remember that guy from the Hot Dog Palace?
he came in there that day
and said, he could eat 100 hot dogs in 5 minutes?
said he would do it for nothing
just to give the Palace the free publicity.
that one poet started screaming at him
told him to shove the 100 hot dogs
right up his ass.
that was when Dwayne, the manager at the time
remember him?
grabbed that poet and told him
he was sick of his shit
and threw him out through
the open air window.
then Dwayne told the hot dog eater,
"look what you made me do"
and the hot dog eater said,
"man, I didn't make you an asshole"
I kind of forget what happened after that,
but all I know is,
in the fracas, someone stole the tip jar
and I went home without any money
and Dwayne had to close the place for a couple of days.
and the hot dog eater
ate 100 hot dogs over at the Weeney Wonkle,
but it took him 8 minutes.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Tranquillo
More and more I realize that there are no outside influences that should affect my ability to move through life with ease and calmness, taking each new event, each moment as something that is happening for the first time ever, and seeing the wondrous miracle in that.
Would it be possible to remember this if I were severely injured, or being horribly tortured, or cold on the street somewhere with no place to sleep? Would these events even occur in my life if I came to the state of being as I described above, or would I be in a state of existence where injury, torture or homelessness did not even occur or exist? Some sort of parallel universe that we could slip into, with the same cast of characters, only operating and living in an existence that we cannot even begin to understand or if we do understand, put words to.
What is there when the body is gone? and the house is gone and the money is gone and the television is gone? What if we were left entirely with ourselves without the existence of any material thing? Including our body.
My friend James says, then we would cease to exist. If there is no outside influence to tell us who and what we are, then we simply do not exist. No biologist to trace our evolution, no archeologist to trace our civilations, no sociologist to trace our societies, no prohpets to trace our meaning of existence.
But we do have all those things, all those things that define who and what we are. What if we blocked out all that information and just looked at what was left - what would that be? And how would you know?
Would it be possible to remember this if I were severely injured, or being horribly tortured, or cold on the street somewhere with no place to sleep? Would these events even occur in my life if I came to the state of being as I described above, or would I be in a state of existence where injury, torture or homelessness did not even occur or exist? Some sort of parallel universe that we could slip into, with the same cast of characters, only operating and living in an existence that we cannot even begin to understand or if we do understand, put words to.
What is there when the body is gone? and the house is gone and the money is gone and the television is gone? What if we were left entirely with ourselves without the existence of any material thing? Including our body.
My friend James says, then we would cease to exist. If there is no outside influence to tell us who and what we are, then we simply do not exist. No biologist to trace our evolution, no archeologist to trace our civilations, no sociologist to trace our societies, no prohpets to trace our meaning of existence.
But we do have all those things, all those things that define who and what we are. What if we blocked out all that information and just looked at what was left - what would that be? And how would you know?
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
STOPPING BY
Stopping by, unannounced, is something I missed when I was away from the midwest. Here, in the midwest, it is perfectly fine to just stop by and if it is at dinner time then you might as well just stay.
It is not uncommon for your good friends, the ones you want to share meals with and with whom you have the conversations that give your life meaning, to just stop by. Whatever you are doing, you just stop or continue doing what you were doing, while you visit with your friends.
This happened at my house just this evening. We ended up eating lemon pasta, made from the expired lemons given to us by the local brew pub, and drinking a fine bottle of Cabernet Savinion. No particular reason for the visit other than "in the neighborhood". It was a fine end to a wonderful spring day with gusty winds, clear blue skies, mid-50's temps and daffodills blooming like heck all around the neighborhood.
It is not uncommon for your good friends, the ones you want to share meals with and with whom you have the conversations that give your life meaning, to just stop by. Whatever you are doing, you just stop or continue doing what you were doing, while you visit with your friends.
This happened at my house just this evening. We ended up eating lemon pasta, made from the expired lemons given to us by the local brew pub, and drinking a fine bottle of Cabernet Savinion. No particular reason for the visit other than "in the neighborhood". It was a fine end to a wonderful spring day with gusty winds, clear blue skies, mid-50's temps and daffodills blooming like heck all around the neighborhood.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Chase Scene
Well, it is spring and the squirrels are having at it. We have this unique community of black squirrels that someone introduced into our neighborhood - they only live on the east side of the main street, in about a 5 block area in my neighborhood. The gray squirrels and the black squirrels do not get along at all. They have these incredible chasing events in which they run around and around the tree trunks, up and down the trees. jumping from one high branch to another, finally giving up when one or the other manages to fool his pursuer by stopping on a dime and remaining perfectly still.
