Release Yourself of Reason and Father Figures
I couldn’t wait this morning to get on my bike – a two hour bike ride later and I still didn’t want to get off of it. I LOVE FLAT LAND. God knows why – it’s flat, you don’t have vistas, but I just like it for some inexplicable reason and to be able to ride so close to water – bayou, lake, puddles – it’s great.
Two things I forgot in my past writings but was reminded of during the day are worth mentioning.
Father Figure
The first is a story about elephants first told to me by H the other night, and then S at Riddles offered clarification of the story. It happened in the KwaZulu-Natal’s Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Park in Africa where the park service relocated adolescent elephant bulls and the orphaned youngsters were left to fend for themselves. The young bulls were going into lengthy ‘musths’, as a dog would go into heat, much longer than a normal elephant in a normal setting. They then formed a gang and started raping and killing white rhinos, an endangered species. Obviously they were displaying extreme aggression. One person in the park had the idea to bring in adult bulls to “straighten out” the gang of elephant juvenile delinquents. The adults were reintroduced, and life turned back to normal.
Release Yourself of Reason
Before I left for the elephant weekend, H and T came over to celebrate H getting faculty at LSU as well as his belated birthday. The Snake came too. When I returned from my weekend there was a piece of paper on the counter that said in my handwriting “release yourself of reason” so I emailed H and asked if he had been the one talking about this or was it the Snake? He writes:
Re: Release yourself from reason
A friend of mine from graduate school (AM) shares the same fetish that I do: we both love to hear ridiculous TV evangelists. T cringes when I sit in front of the TV enjoying this crap and the faces of the believers in the audience. Anyway, on a trip to Australia, A recorded a sermon by a preacher entitled “Release yourself from reason.” The preacher carefully describes how each moment in a human’s life is ruined by the inclusion of reason or rationality. Releasing one’s self from reason builds immunity to the tricks and hoaxes that would otherwise be noticed by the rational person. This sermon quickly became our most favorite and we use it to describe anyone (guest lecturers, politicians, republicans) who happily ignore the obvious. It is also the most honest sermon I’ve ever heard: in order to believe what the preacher did, you quite frankly have to be irrational… Don’t you just love it?
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My missives this morning garnered responses that left me sad but hopeful, because they release me from reasons to linger in the past and provide me turbo fuel to concentrate on my future. Tonight, I’m meeting G with a friend of hers, E, to talk about trademarks for our product. I sent an email to S at Riddles midday that said let’s do the book. I have not heard from A about putting together our book proposal but I’m still excited about that project as well. The flashing guy called me this morning out of the blue right before I left for my bike ride and he is coming by the LaLa Wednesday – hallelujah – and then I called D, the new contractor, and he agreed to meet us. T sent me an email saying she wanted to hear all about my elephant weekend and said that J, turned out to be a loon as in lunatic, by the fourth date he was crying over how overwhelming life is – where are those BULLS when you need them? – I sent a note to my other friend, T, to tell her she helped me passed a milestone by setting an example for me. Then S called to catch up, we went over the many realizations we have both come to in our behavior towards, in and around men, and how the best part of this age is that we have finally come into our own. Besides it’s raining men in Marin again – everytime she puts herself out there they come – kind of like, if you build it they will come, well if she offers it they are there, so lesson to S, come out of your shell little missy.
Another blessed day – good friends, the Bean, my favorite city in the world, some R&R under my belt, new projects to work on, and doors swinging open like its Grand Central Station. The head guy at my company sent a missive out the other day that says we are not up for sale anymore and we are going to go this alone – so now we can all roll up our shirtsleeves and get down to brass tacks. Can I get an amen?