Four part harmony.


I live a quaternary existence. Alaska, Salt Lake City, Northern California, and New Zealand. No complaints; it could be Detroit, Minsk, Mogadishu, and Kandahar. Confusion comes with the territory, however, in spite of the undoubted quality of the locales. Karen keeps my heart in Nome, my soul is with my family in the desert, and New Zealand is sheltering my logos, or what remains thereof. My booty, and all shaking that accompanies it, is rooted firmly in Northern California. After the past year I approach a point where difficulty tracking reality is a reasonably frequent experience, similar to the feeling after a double trip through the Hammer at the fair.

So why the navel gazing? Another departure, I suppose. Observations suggesting my enjoyment of the emotional intensities of goodbyes have been made, backed with the reasoning that if it was not true I would not engage in so many. Perhaps, though if true it is a aspect which I do not claim.

As life has fallen into four main tracks my experiences with the inhabitants of those areas have shifted into a time-lapse presentation. We are at an age where the physical realities begin to show after the fairly benign late twenties through early forties. Now to see my friends and family (and many combinations of the two) for a couple of visits a year allows me to see significant changes, and my aging and changing must seem similarly episodic. Dinner once a month allows for two people to notice gradual alterations, facilitates a conscious airbrushing to remove changes that are uncomfortable or that threaten our stability. Dinner once every six months creates very different dynamics. 180 days is long enough for visible change to occur in most people, and to live a close friendship with this periodicity of gathering gives a very time-lapsed sense of a life. An evening's flash or even a week of company, followed by enough time that you have both changed significantly, and often aged visibly. It does not allow for the day-to-day smoothing of the edges and reevaluation of earlier memories which allow us to not see how quickly our partners of many kinds are aging along with us.

This time-lapse relationship with all is useful in that it helps keep strong relationships with people I love, and there are many of those in wide ranging places. It allows for intense, short visits to reconfirm relationships without becoming a pest. It allows me to enjoy my friends to the utmost in many locations and in limited time.

It does frighten me. Since the changes between visits are significant, the their films seem to be showing much faster then my personal narrative. I can feel my age, but that does not dispirit as I can observe and to some degree guide the process. My friends and family mostly stand in a room behind a closed door. Every time the portal opens there sit a group glad to see me and whose very presence lifts my spirit, but who are notably older. I suppose this is the price paid for trying to be a part of so many films at once, you become a constant cameo.

Please forgive the narcissism. Back to En Zed in the afternoon. Very happy to see my crew in Dunners, watch a few couches burn, lose at poker and billiards. I have met tremendous people there, and the excitement to get home is just as strong as it was to leave four months back. But it does mean stepping off stage somewhere else, ending my cameo. While my part always wraps with a request to come back as soon as possible, the drama will have moved on and everything will be different when the time comes to return to the action.

But life is fair, despite anecdotal reports to the contrary. I am fortunate to be writing a script which still strikes me as interesting. I have yet to find the proper shark to jump, though others may differ. Life is sweet, and my family/friends are the finest part. I shall devour them all, perhaps with some fava beans and a nice primitivo.

2:30 AM with a 13 hour flight in the morning. Time to tear my gaze away from the reflecting pool and head to bed. Many goodbyes, and greetings, to prepare for.

Much love to all. I will be back in the States in October, most likely. The travelogue will resume ASAP, probably with the Kepler Track in March.

I have always loved this video, and it seems appropriate to the thread. I do wish John had stuck around a bit longer: http://www.slashcontrol.com/free-tv-shows/saturday-night-live/3714027524-dont-look-back-in-anger