A quiet place to think out loud Who put the filling in the pie in the sky?
Monday, June 24, 2002
ON THE NEXT OPRAH...
they'll spend an hour talking about how everyone has something important enough to write about. At least that's what the promo said - promos are always right.. right?
Life is going to change a lot for me in the next week. I'm sitting on my couch watching people pack up my life right now. Tomorrow other people will move all of my stuff out and into storage. The day after.. I head toward that new life.. about 700 miles south of here. Before I start the new job a week from today.. I will spend many hours trying to find a place to live during that new life. Someday, when that become the old life and there's another new adventure.. I will go through this same process. I wonder what I'll throw out then.
Part of the process has been trying to reduce the number of pounds the movers will take - and, therefore, reduce the bill a little. So.. I've been going through all the things that I've moved
The details.. such that they are.. of Saturday night can be found at the "Rapid Eye Reality" link elsewhere on this page. It is a far more coherent account than I could give.
Being sworn to secrecy is no problem. I can't remember who got a tattoo, who was pierced or where, why the tab at the sports bar was $150.. or just about anything I did between 9 and 11:30pm. I do remember arriving in Athens.. and leaving there. I remember someone who shall remain nameless buying Jim Beam shots. I remember drinking two of them. It's possible there was a third.. or that could be an urban legend. I know there was also a "Lemon Drop" later in the evening. I don't remember Athens spinning quite so much last time I was there. There were expensive cigars.. for some of us.. money literally pissed away (if you don't know the reference.. you can guess).. and lots of laughs. I do remember laughing.. just not what I laughed at.
We headed out to a baseball game.. and ended up with a story. Instead of baseball, hot dogs and apple pie.. we had live music, chicken wings and bourbon shots. An American dream in and of itself...
If you're reading this in another part of the country - what follows may sound like it came from another era. Now that we've put the confederate flag issue behind us (well.. as close as we're going to get).. our candidates for various state and national offices need another campaign issue to compete over. They have found two. You tell me what either has to do with holding an elected office.
First - there's the "high school sweetheart-a-thon". Foremost on everyone's mind.. spouses (we'll pretend for a minute there's a legitimate woman candidate).. and children. Who's been married longest.. what they say to "the boys" at bedtime each night. I would love to hear an ad start out with "I drink a lot.. and I really like 18-year old boys.. but here's what I'd do as your governor..." An extreme - of course - but proof that the end of the sentence would not matter. Nor should the marriage sweepstakes.
Second - the capacity for prayer. I'm NOT mocking prayer or people who pray. I'm simply questioning what "knowing when to get down on my knees" has to do with running a state. After all - Monica knew when to do that. Look what that got her. I'm glad a potential candidate realizes there's a higher power and things more important than politics.. I would just hope s/he would draw on those strengths to govern.. rather than promote them as the agenda for governing.
Add to the list: fresh new face (again - a characteristic - NOT a qualification).. eliminating all property taxes (at least an agenda - albeit a one-step wipeout for an entire state's economy).. and catchy slogans like "The solution to higher taxes.. is lower taxes." Really? Well then.. perhaps the solution to more Cancer.. is less Cancer.. to illiteracy... teaching people to read... You can see the danger here... sooner or later.. despite yourself.. you might just make sense.
So many of us spend time trying to figure out what's most valuable in our lives. I have the answer: dishes.
Hiring a mover to take you from one place to the other makes figuring that out very simple. They create this itemized list of what it will cost to move all the things you think are valuable to the next stage in your life. Don't get me wrong - I like my dishes. But it would cost about $500 to have them packed and moved with me. I think I paid about $75 for them. So they move from the "going with me" pile to the "Salvation Army" pile. Simple decision.
The itemized movng estimate is like an objective third party for all those things I can't decide whether to keep or throw out. Books are a tough one. When you're paying by the pound.. they're expensive to move. And, besides, theoretically, I've read the ones I have already. But books are somehow a part of a person's history.. and getting rid of some of them makes no sense at any price.
The single most expensive item I'll move with me is a model ship by great uncle built. It's about six feet long and four feet tall. He and his son (my great cousin??) built about nine of them. Uncle Albert had given two or three of them to the cemetery where my great aunt was buried. Those ships.. and a couple others were destroyed in the Landers earthquake. Since then - my cousin and Uncle Albert have died.. and the only ship anyone knows for sure where it is - is the one in my living room. Ten years ago - Uncle Albert and I tied that ship into the back of my Jeep ten different ways - so it would sit up and not move during the ride from his house near Palm Springs to my place back in LA. It's gone with me from there.. to Maryland.. to South Carolina.. and now to Florida.
I always tell that story to the guy who is packing it up so he knows there's no insurance that could cover its loss. And no price to great to pay to make sure it arrives safely.
