Holiday in Appalachia (continued)

I go across the creek this morning to have a look at the place. My neighbor Donn has me holding one end of a measuring tape while he holds the other. However, it's still not clear to me where his property ends and the other begins. Looks to me like he’s going to have to get a surveyor out here. He says: “No, I have to get an attorney out here ..there’s no ‘site map’ .. the property lines were determined by a hand shake back in the 1920’s .” A few more neighbors arrive. I ask if they’d be willing to split the difference. See if they can get Tom to put up a stone wall ..6 inches wide. They tell me that would be crazy. As long as they feel they have the ‘right of easement’ ..they're not backing down.

“Even if it means putting Tom out of business ..?” I ask.

“Oh, you bet. We don't care.”

“What if the next guy that comes along has more money ..and wants to build something along the lines of a Disney World theme park ..?”

“Nobody in their right mind would buy this property ..not in this market ..!”

“A developer might..”

Now they’re looking at me like I’m out of my mind ..and I walk away, still hearing the sound of banjoes, and thinking: “They ain’t used to seein’ nuthin ‘round here ‘cept fer that ol’ abandoned shack ..and I s’pose they intend on keepin it that way.”

Holiday in Appalachia

I’m attending a meeting this afternoon down at the building department. I'm anxious to see if they're going to let a new owner tear down the 'Appalachian shack' that sits across the creek from me. Even though I wish they wouldn’t schedule these things so close to the holidays ..I am getting tired of hearing the sound of dueling banjoes every day. Besides, I’ve talked to Tom, the new owner, and I’m OK with what he’s doing. However, the property is ‘land-locked’ meaning he has to cross over other people’s property to get there. When I enter the meeting room ..I'm caught in the crossfire between Hatfield’s and McCoy’s.

“The project is too big ..your construction equipment is destroying my property ..!”

“We have an easement ..besides, I already told you I’d replace anything that gets damaged ..!”

“That’s not the issue ..you tore down my fence ..!”

“That fence was on my property ..!”

“No it wasn’t ..!”

“Yes it was ..!”

“Ok Ok, listen ..if I agree to put up a new fence ..can I continue working without you guys calling the police again..?”

“Hell no.”

Nothing is accomplished. Six inches of land stand in the way and unless Tom concedes ..the neighbors aren’t letting construction vehicles pass through their property, which they somehow feel is their God-given right.

Rabbit hole

I met Crazy Charlie in college ~ that’s also where I learned that hallucinations don’t always appear as people who aren’t really there ~ no, hallucinations are more subtle than that ~ they often don’t rise to the threshold of sight ~ most of the time they stop at the auditory centers ~ so, hearing voices of people who aren’t really there is a lot more common ~ I experienced this directly by participating in LSD sessions ~ LSD mimics psychosis by lowering the threshold for signals arriving from the senses ~ as well as noise originating from the mind ~ making music sound more persuasive ~ mixed up with people who looked more melodic ~ it could heighten feelings of euphoria ~ leading me to believe I was making all kinds of fascinating discoveries ~ or intensify feelings of dread and anxiety ~ which I could manufacture just as easily on my own ~ so I quit ~ I discovered that I had an aptitude for languages ~ which I probably picked up overseas ~ so I focused on language learning ~ not necessarily ESL ~ more like ‘hemispheric lateralization’ ~ I narrowed it down to reading comprehension ~ then phonemic awareness ~ my progress was going in the direction of increasing specialization ~ taking a subject and exploring it in depth ~ my friends and family thought I was crazy ~ they thought higher education was supposed to be a process of expanding horizons ~ so they used to ask me what else I was doing besides examining relative clauses ~ and they were right ~ higher education does expand your horizons ~ just not the way you think ~ the deeper you go into any one thing ~ the more connections you see with everything else ~ like, for instance, when Alice went down the rabbit hole ~ it didn’t lead to a tunnel ~ it opened up to the rest of the world ~ the one inside of her childlike mind.

Formative years

I came of age on the edge of the Pacific ocean, which is probably why I can see more shades of blue than a farm boy in rural Nebraska ..and why he can see more shades of grain. I spent my adolescence exploring coves beneath bluffs lined with spectacular homes that I felt would always be outta reach. I didn’t mind, my ambitions weren’t exactly materialistic ..as long as they didn’t put the beach outta reach ..that’s where I felt most at home. I mastered body boarding ..I went through tide pools and caves ..I found a hidden cove that I could get to only by diving off a cliff and get out of by swimming. I used to go there a lot and just sit ..watching life in the coastal zone ..a cycle of water swooshing in and flowing out ..re-shaping it’s surroundings. It resembled the way my days  went ..from sunny beaches ..to dark corners ..and back to sunny beaches again. I came of age on the edge of the Pacific ocean ..and I know how much this sounds like some sort of daily affirmation.

