Friday is supposed to be an unlucky day. Was not Judas the thirteenth guest at the finale dinner party? Thursday evening was the time for the gala. The very next day, was anything but “good”. Never settle for convention, a label foisted upon us by a faceless, and totally self-interested entity. “Good Friday” – a grotesque, tasteless phrase. Judicial murder was not out of the ordinary, (even today). A patina of devotion does not alleviate an iota of trauma, if you are in the crosshairs…

I digressed. This Friday I anticipate will be felicitous. The day began around 1 am with a fierce thunder and lightning, drumming waves of rainwater striking the side of the house, just over a window well. Fortune smiled though. I was awake and able to position towels stored at hand, just-in-case this would happen. The cotton towels absorbed the water which was driven around a window frame, perhaps through the foundation footings.

Water, what we call “nature” is not subject in any absolute manner to engineering, to any of our attempts to render ourselves, or our possessions untouchable. That said, I was awake, remedial measures were taken, and no real lasting harm was incurred to the interior of the house.

A few minutes more I will depart from my customary table at Starbucks, after having meditated upon a few verses from The Classic of the Way and it’s Virtue. You know the 81 verses, Lao-Tsu’s Tao Te Ching. I can conceive of no better entrée to the sunlight of this day than these verses. In addition I anticipate having a light breakfast with two good friends at Briana’s. Briana’s renowned for the savor of breakfasts is one hub of social life in our town. Friends are essential in the life-long business of reciprocal self-formation. I mean to say, face to face conversation is a lifeline.

Breakfast completed, I anticipate traveling to Union Grove Wisconsin, to be present at Great Lakes Drag-a-Way to quarter mile drag racing. Men (and woman) test themselves along with machines hand-built for one purpose alone: from a stand-still to reach a finish line, a quarter mile distant, in the quickest possible time. The ethos of a automobile race track is loud, air laced by odor of fuel and rubber dust and palpable hot asphalt, – racing is by definition dangerous. Danger is the entire point! A crucible of sorts – what you have is tested. (Run-what-you-brung) And the person-one-is – will be brought to trial too! 

The car is staged, all speech is silenced, every eye waits the flash to green. In a millisecond of a trans-brake release, twin patches of rubber hook into the asphalt. What matters then is driver virtuosity, physics, and the smile of Fortune.

Well, I think it is time for a tune. This one by Rush, tells the truth. The Spirit of Radio.