Captain's Log

Time, Space and Perspective.

"This one goes out to the ones I love."

That's how the song goes, and that's where this post is going.

TIME: 
November 18th, 1999.  That would be my birthday (not birthdate...), I was living in Los Angeles and writing two columns for two different publications.  In the next two months, I had no idea that my life would change so dramatically.

Around 7 p.m. PST, before caller-id was the norm, I picked up the phone.  On the other end was a friend of mine calling to inform me that my dear friend Mitchell had just committed suicide.  The method was gruesome, but in some respects exactly how he would have wanted to go.  This is not a debate about suicide.  It's about answering the phone and taking that call.

Nearly one-and-a-half months later, my mother called me while I was in Washington D.C., visiting friends before I was to pick up my sister and niece and drive - from Washington, through Virginia and all the way to Memphis.  The call, from my mother, shocked our world.  She had lung cancer, and we needed to get to the hospital quickly.  It was not a fun Christmas, as it was intended to be.  But it was extremely special.

SPACE:
We all need space in our lives.  To breathe, to dream, to lose ourselves - and to find ourselves.  Proximity does not equal closeness.

From both distressing calls, space mattered.  One was 45 miles away, and another was about 19 hours away, driving as fast as we could to get there.  "There" was, and remains, important.  I wasn't in San Diego when the police report was written, nor caught the warning signs to possibly help my friend.  I call it "smiling for the phone".  45 minutes, and yet a lifetime away.  I was there, as was my sister and my niece, when - after driving all night - we rescued my mother in the middle of the night from a Memphis hospital. On Christmas Eve - no, make that Christmas Day, just a little before sunrise.

It was an act of teamwork and dedication that is only rivaled by my mother dying in my arms 9 months later, and my partner right by my side in a hospital room in Virginia.  On that particular night, the nurse, in a most wonderful Southern way, said "Well, she was there for you when you came into life, and you were here for her when she departed."  Words of wisdom.   And then she said we should take the time to grieve, and gave us space to do that.

PERSPECTIVE:
We all need perspective.  We have no idea how our actions, much less our reactions, affect those around us.

And yet, we are human.  It sometimes takes years for us to understand our actions, or those actions and reactions of those around us, that "hit us in the gut."  We do it to ourselves, and we do it to those around us.  Usually not knowing the repercussions of our actions, and the reactions that follow.  A ripple in the water caused by a stone we skipped across the water continues a wave that hits things, animals, people and the shores around us.  And we were simply skipping a stone across the water.

And yet, life goes on.  After years and years of seeing, touching and loving the ones we are with, we sometimes still don't understand everything they have been through, are possibly going through at this moment in time and space, or their perspective.  Why do we do that?  Because we are human.

//

In the end, Love is all we have.

I know this is a bit past Valentine's Day, but I never let time get in my way of saying, and feeling, what I want to transmit to my family, my friends and the planet. 

For if we don't take the time, how can we possibly have the time to take?

For everyone in my universe, as well as those in yours, please remember: Time, Space and Perspective are important.  In all of our lives. 

And Love trumps them all.

The Daily Gaze

Let's start with the bad, and then have fun at the end...

INTERNATIONAL:

Could it get any worse?  Apparently the answer is yes. 

Or Ugly.  Make sure you hit the paragraph about Dubai's towers, faucets and cockroaches.

One World.

NATIONAL:

This is weird.

Another airplane crash.  They usually happen in threes...

An option for our former peanut butter days.  Now pass the tainted tomatoes.

More news from nowhere.

LGBTQ:

Finally, some good old fashioned fun news.

A sweet video that's very relevant to the debate.

Some good equality news for a change.

The End of the World, told in a wonderful manner.

FUN:

What do kamikaze pilots and the recession have in common?

Can't get no sleep?  Join the crowd. Cool video.

Zazoo Condoms.

That's all for now folks....

