I read this one last night, stoned/tired/bored and honestly, it just pissed me off, made me feel more exhausted. I'm seriously sick of having the same thought, on loop, in my mind: Why are so many people talking and so few are actually doing? At this point, we know what's going on and why; ads and smartphones are not good for human brains or for society. (But f*ckin a! Some of us are legit fixing things!!)
Let Esalen be Esalen. Screw that place. I've never had enough money to go there. Now, part of me feels like I should stay away out of principal.
I have had some of the best times of my life in Big Sur. The place has changed me. But I have only had one experience at Esalen and it was a silly little turd of a moment that now reads like fiction: My younger brother, who has often had even less money than I have, and I were motorcycling north, from Los Angeles to the Bay Area, and making a long week out of it, getting stoned, tramping on beaches and such. (I really savored these moments in the years before I realized that it's possible to just always live like that.) One afternoon, we rode past Esalen, beautiful against the shimmering sea, and pulled in, and I will confess that I was feeling beckoned. It was the perfect stop. My mind raced with ideas about community and contribution and, more broadly, gift societies and the problems facing the world, and then, abruptly, we were turned away at the gate. They wouldn't even let us chill on that epic lawn!
Reflecting on that memory now, I think that that's when I began to realize that it's wealth, not politics, that divides us.
Anyway, I'm not ready to rate this one yet, because I still need a few more days to process it.
OK fine. I'll post it. ;)
I read this one last night, stoned/tired/bored and honestly, it just pissed me off, made me feel more exhausted. I'm seriously sick of having the same thought, on loop, in my mind: Why are so many people talking and so few are actually doing? At this point, we know what's going on and why; ads and smartphones are not good for human brains or for society. (But f*ckin a! Some of us are legit fixing things!!)
Let Esalen be Esalen. Screw that place. I've never had enough money to go there. Now, part of me feels like I should stay away out of principal.
I have had some of the best times of my life in Big Sur. The place has changed me. But I have only had one experience at Esalen and it was a silly little turd of a moment that now reads like fiction: My younger brother, who has often had even less money than I have, and I were motorcycling north, from Los Angeles to the Bay Area, and making a long week out of it, getting stoned, tramping on beaches and such. (I really savored these moments in the years before I realized that it's possible to just always live like that.) One afternoon, we rode past Esalen, beautiful against the shimmering sea, and pulled in, and I will confess that I was feeling beckoned. It was the perfect stop. My mind raced with ideas about community and contribution and, more broadly, gift societies and the problems facing the world, and then, abruptly, we were turned away at the gate. They wouldn't even let us chill on that epic lawn!
Reflecting on that memory now, I think that that's when I began to realize that it's wealth, not politics, that divides us.
Anyway, I'm not ready to rate this one yet, because I still need a few more days to process it.
Oh yeah, and ALL HAIL, MEME TRISTAN!!
Perhaps I should be less Vulnerageous. The piece is light, even funny. I'm the only one who gets white knuckles from stuff like this.