Saturday, July 30, 2005
Palo Alto folk
I derive the deepest joy from participating in the webbed, chainlike passing down of love and experiences.
Once in a while you get shown the light
In the strangest of places if you look at it right
Yesterday in Palo Alto at Starbucks I met and spoke for a while with an incredibly sweet, interesting man. 52, gristled, Vietnam veteran. He had just left the hospital after ffalling down a ravine on Monday. I doubt he was a paying customer, but he was in the hospital for 3-4 days nonetheless. I'm glad they took care of him. He used the phrase "down on your luck," which always catches my attention. I suppose that we are sort of on a track that we can't navigate consciously all the time...it is all in its place, unfolding just as it has to. And all the previous conditions of the universe determine where we are now. But we have control over each choice we make along the way. I would like to think that every human at least has the capacity to see the effects of most of their actions and that the reason so many people are unhappy is because they just haven't been given the right tools yet. (I know that referring to the majority of society as "unhappy" is uppity and presumptuous...I think that people must be happy/sad 50/50, with the goodness and love overpowering the bad always.
So this man had raised many kids with different wives, and worked his ass off to do so, it seemed. He was an exaggerator about his troubles, but was too nice and good-natured to not want to listen, He has a son in a punk band at Dartmouth - super proud of this kid, obviously. I don't pass any judgment at all when I say that it's wonderful that even though he isn't in the best of places now, and certainly unstable, he sent a good person out into the world, and that's what it's all about.
His partner of 10 yrs was killed by a car while crossing the street two years ago. I can't imagine the heart break of seeing that...I am so lucky to have the privilege to meet people like him who share their stories and have the atttitude, as he did, that God must have a reason to have kept him here so long. We are so lucky to be here.
And right now the world is just teeming with good earthly folk who are arming themselves with the tools to change the world - and it will happen. Sustainable agriculture is big. Like in Hesse's Demian, there are some individuals who have to gather the knowledge that the next age needs...America is in the position to help so many people. "Excess" (over living comfortably) wealth plus good intentions, minus reliance on governmental entanglement = innovation to help people who are born in places where they do not have the opportunities that the success of the United States has allowed our location to provide.
Once in a while you get shown the light
In the strangest of places if you look at it right
Yesterday in Palo Alto at Starbucks I met and spoke for a while with an incredibly sweet, interesting man. 52, gristled, Vietnam veteran. He had just left the hospital after ffalling down a ravine on Monday. I doubt he was a paying customer, but he was in the hospital for 3-4 days nonetheless. I'm glad they took care of him. He used the phrase "down on your luck," which always catches my attention. I suppose that we are sort of on a track that we can't navigate consciously all the time...it is all in its place, unfolding just as it has to. And all the previous conditions of the universe determine where we are now. But we have control over each choice we make along the way. I would like to think that every human at least has the capacity to see the effects of most of their actions and that the reason so many people are unhappy is because they just haven't been given the right tools yet. (I know that referring to the majority of society as "unhappy" is uppity and presumptuous...I think that people must be happy/sad 50/50, with the goodness and love overpowering the bad always.
So this man had raised many kids with different wives, and worked his ass off to do so, it seemed. He was an exaggerator about his troubles, but was too nice and good-natured to not want to listen, He has a son in a punk band at Dartmouth - super proud of this kid, obviously. I don't pass any judgment at all when I say that it's wonderful that even though he isn't in the best of places now, and certainly unstable, he sent a good person out into the world, and that's what it's all about.
His partner of 10 yrs was killed by a car while crossing the street two years ago. I can't imagine the heart break of seeing that...I am so lucky to have the privilege to meet people like him who share their stories and have the atttitude, as he did, that God must have a reason to have kept him here so long. We are so lucky to be here.
And right now the world is just teeming with good earthly folk who are arming themselves with the tools to change the world - and it will happen. Sustainable agriculture is big. Like in Hesse's Demian, there are some individuals who have to gather the knowledge that the next age needs...America is in the position to help so many people. "Excess" (over living comfortably) wealth plus good intentions, minus reliance on governmental entanglement = innovation to help people who are born in places where they do not have the opportunities that the success of the United States has allowed our location to provide.
Comments:
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interesting post...really down with the tying together of a good experience with the applicable sublime quote...
i think youre on to something in terms of help being voluntary (good intentions without government).
"We are so lucky to be here."
what a great realization to come to! I want to start thinking more along those lines more often, so thx for putting the idea out there.
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i think youre on to something in terms of help being voluntary (good intentions without government).
"We are so lucky to be here."
what a great realization to come to! I want to start thinking more along those lines more often, so thx for putting the idea out there.
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