The Dawning of the Age of Aquarius

Forty years ago, the intuitive words of a song called "Aquarius" brought the dawning of a new age into our collective awareness:

"When the Moon is in the seventh house...
and Jupiter aligns with Mars.
Then love will rule the planets,
and peace will steer the stars."

THIS is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius.  In 1962, Jupiter and Mars were in Aquarius and the moon was in the seventh house.  But the incredible alignment of planets occurring in February 2009 was missing.  As well, Jupiter and Mars were aligned with the Southern Node, representing what we bring in from the past. 

In essence, humanity was able to take in a deep breath of possibility, and now we are able to exhale and make it happen.

In mid-February 2009 a rare astrological concentration brings together a number of planets within the Northern Node - denoting higher purpose.  It is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius.  In Aquarius, that energizes and inspires the possibility for transcendental breakthrough in some perhaps seemingly intransigent situations.

When we experience the events on that day, something extraordinary and exquisite will emerge.

At dawn (GMT) on the 14th of February 2009, the Moon in Libra will be in the seventh house of relationships. And Jupiter and Mars will also be aligned in Aquarius, in the twelfth house of spiritual transformation.

The Aquarian chart on that day reveals an incredible concentration of cosmic influences blending with the energies of Aquarius.

Expansive Jupiter and energetic Mars will also be aligned with the higher purpose of the Northern Node. The presence of Chiron (the wounded healer) offers us the opportunity to heal the schisms that have separated us for a long period of time.

Neptune emphasizes collective humanitarian movements and the mutual creation of social justice across the planet. And the presence of the radiant Sun enlightens the entire alignment.

Mercury (also in the twelfth house) will be just beyond the cusp in Capricorn, but will ally with transformational Pluto (yep, it's still a planet to me...) to communicate and anchor the shift throughout our global structures and institutions.

The Moon in Libra in the seventh house emphasizes harmonious relationships.  Venus in Aries in the first house energizes and empowers dynamic collaboration and creativity.

And while Saturn (the great task master) is in opposition to Uranus (the unexpected awakener), the event suggests an ongoing confrontation as the dregs of the unsustainable old paradigm reluctantly give way to the untested hope of the new.  Their placements in Virgo and Pisces brings practical altruism and visionary inspiration to the transition.

Welcome to a new beginning, a new dawn and the Age of Aquarius.

Life v. Death

Caveat: I can’t quite put my finger on whether this should be funny or serious, so it’s a bit of both.  And you’d think, after being a writer and editor for a long time, I would understand the difference between “analogy” and “metaphor” - but I don’t.  All the time.  No, I’m not going to look it up, and I’ve had some of the best in the business tell me the difference.  Even with my glasses on I couldn’t tell the difference between Analogy and Metaphor if they were 20-feet away from me.  I think one’s blonde.  And everyone needs an editor.  Mine is currently shopping, in Honduras or Cuba.  Some Banana Republic, oddly near Metro Center.

Meanwhile...

I think the difference between life and death comes down to a single word: Choice.  Yep, there are the suicides and the car crashes, but for most of us we don’t get to choose how we die.  We do, however, get to choose how we live.  And our actions, and reactions, to both life and death are important.  After a contemplative Saturday and a rough week, let me try to break it down.  Give me some slack, though, if I don’t hit all the right chords as I am most definitely not a musician.  Ask anyone that knows me whether I can carry a tune.  Nope.  And don’t even try to get me on a stage on a ship with two other guys to sing “Born to be Wild” with the help of a Karaoke machine.  The only thing that didn’t make us the laughing-stock for the rest of the cruise was the Asian guy after us decided to sing “Feelings.” 

