He Made His Own Kind of Music
What is time? Is time simply awareness, awake to the incidence of transformation, that everything is on the move, a process of becoming other than “what”, …it was? That is one way to put it. There’s more than one way. No one finds a best way, a single, unequivocal definition of time. Time is what we mean by inconvenience, by joy, by sadness, by confusion, occasioned by friction, – the rub of change. Am I on the way up or am I on the way down? Only I can say. No one else is addressed by the question. Who is addressing me? Or what?
Time is implacable, relentless, (there’s nowhere to hide). It is just that energy organizes according to a hand-off. Meaning/beauty arises, consequences of what came before, – and here is the trauma, the “rub”. Most, almost all dissipates to equilibrium. Said bluntly: Heat Death. For better or for worse though: hand-offs are made. (As Buddhists say, “You cannot pick up just one end of the stick”.) Residuals pass through to the next iteration of the process.
Waking comes as interrogation. What do I desire? Reflection is usually the context for knowing, for allowing the surface of roiling consciousness to become tranquil. Then, sometimes I get “it”. This is what I desire. Some desires are ill advised, it is to my benefit that such are out of reach. Forcing the matter, always has unintended effects: force is a joker card, wild, almost never beneficial.
A good friend is dying, maybe in the final days and hours of life. I owe a great deal to him. Hours were spent in his store-front shop, to observe the construction of a build-by-hand fuel car chassis. I watched him assemble a 500 cubic inch Ford shotgun race motor, the specs needed for assembly retained in his memory. I have observed him supervise the ignition of a nitro fuel motor in the staging lane at the track, and make the final tuning adjustment, mere seconds before the car is staged for launch. If you are “into” drag racing you know how extraordinary such accomplishments are. I am in not position to judge anyone’s life. I’ll make an exception here. Chuck, my friend, you have a significant life. The quality of my existence has been touched by knowing you. I will miss you.
To conclude, I was present for the Batavia Village council meeting last night. A proclamation was made to recognize the LGBTQ+ community for Pride Month which is June. The Pride flag is to be raised for the month in front of the Village Hall. The council approved raising the flag with the exception of two ‘no’ votes. I’d wager there are no words that would’ve changed those “no” votes. Officials standing aside, voting ‘no,’ opposing official protection for vulnerable communities, are signaling a go-ahead to informal oppression and discrimination.
Here’s the tune for today. Courage friends! We will find our way home. Make Your Own Kind of Music by Cass Eliot.
