Toast for brekkie

High school reunion

Posted on July 29th, 2007 by george.
Categories: poetry, travel, life, friends, society.

every day
for four years
then not a word
for ten
and I’m supposed to catch up with you
in two minutes?
the same circles
quickly coalesce
forming an osmotic barrier to reunion
making any interloper
feel like a virus
and yet I persist
making the rounds
and seizing on eye contact
to take a chance on striking up a conversation
and forging a bond
relinking the rusty, broken chain
persistence pays and soon
we chat easily
like the old friends we are
and delve beyond the familiar
hometown, job, spouse and kids
a few stars shine bright
above the horizon of the past
and laughter rings
as the moon rises full
smiling on us from beyond the flagpole
I offer up a silent prayer
realizing I haven’t had a change of heart
but that we’ve finally found our way to
the heart of change

14 comments.

Priorities

Posted on July 25th, 2007 by george.
Categories: life, society, environment, food.

Gather ’round the boob tube kids, and Timmy, don’t touch that dial:  it’s time for another edition of everyone’s favorite game show, Where Are Your Priorities?

Alright, everyone.  Raise your hands if you’ve heard of Lindsey Lohan.

Good!

Now here comes the tough one.  Raise your hand if you’ve heard of Norman Borlaug.

*crickets chirp*

No one?

*someone snores in the background*

Ah well, don’t worry.  He was only just awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.  This after already being presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Nobel Peace Prize.  What makes ol’ Norman so special?  Besides being one of only five people in history to garner all three of these awards?  Well, he saved a few human lives.  How many, you ask?  Only a billion.  A few more than any other human in history.

But whatever.  OMG I heard Lindsay just went to jail!

12 comments.

Seth & Cara’s Wedding

Posted on July 19th, 2007 by george.
Categories: travel, life, friends, photography.

Tonight I spent the evening rotating, cropping, adjusting, titling, tagging, captioning and uploading 71 new photos. I give you, by special request, the wedding of Seth and Cara.

It was a beautiful event, and I was honored to be included in the wedding party. In fact, this was my first opportunity to be a best man. Seth, thanks for letting me be a part of your special day. I wish you two all the happiness in the world!

4 comments.

Wet ‘n Wild

Posted on July 16th, 2007 by george.
Categories: travel, life, friends, fun.

I mowed the lawn today. Because I didn’t mow it yesterday.

9 comments.

Blog by proxy

Posted on July 14th, 2007 by george.
Categories: friends, photography, food.

I awoke this morning to a text message from my coworker, Kevin. That’s strange. I’ve never received a text from him before. Here’s what it said.

My daughter Tara took this 4 your blog

Awesome. I must have made an impression that time I had dinner with them and took photos of the food. Thanks Tara!

7 comments.

Born lucky

Posted on July 7th, 2007 by george.
Categories: synthesis, life.

We have reached it. We have attained. We are here.

Trip Seven. San Fermin. The luckiest day. 07/07/07.

How can I even lay this out for you? I look in the mirror and I don’t even see my body anymore.

What in the world are you talking about, son?

I can’t filet it. It’s too dense, too tightly packed, too interwoven. A butterfly on a pin in a box behind dusty glass will always and forever pale in comparison to a single flapping of its wings, one moment in real time of its manifest glory in existence. I can’t take the grand cosmic self-referential conscious strange-loop of life and distill it, compress it, render it into a written essay that is in and of itself only one part of that life. There are only comparisons, convergences and connections from the vibrating string to the bubbling multiverse. I could add a link to every one of these words; they are fraught with purpose, pregnant with meaning.

I will make an attempt to trace this thread through the fabric of spacetime and show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. Here is a glimpse into the portal. Even as I sit here it compounds, rolls over on itself, overlaps, strings together the eternal golden braid. No new word comes along without bringing tribute from the other worlds; synapses explode like fireworks and the rocket’s red glare saturates the soul. When he laughed, it caused earthquakes.

What’s so special about July 7th? On this day in:

1456 - A retrial verdict acquits Joan of Arc of heresy. 25 years after they’d burned her at the stake, of course.

1668 - Isaac Newton, hero to scientists everywhere, received an MA from Trinity College, Cambridge.

1846 - Mexican-American War: American troops occupy Monterey and Yerba Buena, thus beginning the United States annexation of California.

1898 - History of United States overseas expansion: President William McKinley signs the Newlands Resolution annexing Hawaii as a territory of the United States.

1930 - Industrialist Henry J. Kaiser begins construction of the Boulder Dam (now known as Hoover Dam). [More than meets the eye to this one.]
1946 - Howard Hughes nearly dies when his XF-11 spy plane prototype crashes in a Beverly Hills neighborhood. [Three nights ago I dreamt I belly-landed an F-16 and it skidded off the runway into a city, coming to rest without damaging anything. When I stepped out, the F-16 was my grey Toyota Camry.]
1958 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Alaska Statehood Act into United States law

1979 - 28 years ago, at 4:52pm, I was born in Nashville, Tennessee.

2007 - Today. The bulls have run, and I am writing this.

What’s so special about 777? 777 = 3 × 7 × 37. It’s a sphenic number, a Harshad number, and 3333 in senary (base 6) counting. It is sometimes given the title of “Jesus’ number,” as the numbers 3 and 7 were both “perfect numbers” under Hebrew tradition.

The Boeing 777. Need I say more?

Luck Be a Lady Tonight, by Frank Sinatra. Frank Sinatra, by Cake. Cake, being made by Lacey for my birthday in the kitchen ten feet from me.

While Frank Sinatra sings Stormy Weather. Stormy weather in Florida as I left last night, and in Houston as I arrived. Going back to Houston. Do the hot dog dance. Going back to Houston. To get me some pants.

We know of an ancient radiation that haunts dismembered constellations. Beyond your flowers of flaming truth, beyond your latest ad campaign.

Speaking of Dubya, yesterday was his birthday. But wait, I’m Dubya. Today is MY birthday.

“I don’t know why I’m surprised. Over the years, our culture’s gift for nicknaming has slowly vanished along with so many of our other celebrated American skills, like nation-building and math.”

That video was so naughty! Or was it…cosmonauty?

In the midst of the maelstrom, stop, take a breath and prepare. Ask for guidance, knowledge and wisdom and they will rain down upon you in a flood. Your cup will overflow. It was shown to me during my daily prayer this week: our desires are not our choice. They are built in, they are part of the grand exam. Why? What makes us aware? What is this life? Only our actions, only our choice separates us, elevates us. There is no beginning, no end.

“It’s just part of the way humans are wired, I suppose. Humans need religion and they need numbers,” he said.

Good luck.

8 comments.