A couple of nights ago it was fairly mild and I was out on the deck enjoying the night air. The sky was an incredible indigo color, about an hour after sunset, and all of a sudden all hell broke lose. I couldn't see them, but some squirrels got into an incredible chase, making strange noises like screaming monkeys and running about in the treetops and up and down the trees in what must have been some amazing acrobatics. "In the night?", my housemate asked. Yes, in the night. Someone of them must have tried to raid a nest, or steal some food, or snuggle up where he shouldn't have. As quickly as it started, it stopped, and I was left wondering how it all turned out.
Next day, there was some gray fur in the yard, and so, now, there is a gray squirrel around somewhere missing a quite significant patch of fur somewhere on his little body. Must be incredible, being able to run around the trees like that, at breakneck speed.
A couple of nights ago it was fairly mild and I was out on the deck enjoying the night air. The sky was an incredible indigo color, about an hour after sunset, and all of a sudden all hell broke lose. I couldn't see them, but some squirrels got into an incredible chase, making strange noises like screaming monkeys and running about in the treetops and up and down the trees in what must have been some amazing acrobatics. "In the night?", my housemate asked. Yes, in the night. Someone of them must have tried to raid a nest, or steal some food, or snuggle up where he shouldn't have. As quickly as it started, it stopped, and I was left wondering how it all turned out.
Next day, there was some gray fur in the yard, and so, now, there is a gray squirrel around somewhere missing a quite significant patch of fur somewhere on his little body. Must be incredible, being able to run around the trees like that, at breakneck speed.
New Folds in the Brain
Attachment - that which keeps us from realizing our true nature as immortal souls, sons and daughters of God. I am attached to rich foods and refined sugars and flours, and I have an incredible attachment to a past relationship. Over and over I resolve to give these things up, but when I pass through the bake shop and smell the sugar cookies fresh out of the oven, or I learn that a past love is in another relationship, I eat the cookie and I feel jealousy over the new relationship. It takes 8 years to completely develop a new habit, good or bad - years of struggling against these things that I know are not good for me and hinder my progress in my quest to find God. Years of erasing the folds in my brain that are deeply creased with those bad habits, years in making new folds of good habits.
Well, at least this gives me something to do, each moment of every day.
Well, at least this gives me something to do, each moment of every day.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Snow Walker
After a couple of extremely rapid mini-blizzards yesterday, we are left here, again, with snow on the ground. But again, and this seems unusual to me for this area, this time of year, the sun is shining brightly and the sky is blue.
Venturing out for a walk around the neighborhood for fresh air and to think about God, I was surprised at how sublime everything seemed to be. The birds were incredible! Incredible! and it was very quiet as not many people were out and about on this windy, sunny, cold day.
There was the perfect amount of snow on the sidewalks for excellent, sole gripping walking. In some places, I got to be the first one who had walked on the snow! In a couple of places, it was just me and a bunny rabbit, my two steps to her one big hop.
At times I felt like I was in a dream, walking through some otherworldly place, where the senses were different, and the atmosphere translucent. It felt like I was on the verge of waking up, but wanted to stay content in a enchanting dream where nothing is really happening, it just feels like the whole thing makes sense and everything is connected.
Did I wake up then to the sound of a car, or did I fall asleep and the car was in my dream?
In all scenarios, the one, beautiful constant shines brightly, permeating the truth of existence throughout all that is.
Joy pervades in the wisdom of the immortality of my soul. Everything else falls away as the desire to know God infuses everything.
Walking on snow and thinking of God.
Venturing out for a walk around the neighborhood for fresh air and to think about God, I was surprised at how sublime everything seemed to be. The birds were incredible! Incredible! and it was very quiet as not many people were out and about on this windy, sunny, cold day.
There was the perfect amount of snow on the sidewalks for excellent, sole gripping walking. In some places, I got to be the first one who had walked on the snow! In a couple of places, it was just me and a bunny rabbit, my two steps to her one big hop.
