wait until I leave with my date and clandestinely leave my card on his desk as I facetiously thank him for a lovely evening, the implication being that if he calls me later that evening, when we meet it will be a lot more memorable than an overcooked piece of dead, tortured animal and an overpriced bottle of wine sitting across from a woman that I am eating with to give the false pretense that I “fit in,” when the only thing I want to fit into is his ass. I would answer the hosts, “Table for two?” with, “To eat, yes. But the only straw I need is if you and me are felching later.”

Leif Garrett

LEIF GARRETT circa 1976, before going bald, being arrested and on VH1's "Has Beens: Where Are They Now And Why Do We Care?"

But this Garden of Eden will only be possible if we all grow a pair of testicles and live Authentically, not “asking” for our rights but demanding them and if they are not given to us—then taking them. I’m just waiting for the “fair and balanced”—which means fair-skinned and able to walk the police line test after downing a bottle of scotch—Fox News to announce, “The New Al-Qaeda—faggots.” At least gays won’t complain when they are given full-body cavity searches at the airports. Hell, they may even find a few lost golf balls up there and a statue of Dick Nixon!

This piece was intended to be about my broke ass, which is a stone throw away from eating out of garbage cans, but I have to go with the flow and apparently the flow took me to the fruit tree instead of the vegetable garden. But the “serious” part of all this, for those morons out there who either have no sense of humor or preach “laser love,” which means, “As long as you believe in the way I do I’ll love you,” until each one of us lives Authentically, we are always going to be subject to bullshit, whether imposed by government, employers, society, neighbors, family or ourselves. Of course it reads like a gay piece but, then again, so do I.

What has it been worth for you to sell your soul to the Devil? To the stupid Christians who believe in fairy tales, by “the Devil” I am not referring to the make-believe being that your church manipulators created because they couldn’t accept that God created it all—which includes not just “light” and “love” but “dark” and “evil” as well—but the lie that you live and pretend is real, which can only be a living Hell.

I don’t want to live in your Hell anymore, even if you powder it with perfume and call it Heaven. If I were a pussy I would kill myself but I’m not. So all I can do is devote myself to destroying this Hell that you have decorated with curtains and flowers. I will piss on your candelabra and revel in the smell of urine over the smell of false “light.” I will proudly show my scars, not as another ego trip to wear as a badge of fake honor like the generals who wear all those faggy colored ribbons and medals and pretend that they’re anything more than directing men and women to the meat grinder, but to show myself proudly—with all my imperfections.

But there really will be no “imperfections”—because that very term is defined on the lie of an ideal way of looking or being or behaving. I will proudly show my “perfect” disfigurements—because I am not a “moderate” who apologetically asks for permission to raise his voice. And I am not a pussy who needs validation for expressing my juicy Authentic Self from a bunch of plastic fruit.

If for no other reason, join the Rebel-ution for the sole reason that we can shut people up about Brokeback Mountain. In my fantasy future, people will walk out of a movie like Brokeback Mountain and say, “What’s the big deal, two dudes fucking each other? The movie blew—and I don’t just mean with its representations of fellatio. Let’s get out of here and blow each other.”

brokeback-mountain2

"Brokeback Mountain" released in Europe under the title "Brokeanus Mountain"

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REFLECTION:

Look at what the routine is you go through every morning—brushing your teeth, showering, putting on make-up, putting on your costume of the day, be it suit and tie or a maid’s outfit with French lace stockings. Why? Don’t give me the bullshit reason that others have told you. Why do you choose to do it? Most probably you think that you have no choice. “My teeth will fall out…my body will smell…I will look ugly…they won’t let me go to work in sweatpants.”

What clothes do you wear when you’re sitting in front of your television set being fed propaganda from either fake news or sit-coms designed to make you think that all guys are bumbling idiots and all women need to be strong and dominating? Is it your power suit or business dress? If your answer is no, then your daily outfit is just a costume equivalent to a clown’s. If your answer is yes, unless you are too exhausted from your daily slave labor to take off the day’s costume, you are beyond any help.

What would your morning routine change if due to a nuclear holocaust there were no other people on earth? How much do you do because you choose to and how much do you do because you think you have to?

MEDITATION:

Imagine you are a dog and living in a dog’s world. Look around you and notice how when dogs approach each other, they don’t care whether the other is fat, thin, big, small, male, female, itchy, dirty, black, white, brown, or what species they are. They just smell them and explore them for the essence of Who They Are.

Walk around and explore this world of dogs and don’t get spooked if someone sticks his or her nose up your ass. Remember, you’re a dog—this is what you do!

