Ripening

"Time is nature's way to keep everything from happening at once."
- J. A. Wheeler

Correlary quote: Space is nature's way of keeping everything from happening to you.

When I was researching Donald Kaul a couple of years ago, the Internet attributed the top quote to him. Now, the quote is attributed to others. I don't imagine Donald Kaul cares.

In defiance of the quotes, as I look back at the last year, it seems everything has been happening at once, and to me. It might have started when I sold the house in 2005, and travelled to Laos where air conditioned rooms go for $4 per day and the poor people seem happy. It could have started in 1997 with Bert Records, where I helped to produce some CDs for mostly friends. I don't think it started with KALX, though a Berkeley college radio sensibility, and sense of possibility and fearlessness is what it is about.

You say, "Monica is what changed you. It is about taking the big step of getting engaged and married." But, I reiterate that the change was before then. Monica sees it in me, but perhaps she believes it was always there in me. I tell her that I have just recently become ripe. That is the reason I stayed single so long. Somehow, over the previous few years, I finally ripened.

I drive my blue 1998 VW Beetle, the only car I ever bought new, and would hate to see anything happen to it, but I don't think it is about belongings. There was an article about a computer pioneer and friend of Steve Wozniak named Draper, and known informally as Cap'n Crunch. The article talks about how despite being bitter about how he has been treated, and despite being essentially a street person, he is "one of the happiest people I've ever met."

I think that is near the root of my feeling. I know that whatever happens to me that I can cope. Like a street person, I can live and be happy from moment to moment.

You might be thinking that I was recently diagnosed with sleeping sickness from hanging out with too many tse tse flies. Nothing bad has happened to me, though. Last week, the doctor found nothing too abnormal, other than the fact that he doesn't prescribe me anything. My bank statement and credit rating reflect prosperity. It would be conceited for me to say that if I was broke and had a bad back like Draper, that I would still be happy. I have been exposed to tragedy. Yet, I feel now that no matter what happens I would still be happy.

I am writing this as if I just converted to a religious cult. Though I do claim it to be a spiritual thing, I don't believe that Jesus has much to do with this. (I just read "What Paul Meant " by Gary Wills, and the historical conclusions pleased me, but that is a minor point.)

My family and a world filled with like-minded individuals, friends and potential friends, has everything to do with how I feel. I am not an island. Being "not an island" makes me content.