At times I felt like I was in a dream, walking through some otherworldly place, where the senses were different, and the atmosphere translucent. It felt like I was on the verge of waking up, but wanted to stay content in a enchanting dream where nothing is really happening, it just feels like the whole thing makes sense and everything is connected.
Did I wake up then to the sound of a car, or did I fall asleep and the car was in my dream?
In all scenarios, the one, beautiful constant shines brightly, permeating the truth of existence throughout all that is.
Joy pervades in the wisdom of the immortality of my soul. Everything else falls away as the desire to know God infuses everything.
Walking on snow and thinking of God.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Standing by the Window
Today I was working on my computer in my room on the second floor of the big house where I live, on a project for a friend. We had heavy rain and wind today here in Northern Indiana, and warm temps in the 50's.
Late in the afternoon, the rain stopped and the sun came out for a bit. It was like a lovely spring day, all the snow has melted and the river is running high. I took a walk down to the river and back and when I got home, I began work on the project.
The windows in my room are tall, about 5 feet high, and I get a good view of the neighborhood and all the way over to the college campus. While I was working, I heard a sound like a jet overhead and paused to listen. No, it's a train I thought. But then I realized it was the wind. Bad sign here in tornado country. And, it started pouring rain, sheets of rain. So, I got up and stood by the window to see what I could see.
The trees were bending tremendously and there was a dark line in the clouds. I stood there fascinated by the sound and the trees and the rain and this cloud and then it occured to me, that I was on the second floor, next to a window and a tornado was possibly coming through here! For some reason, I stood there immobilized, knowing that I should run for cover in the basement, 2 floors down, but could not tear myself away from the window. I ran from room to room to try to see if I could see a tornado and then while I was trying to get a glimpse of what could have been my demise, the wind stopped, just like that, and everything became still. Another bad sign.
Better get downstairs now, I thought, and ran down the stairs. One of my roommates said, did you hear that wind? We stood there listening, still not heading down to the basement, but nothing happened. The wind had just stopped and was not picking up again. The rain continued, a nice, even steady rain and I went back upstairs to my room.
I am still puzzled about why I didn't immediately take cover, as I had been taught to do since kindergarten, when such conditions exist. Why I stood there by the window, trying to see if there was a tornado, is beyond me. Some strange fascination with the weather and its power, like standing by the ocean during a big swell, out on a rock, or walking through a blizzard, or walking around through the cracking trees after a big ice storm.
Maybe it is the adrenaline rush or perhaps just a simple reminder of my place in the universe.
Late in the afternoon, the rain stopped and the sun came out for a bit. It was like a lovely spring day, all the snow has melted and the river is running high. I took a walk down to the river and back and when I got home, I began work on the project.
The windows in my room are tall, about 5 feet high, and I get a good view of the neighborhood and all the way over to the college campus. While I was working, I heard a sound like a jet overhead and paused to listen. No, it's a train I thought. But then I realized it was the wind. Bad sign here in tornado country. And, it started pouring rain, sheets of rain. So, I got up and stood by the window to see what I could see.
The trees were bending tremendously and there was a dark line in the clouds. I stood there fascinated by the sound and the trees and the rain and this cloud and then it occured to me, that I was on the second floor, next to a window and a tornado was possibly coming through here! For some reason, I stood there immobilized, knowing that I should run for cover in the basement, 2 floors down, but could not tear myself away from the window. I ran from room to room to try to see if I could see a tornado and then while I was trying to get a glimpse of what could have been my demise, the wind stopped, just like that, and everything became still. Another bad sign.
Better get downstairs now, I thought, and ran down the stairs. One of my roommates said, did you hear that wind? We stood there listening, still not heading down to the basement, but nothing happened. The wind had just stopped and was not picking up again. The rain continued, a nice, even steady rain and I went back upstairs to my room.
I am still puzzled about why I didn't immediately take cover, as I had been taught to do since kindergarten, when such conditions exist. Why I stood there by the window, trying to see if there was a tornado, is beyond me. Some strange fascination with the weather and its power, like standing by the ocean during a big swell, out on a rock, or walking through a blizzard, or walking around through the cracking trees after a big ice storm.
Maybe it is the adrenaline rush or perhaps just a simple reminder of my place in the universe.
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