[http://www.hulu.com/watch/98486/family-guy-pick-up-my-poop]

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Row To Me

Friday, January 8th, 2010

© January 7, 2010, Swami X

DSC03849

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All in the golden afternoon

Full leisurely we glide;

For both our oars, with little skill,

By little arms are plied

While little hands make vain pretence

Our wanderings to guide

—Lewis Carroll, author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

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Rowing my boat

Always downstream

At times rocky

But I have always caught the Current

And gone with the River’s flow

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Some have thrown their oars

Trusting fully in the River

But I have chosen to keep mine

For sometimes I like to steer closer

to the banks and see the wild flowers

to the seagulls flying at the shore

to choppy water when I feel like a thrill

to smooth waters when I need a rest

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And then I saw you

Across the wide River

And suddenly all the colors of the wild flowers

Faded to grey

And all the magnificent heights of the seagulls soaring

Couldn’t pull my face away from yours

And the slap-slap of the water

Was drowned by the pitter-patter of my heart

.10

You smiled at me

And when I looked into your eyes

The River suddenly disappeared

And we were standing frozen

On the Shore of Now

Holding each other

Not only with glances

But arms

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I rowed towards you

But the Current of adversity was strong

I threw overboard any food I had

For only you could nourish me

And all I had accumulated on my journey

That I had formerly thought of value

Whose weight was now only keeping me from you

The only thing worth rowing for

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For every two strokes forward

I was pulled one back

And although my muscles ached

And my lungs burned

I new this was my final finish

That when I got to you

All my rowing would be over

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I waved for you to row to me

And you missed my signal

Because your head was down in your

maps and

charts and

tools of navigation

For rowing the River required one to be practical

And without the charts that had been handed down

From the experts of past

How could one hope to survive?

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But for me survival was no longer a consideration

The only thing that mattered was getting to you

Connecting our boats

And riding the current together

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When you finally closed your tools of safe travel

And saw me rowing towards you with all my might

You rowed a little in my direction

And now my heart had taken the oars from my muscles

Pushing full steam ahead

But when you heard the call from your party further on

You paused

And the current pulled you away from me

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I wouldn’t let up

I shouted out to you!

I professed my love for you!

I told you I would risk capsizing

And destroying my boat

If it meant that we could ride together!

But without your effort

My heart resided back into its place

And returned the work to my muscles

Which finally exhausted

And I stopped rowing

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As our boats drifted apart

Each in its own channel

I just stared at you

Wishing you had made the effort

For the Current of the River

Is way too strong to cross alone

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And now the slap-slap of the water became audible

And the calls of the seagulls filled the silence

And the Shore of Now

Became the Beach of Beyond

And I was aware that my face was wet

from water splashing

and sweat pouring

and tears falling

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Up ahead lay a Great Divider

And as your boat went to the left

And my boat to the right

I still thought it possible

That with enough effort

I could make it back to you

But I knew without you

Paddling hard towards me

We could never change the tracks we were in

And so I let that thought sink

Beyond the surface of hope

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Rowing to you was all that mattered

And now you were gone

So I threw my oars overboard

And sat back in my boat

Acknowledging defeat

Wishing I had never seen you

For now no wild flower or seagull

Could touch me

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And as I progressed further down the River

I became unsure

Whether you were real

Or a mirage created by a mind

Which had grown tired of rowing alone

Either way, I realized that I couldn’t hold you

And the image of you started to fade

Soon nothing but the feeling of recognition

I felt in your eyes

Remained like a fragrance

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Maybe the lesson the River was teaching

Is that it can’t be mastered with a dream

That one has to be practical

To maneuver its length

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And whether my boat finally arrives

At an Oasis of Splendor

Or whether it crashes into sharp rocks

Is of no importance to me

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I wish you good travels

My distant love

Imaginary or not

You were real to me

Angel Em

Thursday, January 7th, 2010

Donation Angel

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Auntie Em: Why don’t you find a place where there isn’t any trouble.

Dorothy: A place where there isn’t any trouble. Do you suppose there is such a place Toto? There must be. It’s not a place you can get to by a boat or a train. It’s far, far away. Behind the moon, beyond the rain.

—The Wizard of Oz

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I was already at a critical financial level when one of my last clients told me the other day that he was going to stop training because of “the economy.” For the most part, all limiting choices are made because of priorities and/or fear. The fact that he is the head of a top record label and travels multiple times per year to beautiful islands means that “the economy” is not affecting him in the same way as it is people who are out of work and unsure about their next meal. But enough about me.

Unlike the yoga posers, I’m not here to tell anyone what their priorities should be. Care about the environment; don’t care about the environment. Eat meat; don’t eat meat. I just encourage you do whatever you choose to do with consciousness. When someone justifies having an animal taken from its family and tortured so that they can wear a fur coat with, “I have to keep warm,” my anger is less about the animal being tortured and more about how someone can bullshit themselves when there are so many “warm” synthetic alternatives, in order to deny their contribution in the mass murder of our four-legged brothers. Excuse me, I was having a PETA moment.

