Welcome to the Monkey House

November 24, 2019

I wandered deep into Topanga on Saturday and emerged, at days end, a different person.…

Black Smoke. White Smoke.

November 18, 2019

Two key questions: are the Santa Ana’s blowing and what color is the smoke? If…

Fret Not

November 3, 2019

Was at an orchestra concert the other day watching my favorite cellist and noticed that…

Thirteen

October 24, 2019

Backpack half zipped on the kitchen table,Beat up paperback Fahrenheit 451 in the side pocket,Simpsons…

Deadicated 6.16.18

June 25, 2018

FADE IN Citi Field.  General Admission. Three rows back from the stage. The crowd dances,…

Divine Intervention

June 20, 2018

So here I am driving down the road, reeling from an earlier conversation, trying to…

Luggage or leverage?

June 3, 2018

One step back…WTF? These freaking voices in my head… So, the other day, I am…

Year of the Rabbit

May 1, 2018

"What year?" Vince asks. "1963." I say with a certain amount of pride. "Huh, year…

Oh, my…

April 15, 2018

Went to Supercuts on Saturday: to the usual one over on 18th and Wilshire.  All…

Learning to fly

March 18, 2018

  Took flight again today at Pranayama Breathe Class on a Sunday afternoon. I visited…

Squeak!

February 24, 2018

Squeak. Step. Squeak. Step. Squeak. Pause. Stop. Pause. Step. Squeak. Humph… My favorite shoes are…

#leftearrightear

February 14, 2018

  FADE IN. EXT: DAD comes into focus, a big guy, burley, mid-thirties, Oklahoma t-shirt,…

Have and Have Nots

February 6, 2018

I am struggling a bit.   A few days ago I woke up pre-dawn, made a…

I don’t know, it just

January 15, 2018

drives me crazy that people don’t really greet each other anymore. I’m not sure why…

Turn the tables

August 31, 2017

I have a coach that helps me navigate the training regime for all of these…

385 in dog years…

August 6, 2017

I am getting old. I’m almost 385 in dog years. Humph… The other day I…

And he lives in Nashville. Went there recently to reconnect and discovered a whole new…

Owling

July 24, 2017

Went owling with Vince the other night. We have a big tree in the backyard…

Coco and Adele

July 23, 2017

One afternoon in the Marais (how cool is that for an opening line?) Teri and…

Merci Madame Killelay

July 19, 2017

One of my favorite teachers, Madame Killlelay, taught high school French. I think she tops…

Nice is nice (PG13)

July 13, 2017

Was a hot day in Nice. I had some down time before the flight back…

Comrades in arms…

July 10, 2017

And legs. And mind, body and spirit. Just whisper “Kowies, Fields, Bothas, Inchanga or Polly…

Triple death by…

July 7, 2017

Seriously? It’s Saturday morning. I mean what kind of message is that suppose to send…

Wump-Wump-Wump

July 6, 2017

Thursday afternoon Dad via text: “send a pic people here want to see” Dad’s internal…

La Decima

July 5, 2017

He’s a god, a modern day god, like Zeus with a tennis racket. And we…

I was talking to a new acquaintance the other day, not yet a friend but I think that’s a possibility down the line. Anyway, he has a really big brain and it was being put to good use tackling the broad ranging subject of “fathers and sons.” I am both, so I was all in.

The big brain was in high gear, firing away, creating all kinds of interconnected pathways loosely tied to my comment, “It’s hard to tell what’s going on in the mind of an almost 11 year old boy these days.”

As the brain cranked up I tried to appear calm, nodding earnestly and occasionally injecting things like, “Ahhh” or “I see.” The information was coming in so fast that I had a hard time sifting through it and putting thoughts into logical buckets so I could tackle the concepts one by one, later on, while driving around in the car (my preferred place to think these days). I tried to jot down notes figuring that if I had a few on paper it would help out but, somehow, after 30 minutes or so, I managed to erase them with one poorly placed backspace. Serves me right, note to self, ditch the Notes section on the iPhone, always use pencil and paper.

At about 45 minutes into the convo, just when I was about to tap out and admit I was totally lost and that I forgot what we were talking about, the big brain says, “yep, and that’s key, just like the Maasai, you know, they hunt lions.” Wait, what? The who, do what, and why? “It’s a coming of age thing.” Ahhh, suddenly it clicked and the pathways began to connect.

You can Google the who, what and why. All I will say is that through this encounter with the big brain I have come to realize that in our crazy modern world, ancient rituals need to be experienced in crazy modern ways.  We need to create experiences that allow us to tap into the common bonds that run though past, present and future.  Proactively tap into them together.  And that as a father I need to ensure this is happening, cause at almost 11, boys need to hunt lions.

Now, I need to go. Its Saturday morning and Vince and I are off to…

Onward->

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