But I digress.  Back to Life v. Death.  Let me set the stage with a few examples.  Let’s tackle death first:

A friend could have easily died in a car crash a couple nights ago.  What saved his life from the idiot hit and run driver was an airbag, a crumple-zone car, and a relaxed friend listening to music (if you consider the band ‘Tool’ music).  My mother smoked all her life and we all knew she was going to die of lung cancer.  She did, in my arms and well before her time, but the time and place was not of her choosing.  Four friends died in a helicopter crash while I was in the military.  As part of the accident-investigation team, we found they hit the trees sideways at about 18g’s.  There’s no airbag that can save you from that.  Whether they were doing an authorized maneuver is still up for debate, but they didn’t choose to hit those trees.  My partner’s father passed away after a long illness.  If he could, I’m sure he would have wanted to go out on his own terms.  Due to physical, legal and moral issues (physician-assisted suicide and another Eskimo bites the snow...), that was not the case.

I told you I did not know if this was going to be funny or serious, hence the Eskimo walking out into the snow analogy.  Or metaphor.  Whatever.

Now on to life.  This is where the word “choice” really comes in.  I chose to wake up late today, after choosing to stay up way too late last night watching the Sci-Fi channel.  Yeah, I’m a geek.  My friend Phil chose to go biking all across DC today, my partner decided to make a nice cappuccino with lactose-free milk (does that count as dairy?) and one of my relatives chose to help her kid fill out forms for UVA instead of both of them going outside to play on a very nice Saturday afternoon.  What happened to the time when you could, as a 10-year old, go outside as opposed to fill out forms for college on a sunny weekend and play?  Oh, and the Senate deliberated for days without end on how to stop the world economy from plunging into a large black hole somewhere in space.  It seems it came down to a few million, and that’s just in US dollars.  Senseless, but a choice.

The choices we make every day are more than just whether we wake up slowly, put a dash of chocolate on a cappuccino, or listen to our kind of music.  They have repercussions.  And consequences.  Not that death doesn’t, mind you, as it has both.  Death is more powerful and hits you upside the head; well just because it does.

I could go on, but I won’t.  At this moment in time, we all are facing choices that we will have to live with for the rest of our lives.  Again, the difference between life and death is choice.  And any one of us that thinks differently is probably incorrect.  That and the fact that we have to live with our choices for the rest of our lives means that all of us should stop and think before we act.  That’s a basic tenet: Think First, Then Do. 

Do most of us do that, however, on a daily basis?  Probably not.  I know, as much as I try, I don’t.  I can’t.  Time, space and many other things get in the way.  And, as the song goes, “Smoke gets in your eyes.”

I pretty much get to choose where to move my chess piece.  As do those around me.  It’s like a very large, three-dimensional chess board with about 7 people playing in a loud space.  But I still have to - no, get to - move my pawn or bishop or king or queen.  And it (my move) is not over until I take my hand off.

Where am I going with this?  Well, nowhere in particular.  I’m just thinking that everything we do and everything we say has consequences (intended or un-intended) for us as well as those around us.  Many of our choices have repercussions we cannot even fathom, as we are blind to many of those around us while we go about our day.  From idiots that stand on the left on an escalator to the stupid guy at the supermarket that can’t figure out which way is up, we have no clue what their day, nor their life, is like at that particular moment in time.

But we have a choice.  We can yell at them (get the fuck out of my way, asshole!) or we can simply catch the wave and go with the flow and head to the next register.  That’s a choice also.

Life v. Death:  Death wins in the end, but it’s how we live our lives that matters.  Actions have reactions, life has consequences.   And all those seemingly small actions of ours create ripples in the pond of life that we didn’t even know we caused. 

Neo may not have known that he was going to knock over the vase in the Matrix.  Was it the fact that he didn’t know it was there, or that the Oracle told him not to worry about it before it happened?  Or as Alec Baldwin said in one of his movies, “I wasn’t born to be a prisoner, so if my plane gets hit I’d aim it at the largest military target in range.  But that’s just me.”  Takes me back to a saying I made up along my long, wonderful walk with life:  An aircraft does not crash in compartments.

Were those analogies or metaphors?  I don’t know.  Go look it up.  It seems the sun has set and playtime is over.  Until after Sunday School.

In the end, it does not matter what I think or what I write.  It does, however, matter what you believe.  As that is what counts.