So the other day I called my client to see about our training schedule. “Mick, you’re back from vacation?” He replied, “From the country, yes. From personal training with you, the vacation is more like retirement.” We talked some more, as we both have really enjoyed the other’s company and all the sharing we’ve done over the years, but a part of me felt like Vince Foster after he crossed Hillary Clinton—dead.

He said, “What’s your address? I’d like to mail you something to show my appreciation.” He obviously meant money. I said, “You don’t need to send me anything. You’ve shown your appreciation over the years by all you have shared with me.” At that point my conscience, which has the voice of a Hasidic Jew, said, “What are you out of your mind? Take the money!” It was true, I didn’t feel he needed to “show” me his love in cash, as he was already doing it in his living. That being said, I needed money!

I made December’s rent on December 14th and since I was late on January’s rent, I received one of those yellow sheets of paper slid under my door that said, “Pay up or we will sick Hillary Clinton on you!” This frightened me enough to borrow $600 from my friend, Lion. So when Mick told me he was out, all I could muster up the strength of will to think was, “Weak.”

I sell books on Amazon and so in my desperation I started to list books that I wasn’t yet ready to part with, such as my 1950 First Edition of Jack Dempsey’s Championship Fighting, that I paid over $100 probably 15 years ago. I was considering anything to the alternative of blowing dudes off the West Side Highway like I did during the great oil crisis of 1973.

I went for a long walk with Abandon, to clear my head that was playing a new mantra, “Weak. Weak. Weak. Weak.” I took a long walk uptown to pay rent and avoid the wrath of the Hillary monster. On the way, I passed by my bank and fantasized that I had more than spare change in my account. I had to cut this fantasy short, as I didn’t have the money to buy new underwear.

After dropping off the rent check, I went to the post office to pay the bill for my post box that was due. While the inflow of money may dwindle, bills and expenses never seem to follow the same trickle down theory. I was second in line on the back window to three women who seemed to have a special challenge besides the tumors, heart disease, paralysis, blindness and insanity that comes with degenerative syphilis, like our government allowed to progress untreated in 399 black men, unbeknownst to them, in the Tuskegee Experiment. But I guess I’m just a conspiracy theorist. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuskegee_syphilis_experiment]

It was taking forever and that’s a mighty long time…but I’m here to tell you…there’s something else…the afterworld—sorry, I was having a Prince moment. Finally one of the women looked back and apologized. Now patience is not my most developed attribute and so I lit up my underwear and shouted, “JIHAD—OH, MY BALLS!” Jees, just had an Underpants Bomber moment. I told her that what she’s dealing with will take the time it requires and no less and if we were to let’s go crazy…let’s go nuts…let’s look for the purple banana…until they put us in the truck… it would serve no purpose. I said, “Just remember, on the grand scheme of things, this is nonsense.” She smiled and agreed and spent another friggin’ hour ruining my whole fuckin’ day.

During the interminable wait, she turned and started talking to me. Because I was in a serene state due to just being hit in the face with the shovel of poverty, I didn’t give her my patent response when a stranger engages me in conversation, which is, “Let me interrupt you with a suggestion—it would probably be better to talk to someone who gives a shit.”

She shared some of her philosophy on life and while I didn’t pull out my notepad to jot down anything she said, I was grooving on her. The philosophy she shared, although spirituality 101, was real-world application philosophy. I was thinking of devil’s advocating—because I am the Devil, at least according to one of those black racist “lost tribes of Israel” dudes in Times Square—and saying something fake world like, “Yes, but all you have to remember is ‘We are all One,’” but even thinking that cheesy adage gives me a migraine. Not only wasn’t I in the mood to pontificate and show what a brilliant philosopher I am, but it would probably ruin the experience. I was just listening to her, feeling her. And it was perfect.

She mentioned how she knew this guy who owned this gym in a big fancy building near Bloomingdale’s and I interrupted her with, “Oh, are they having a sale today?” Ug, having a purple banana moment. I told her that I was hurting for cash and did personal training and that maybe she could help hook me up with the guy she knew.

She was totally into it and said she would. I gave her my card and she said she would definitely call, which I have heard from countless others whose word means nothing to them, but I could see that she was different, that she honored her word and herself.

A woman next to us said smilingly, “Networking at the post office.” I told her to shut the fuck up and mind her own business.

Before I left, I asked, “What’s your name?” She said, “Em.” If the cheery onlooker interrupted our Taster’s Choice moment this time, I was going to beat her with the paper recycling garbage can, which I found out isn’t used for recycling and is just a scam to pacify the environmental pussies and say, “I’m going postal—is that more appropriate at a post office for you??” Luckily she kept her fat trap shut.

I told Em, “Even if nothing manifests with the guy you know, I feel you were an angel sent to me to remind me that I am not alone and all will be taken care of.” My eyes were a little wet. She said I looked depressed but what I don’t think she realized was that my tears were of gratitude to the Universe, who despite constantly fucking me, always lets me know that She still cares with a cuddle afterwards. Today she did it by sending Angel Em.