LORD HELP ME I CAN'T CHANGE

I am thinking of change this morning. Our resistance to it. Our need of it. And how Change could not give two shits about what we think, want, and/or need. Change comes at all times. Change is really synonymous with life. We are in a constant state of flux, whether we like it or not. A lot of it that flux is in the "or not" category. Physically, we are nothing more than a mass of atoms and molecules and so forth, all in constant movement. We grow, hit our peak early in life, then slowly hit our not peak. And that one sucks, but I think we age because the universe knows that if we didn't we would pretend that nothing ever happens, nothing changes, nothing evolves. And that, as Socrates once said, is bullshit.

And I don't always feel this way. But I do today. My outlook has changed. 

See what I did there?

I think about the bands I love the most. And the thing they have in common is that they change. They don't try to recreate their first album. They create the album or song or concert they are working on at that moment. They navigate the room they are in, and don't try to pretend it's a different room. Often, when a musician or band comes out with a new sound, feel, attitude, the fans freak out. At least at first. We want the music to make us feel like we did when we heard it the first time. I think what we really want is to be the people we were when we heard it the first time. But those people have gone Elsewhere and are playing hide and go seek in a graveyard in another dimension. 

Now, for me, if I am in a phase of my psychic moon that allows for change, embraces it, I listen to the new sounding album for a bit, and after awhile I fall in love with it and now want the band to make me feel like I do at that moment again and again. And the cosmic dance of funk continues.

I think about the planet, and how right now the world is seriously fucked because a lot of us are resistant to changing our lives or lifestyles, which have created an atmosphere that heats up and changes everything is really nasty ways, leading to oceans rising, forests burning, species dying off, and so on. By resisting change, we bring about greater change.

Put another way, we are stupid.

We really are. And one thing that doesn't seem to change is that we hate being told we are stupid, so very much. But sometimes, we need to be told we are being stupid. Foolish. Ill advised. 

The doesn't change either. The way, if something is said in a nicer sounding way, we more easily accept it. 

Ego. Fucking ego. Not only a poorly written bad guy in Guardians of the Galaxy vol. w, but a dangerous aspect of our humanity that, while essential to being a human being, can and often does get us into a lot of trouble.

We need change. We fear change. We love change. We hate change. 

I think we are all crazy. And I love us all. I do. I think that is about the only way to deal with things, before anything else. Accept and love and forgive and move on. I think the more crap you have thrown at you in your life, the more you need to do that. Not more, maybe, but the clearer the need for it. 

And that's difficult to do. 

But whenever I've managed to do that, I have been rewarded with peace and love and understanding.

So. Today, if possible, don't be like the dude in Freebird who sings about how he can't change, the Lord help him he can't change. Because he was lying. He was changing as he sang. He is changing still. And so are all of us. 

I feel like maybe that was all a bit preachy. But isn't all writing a bit preachy, on some level?

Okay. On to meetings, teaching. more meetings. And change. Evolution. Life.

Here's a song. It's Changes, by Bowie. 

DAMN THE TORPEDOES (and a small portion of the population)

Ramon, a good friend of mine from college, noted the other day that we keep time now by the death toll. Grim, but true. So many people. And the numbers will continue to rise. I've seen on social media, and in real life, people arguing over the numbers, as if if it were only say twenty thousand dead, that would make it ok. That if maybe only a million people got sick, and only, when it's all over, maybe 40,000 died here in America, then it would be cool to open up on the early side of things. I just don't want to here that. Of course, I do and will, but enough already. People are sick and dying. It's a global pandemic. And we are at the beginning of what will most likely be another Great Depression. No way around it. It seems, if we just said "Hell with it, torpedoes (and a small portion of the population) be damned, we're opening everything back up tomorrow", that we would still be screwed as far as the economy goes. I mean, oil closed yesterday at negative $37 a barrel. Meaning, if you could get to where ever it is they actually sell barrels of oil, you would be given $37 to take a barrel. Kind of tells you maybe things aren't so good in the market. So yeah, we are in for some Hard Times. But we've seen hard times before, as a nation. We had a Civil Freakin' War. We had the Spanish Flu. We Fought World War One, World War Two, and had The Great Depression in the middle. In the grand scheme of things, we, as a nation and as a species, have dealt with some serious shit. And we got through them all.  And, as far as I can tell, we didn't get through all those horrors by having better access to hair salons. Or more beach parties. No, we got through them with love.

I think that's the first ingredient you need to make it. Love. Love of life, of your fellow human being, and of yourself. Once you get Love, you move on to courage. Courage to take care of those things you love, regardless of the cost. And once you find that courage, you bid adios to Fear. And once you do those three things, miracles happen.

Feel free to call me a hippie, a commie, a Californian. I take all those as badges of honor anyway. I
dig it. It's groovy. Not that I am perfect. Far, far from it. Of late, I have struggled with great anger and dismay at what some of my fellow Americans, and global citizens, have been doing. Lashing out at one another. Marching with signs demanding hair cuts, massages, and who knows what else. Not following social distancing, or wearing masks. And then there's the current administration, who seem more and more like a death cult of some sort. Like those mutant people who live under the ruins of NYC in Beneath the Planet of the Apes, who worship a nuclear bomb because, well, they're nuts. It saddens me. So many lost, lonely, angry souls who seem to be desperately clinging to ideas and programs that have clearly failed, on a massive scale.

We are on the brink of a depression because the system has been weakened through greed. Want of money is indeed the root of all evil. Pick a problem in the world, and it almost always comes down to greed. Desire for more, even if it costs others. Some folks think that having more than others sweetens the pot.

Well, fuck that. Those days are over. Time to rise up. As I was taught in high school biology, we must adapt, migrate, or die. We're not quite ready to move to another planet yet, so migrating is out. Death isn't really a desired option, so scratch that. Adaptation is the only option left.

Let's do this thing.

And also, let's keep the post office. It is way cheaper than Fed Ex, DHL, and UPS.


Here's a song. It's the Beatles cover of Mister Postman.