Thursday, August 28, 2008

above the sound and over the atlantic



between amagansett and montauk, long island, new york state, usa. august 2008.

love and health to all...

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

peace: from bin laden to biden and hussein to hussein



once, years ago, i was bicycling with a dear friend throughout asia. one night, somewhere beside the banks of the mekong river the two of us got into a heated argument about non-violence.

the two sides were this. i was preaching non-violence as the ultimate force of change. and he was saying how he could see the reason why people and groups around the world engage in violence as it tends to land on the front page of next day's newspaper, thus bringing the the cause to front and center stage.

i argued and still do, that if for example, we here in the united states really wanted to stop the war in Iraq before it started, it would be easy. 10,000 people at once sit down in times square or lie down on the runway at jfk until peaceful dialogue begins.

this type of action, this explosion of love and realness is more powerful and meaningful then the force of 1000 atomic bombs. change can happen. but we gotta choose our battles and live them.

words still baffle me. years ago i moved from india to indiana in a blink of an eye, to live with my family. by the time i arrived in indiana, my poppa had already found an indian grocer with shelves stocked full. yes, in indiana.

and America is crazy too. perhaps this connect is just mine, but for years our government has looked for osama and wanted him, dead or alive. now you take away 3 letters from bin laden and one's got the democratic vice presidential candidate's namesake, biden.

the english language is remarkable. and of course, obama and saddam share a name too. but that's about all they share.

are the world's connects just plain random.

The Moon Cannot Be Stolen

Ryokan, a Zen master, lived the simplest kind of life in a little hut at the foot of a mountain. One evening a thief visited the hut only to discover there was nothing in it to steal.

Ryokan returned and caught him. "You may have come a long way to visit me," he told the prowler, "and you should not return empty-handed. Please take my clothes as a gift."

The thief was bewildered. He took the clothes and slunk away.

Ryokan sat naked, watching the moon. "Poor fellow," he mused, "I wish I could give him this beautiful moon."

-from Zen Flesh, Zen Bones

love and peace and universal health care for all...

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

moseying with mozzies





my monday began last night as the clock moved from 12 to 01. returning from a pacific peninsula, i had floated into jersey on a jet plane. morning, on my way by bicycle to reclaim my computer, a dog barked as i breezed by and then lunged at me, teeth wide with a gnarly white porcelain frothing mug. my only defense was the dog's leash itself, which stopped my left hand from suffering a rude morning awakening. sorry, sorry, the dog's owner apologized... it's all good, i replied, turning towards the dogs, it's just a bicycle ladies...

a couple weeks ago i cruised with a wonderful mess of a friend on an early evening photographic journey. rarely do either of us cruise in conjunction, but the spirit was in the air. my main man mess got right in the thick of it and immediately entered government property, while i laid low. mess came out minutes later, damns, he remarked, bad idea, there are mad mosquitoes in there.

and he was right. we were moseying with mozzies, skirting the skeeters... there were a lot of them and you best believe it, they were all out for blood...

love and health to all...

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

smiling after surgery


about a week ago my computer, which is just about three years old to the day, starting acting all weird. and then it just stopped working all together. so while it's getting fixed, i'm out of luck accessing my photographs, and the tall tales that go along with them.

hoping to share some visual love with the world, i looked through my poppa's computer and found this photograph of my brother Sam, smiling wide after a tough surgery he undertook a few years back while he was battling cancer.

he continues to inspire me to live everyday like it's the last...

love and health to all...

Thursday, August 07, 2008

picking veggies & fights with piggybanks and pitchforks




it was perplexing to me. for a week i had felt as if i was being followed by some type of shadow.

when the breeze wasn't blowing, i felt a rustle in the bushes. when the winds were whipping, i sensed stillness in the shade. it had me confused and frankly, concerned. was it my paranoia? or perhaps just a figment of my imagination? nothing, it is nothing, i told myself as i woke up early this past saturday morning on the shores of long island, the same shores reaching all the lands on this earth.

but i was soon proven wrong. like most sunny sabado summer mornings, i met my friend sarabelle at the lovely quail hill farm in the small hamlet of amagansett for some time frolicking barefoot in earth's warm dirt, picking fresh vegetables from the brown and fertile land.

it was in the row of yellow cucumbers that i first noticed my nemesis hiding like a lion ready to pounce. the culprit was my samurai piggybank, crafted in minnesota clay by my own naked hands. i smiled at this glistening pig, but in a flash it vanished.

moments later this ceramic hog appeared to be floating or dangling from a "treat the plants gently" reminder. jeepers creepers, how did this little piglet become so skilled in martial arts?

then at last, high noon crept up on me within a patch of glistening orange carrots. it was there, that this samurai swine camouflaged itself in the glory of fresh tubers.

"Carrots!!" it exclaimed, "That's right, eat 'em! You'll only see me with more clarity! I am your loved samurai pig, the one you crafted years ago, while wearing only a loincloth, sculpting me, making me, creating me!!!"

Shocked and confused, weirded out and perplexed. I grabbed the pitchfork I had been using to harvest carrots and pointed my trident at my piggybank.

"Don't move!" I barely grunted, "You are my samurai piggybank! We used to share tips earned over plates of palak. You were my Fort Knox, safe guarding dollars doled for daal. We sipped mango lassi together out of one straw, laughing like children, enlightened by life!"

Within milliseconds, I felt the emotion of a thousand chopped red onions. Tears welled in my eyes and through the haze i saw hope. My samurai piggybank waddled towards me. The two of us embraced. We were, again, friends.

Tired from an emotional roller coaster, I smiled and looking down with the pitchfork still in my hands, I let it go, hoping this implement of nourishment would be returned to the ground to give health and eyesight through carrots to all on earth.

'Cept the thing was, at that moment, I felt a pinch on my foot, a hole at the top of my sole. Two stitches later, I realized had stuck myself with a pitchfork.

just another crazy day on earth...

love and health to all...

the most magnificent mermaid





monday, tuesday and wednesday of this week i hung out with the most magnificent mermaid. i had no idea that my friend april was also a mermaid. her great grandma never told me, her friend davey never enlightened me, and certainly the dynamic sisters from beantown kept their mouths quiet.

but it was beautiful. as waves from europe and africa landed on the sweet seashores of long island, a mermaid evolved almost immediately, hours upon hours in her natural environment, the atlantic ocean... talking to it, laughing at it, coughing with it, singing with it, floating along its shores, running from it, trying to stop it, living with it...

love and health to all...

Monday, August 04, 2008

riding on a high and windy day...




a week or two ago i stopped right smack dab in the middle of the brooklyn bridge. i made a call to a risky fellow and soon confirmed that i had whizzed right past this man, from a land where one of the most classic black comedies gets its title from. he was in a park on the island i had just left and i was swaying on a bridge suspended by cables. hmm, i thought, on a call to the starry satellites and back.

so the risky busy-ness was settled and this fine friend headed to meet me in the middle of the east river to sway and shake with me. as i waited for his arrival, i crouched and watched friends and fams, lovers and loners make their way from one land to another land...

love and health to all...