Oh hi there. It's Texino hiding in a hotel at Callao, Peru down South America way. How I come to be holed up in a hostile hostelry where the day to day seems to revolve around draping one's self in a flag, donning the silliest hat you can find, and marching off into the mountains chomping a big chaw of coca, is a story for a different day. Suffice to say here I am on the eve of my 60th year on the planet trying to make some sense of that pressing matter.Now, if you are anything like me, and you must share some ideas or you would not be reading this, you probably thought you would never get as old as you are now. That may be 30, 40, 50, 55, 60 or even higher. Still those numbers are the milestones we tend to mark
as varying degrees of age. Of course you have 21 and 18 and 16 but those tend toward fun things like driving the car and buying the spirits and people rarely if ever say "God, 21 years, where did the time go?" I must say, however; that since not one of the male members on my father's side ever lived out his 50s, I honestly did not think I would make this date either and therefore, did not make any plans what so ever. Looking back, I have had some nice birthdays and some normal birthdays. No really bad birthdays because I don't think much of holidays anyway so I don't put a lot of stock in making a huge deal over stuff like that. I like giving presents to people for no particular reason other than they might enjoy the gift. It's hard to buy me things anyway because my tastes run high. I mean, I'd like a porsche automobile or a cruising sailboat. I really have no trouble excepting the fact, I'll never get this stuff for my birthday. I am a bit more concerned, however over my lack of getting anything published in book form or gaining further respect as a musician. Of the two, the writing does seem to be the one where I might possibly gear up some success. The trouble there is, owing to the discovery that the root of my melancholy has to do with Parkinson's Disease, the feel good medicine I am taking is, bit by bit, forcing the spontaneous entertainment that can be "Texino" back into the tin can that is Tommy. What to do? I just don't know at the moment. Besides, I'm busy thinking about some stuff. Like what? Well, like the people who I love. Some of them have been around for pretty much the whole ride. Some of these people I love, I have not seen in years and years; maybe since we were little kids who grew into teenagers and went away to different schools. But they were the first people outside of my family circle who I had feelings for and when we swore blood oaths of friendship forever, I believed them with all my heart. There are others who for one reason or other couldn't make the trip. I mean they died. I suppose Mother and Father could, in theory, still be around, but I told you no one in Dad's family lived to be 60 and though Mother's people were long lived, Mother herself ended up being forty forever. I missed the old folks who brought me up and educated me away from school so much, that in the years after they had passed, I would work the sums of their ages wishing them back until, well if Granny were alive now, she would be 126 and that is just a little far fetched even for me. Then in the last 10 years or so, those twin sharpshooters, Cancer and Heart disease have started sniping away at my generation and a couple of exotic diseases have drifted through the ranks like chemical warfare. I guess life's like that. "That" being analogous to just about any sort well known life ending situation. I have also heard that "Life is what you make it" as well as "The Golden Years are Hell" I got a great deal of this information hanging around in the back of ambulances chatting with older patients of and on over the past 30 years or so and I met some wonderful folks indeed. If I learned anything at all there it was this. Age is a sneaky bastard who will just roar up on you like an express train. (If you know what an express train is you are probably already old.) Don't believe me? Well just look back at those mile stone birthdays I listed. See how many have come and gone and how quickly the time between has flown. It just keeps getting faster too. Why? I just don't know.
Well, as you can see by today's graphic, I'm being watched Los Indios de Fedoras and they have me pined down at he Hotel Columbus. Guess that will be my birthday HQ. If you find yourself in the neighborhood drop on by. Knock three times and give the pass word. The pass word is, "Swordfish." Love you? Yeah I mean it.
4 comments:
texino! feliz cumpleanos! glad to have read your musings on the meaning of life/age. seems you're pondering things that are quite complex...yet i intu' are muy facil we just can't dissect it readily...and unfortunatly it must be disected to understand it. because you truly speak of two things time and nature/existance. to put in context the depth of your thought let's bear in mind the smartest guy i almost know, albert einstein ... all of the fancy stuff that we know he did was completed before his mid thirties. he spent the rest of his life and energy wrestling with the concept of time. he proved (mathmaticaly) that time is real/tangible and not just markings on the face of a wrist watch. trouble is he was unable to make his idea mesh with the seeming limitations of the physical world (newton). a clue to how close (probably the closest of any) he was is his statement that "god does not play craps with the universe". he was not speaking metaphorically. unfortunately he was a jew and had not deep knowledge of zen. if he had more likely than not he would have had the insight to find the missing pieces of his search ... which would have been great because he could have told us what we are missing. the odds of us dolts getting it are slim. but, if you were to read a book titled "zen flesh, zen bones" you would find some clever bits that would aid you, not in seeing the answer, but in eleminating most of the fog that we are forced to try and look through. you see, time truly is relative and, we really are one with nature. do this, take the theories "conservation of mass" and "conservation of energy" coupled with what we know of genetics and spinkle them with theology. i think one can begin to realize that there is no division between science and religion. rather, the combination is what we call life. the difficulty is that "life" is so famililiar to our "every day" that we can not appreciate it for the truth. we always were and we always will be. god made it that way. it's karma baby. and that's the only reality. all of this other man-made stuff is just psychology. though it's real it's just minutiae. anyway, age means no-thing ... it's just "what" we are experiencing during a particular moment. and those experiences are based upon what we bring to the moment (table). ergo, what i wrote of previously.
do you think qui chang cane would high a five me on these thoughts? i know uncle albert would!
also (to all you other's out there on the world wide web ... and else where), i reserve all rights to my "work product" and the concepts outlined and written above. or you'll "dorma con pesca". look for these ideas soon in "shambhala press". ;)
ciao, miguel.
My Goodness, Texino, you certainly have some thoughtful and educated readers! I am impressed.
But I am more impressed with you. Over the years I have read thousands and maybe millions of words that you have written and many of them have flown into my heart like small doves, to nestle there. They have brought me, on occasion, insight, a measure of peace, and too many real (not LOL) bouts of laughter.
You have also saved countless lives in your work as the guy who shows up in the ambulance like the God from the Machine. You've nurtured careers from musical to technical and helped with those matters for many.
You've entertained masses with your music. You've been there when need was great, you've been there when need was small, for people both great and small. You've been a good neighbor.
Dogs love you. Children are amazed by you.
You've lived sixty years and that means you have sixty years worth of wisdom and memories and music and skills all very much still sewed up in those bones, that skin, that brain.
No one gets out of here alive and even before we give the conductor our final ticket to board, very few of us enjoy perfect health for the entire journey. But we take the berth we've been given, the suitcase we've been issued to pack our things in and we dance in the best clothes we have.
You're doing a great job. Don't stop. Happy birthday.
Much love.
Maria Luna
Oh you mean Mickey? Yeah he's one the likes of whom see don't see too often. Quick witted, and he can fly! (sans de plane) He is right about Al- boom boom- Einstein as well. Now me? I have always been a huge fan of Bell Lab's Dr. Frank Baxter who, back in the 50s, did a series of ephemeral films for the phone company using humorous situations combined with good science to make his points. In one such film, after helping a bumbling and disorganized kingdom seize the concept of time and develop a very fancy clock, the question was put, "By the way, what time is it?" To which he answered, "It's any time you want it to be." The weight of that answer was enough to start me rolling in the company of more questions and I'm still checking stuff out 50 years down the line.
Calling all Girls! Let's have a High Ball!
As for bed fellows, algo un pescado que un puerco espín!
TT
Something a fish that a porcupine?
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