Divinity rules

I was raised to believe that America is the land of the free ~ and a sanctuary from religious persecution. So naturally I was alarmed to discover that it all depends on which church I go to. The Republican Administration has chosen to identify itself with the religious right ..primarily Evangelical Christians. The evangelical community has arrogantly staked the moral high-ground ~ and declared themselves the only legitimate believers entitled to hold power. They have adopted their own form of religious persecution by creating a test to discriminate against public office holders. It goes something like this: 1) do you follow divine guidance and 2) do your prayers get answered by the same God as ours. Mormonism is a cult ..that speaks in code ..Catholics seek world domination ..Jews aren’t even Christian ..and Muslims are fanatics. I’m afraid that If I met up with a Christian conservative in some rural backwater ~ I wouldn’t stand a chance ~ I practice zen buddhism ~ there’s no place for me in their world order. In the past, I have been accused of:

1) following false prophets
2) pagan idolatry
3) being a California nutcase
4) belonging to an anti-American terrorist group
5) being a member of a fringe religious cult from the East that holds life in low regard

I mean, wasn’t it the Buddhists who set themselves on fire to protest the war in Vietnam ~ how different is that than a suicide bomber in Afghanistan ~ how many virgins were they promised in heaven ..? (someone actually said this to me)

Do I feel protected by the constitution ..? not really, certainly not with a Republican Administration that is slowly relieving me of my constitutional rights ~ while turning around and accusing me of being ‘anti-Christian’ whenever I say I want leaders who are ‘pro-constitution’. The constitution clearly states that power and liberty are a ‘human right’ ~ not a ‘god-given privilege’ ~ there was a reason our founding fathers called for ‘separation of church and state’. It’s real easy for someone to pass laws ~ based on the whim of their particular beliefs ~ that hurt or destroy people’s lives. I find the current state of affairs appalling and downright frightening. My sister wants to move back to the United States after living in Toronto for 20 years. I tell her it’s not the same place anymore. I want to pack my bags and leave for Canada tomorrow. About the best I can hope for is that the religious right will divide itself into so many factions ..they’ll be easier to conquer in next year’s elections.

Wave behavior

Today I read about the humongous waves I experienced yesterday (see Offshore crush below). They actually started out as swells several days before ~ hundreds of miles out to sea. Somewhere between Hawaii and California; they got amp’d. Tuesday they started slamming into Mavericks (a beach near San Francisco) at a height of around 50 feet. From there they traveled south ~ mellowing a bit ~ and managed to slip in-between the Channel Islands (which usually serve as a break water for Santa Barbara) ~ where they hit Rincon at just over 20 feet ~ which is cool if you were at Rincon ~ because there’s a rocky point where the waves peel off ~ creating a nice side-ways barrel ride. That was not the case where I was, however ~ at Hammonds they were ‘beach break’ ~ which means skull crushing waves that crash all at once ~ offering no chance of escape.

Offshore crush

The forecast today calls for warm and sunny skies ~ offshore wind ~ and humongous waves. I pop some vitamin C ~ chase it with fruit juice and coffee ~ put the top down ~ toss my body board in ~ and careen through town ~ feeling warm but doubtful there‘ll be much surf ~ we just don’t get humongous waves here. I round the bend from Olive Mill Road to Channel Drive ~ that runs along the beach ~ where I enter a fog bank so thick ~ it blots out the sun. Burn-off, I suppose ~ no, wait ~ its ocean spray being thrown off the swells hitting the shore ~ creating a mist that hangs in the air. I pull over ~ run across the sand ~ and dive in ~ realizing, in horror, I’m over my head in break water ~ created by humongous waves crashing ~ one after the other ~ leaving me nothing to do except hang on and ride them in. I’m sitting on the beach catching my breath when I see half a surfboard wash ashore ~ then the other half still tethered to a guy named Chris ~ thank God, he says ~ he needed it to find the surface ~ I’m sitting on the cliffs watching the waves get bigger and bigger ~ and the beach get smaller and smaller ~ telling myself over and over ~ this is fucking phenomenal.

Crazy Charlie

Crazy Charlie, how do you do ~ I see ya’ stylin' down the avenue ~ all rosy red and electric blue ~ it don't matter whatcha' do ~ calamity's out there waiting for you

Tranquility