Joy Cometh in the Morning

"You know, the longer I live, the more I feel that the great wheeze in life is to be jolly well sure of what you want."
                                                                       -- Bertie Wooster

I wonder if you are familiar with the works of the poet Browning. It is his words that I remember each morning in my attempt to put the proper English on the day. The lark is on the wing, the snail, the thorn; God is in his Heaven and the bluebird is strutting her stuff. Or words to that effect.

If you've no time for poets, Browning or otherwise, then you might string along with the psalmist who said, "Joy cometh in the morning." That about sums it up for me. No matter how active the slings, no matter how thick the air with arrows, when the new day arrives, it frees us from the limitations of yesterday.

But I confess this was not my mood as I upholstered the outer crust for meditation in the courtyard at Straw Valley this past weekend. It was a somber morning full of thoughts on what life was to be like without Lucy in the house. Somber yes but the Genome does not eat pine needles and he maintains zero tolerance for the activities of Princess Amy, as I'm sure I don't have to remind you.

I was more or less a thing of fire and steel as I drove through the streets of the Renaissance District and blew into the doors of Dulce Cafe. I don't suppose I've been this close in years to shouting the ancient battle cry of the Jarls but just as the the mouth opened to vent, I spotted a familiar form in the shadows.

"Morning, Vinnie," I cried to The Enforcer causing him to miss the lips and dribble coffee down the chin. His reaction was much like the warhorse upon hearing the bugles, not that I've seen them first hand mind you, but I'm told that they start, they quiver, they paw the field and rejoice in their strength saying, "Ha ha" among the trumpets. Well, give or take a "Ha" or two, that was pretty much Vinnie.

I took my seat with Ms Wonder on one side and The Enforcer on the other with the feeling that these two had been ordained from the beginning to be with me on this morning. As the storm raged in the soul, I was seated at a table with the civilian equivalent of the United States Marines. All would be well is the thought that filled the coconut.

After a few minutes talking of this and that, something caught my attention coming through the door.  "What's wrong?" asked the Wonder, looking at me with concern. "You look like a startled cat." Then she said something about it being very becoming on me. But I barely heard the words.

There are times, to be sure, when one with a burden of woe is happy to welcome any acquaintance to the table, even a disambiguated one with a marked resemblance to a barnyard fowl, but this morning wasn't one of them. What I found particularly irksome in the Duck Man was the look he wore of owning the world and having paid cash for it, avoiding finance charges.

When he took his seat, he opened a discourse on a subject of interest only to him and he refused to relinquish the floor even when vigorously opposed. In fact, he seemed to relish the opportunity to offend. 

Even when Mary arrived--the good and deserving Mary who always has something of interest to say and who always leaves us feeling encouraged and optimistic, even this Mary was buffeted by the Duck Man's insistence on attention.

"Please join us," I said to Mary hoping against hope that we could turn the tide of avian impersonators and save the morning. "I'm sorry," she said, "I need to hurry home and get ready for church." As she walked away, Vinnie gave the Duck Man a quick glance and then called out to Mary, "Pray for us, Mary."

That having been accomplished, I pushed off and got on with meditation in the courtyard. Live comes hard and fast--accept any help that comes your way, no matter the source.

Splitting Time

Space-time is one not two dimensions, as I'm sure I don't need to tell you, what with Google and Wikipedia and whatnot. You can think of it as God's fanny pack where he keeps all his stuff. You don't have to think of it that way, of course, I'm just saying that you can if you like.

What few realize--few outside the Brothers of Cool and the followers of Wen the Eternally Surprised--is that space and time are not an integrated whole but more of a smash-up. Most importantly, space and time have an inverse relationship and it's that relationship that allows for all the fun.

If you slow down time, not that you would, but if you did, then space becomes much larger. Compress space and time speeds up but, be very, very careful, because when space is mushed together even a little, it begins to hot up.

In my tenure as an acolyte of Wen, I was introduced to many techniques for taking advantage of this inverse R but the only one I mastered, if it is mastered, is the technique of splitting time. Don't let the term mislead you, splitting time is nothing like splitting the atom. It merely refers to stepping outside the present moment into the interstitial spaces between moments.

It may be helpful to think of space-time like a big jar of marbles, except that for it to be really accurate, the jar has no walls and there are an infinite number of marbles. Your life, if you call it a life, moves from moment to moment--marble to marble--at the point where the marbles touch.

To split time, you step outside the present moment into the space between, which is also infinite, and you move around the moments until you come to one you like the look of and then step back into time. From your perspective--you may want to remember what you've read of Einstein--you are in the future but to those around you, the time is now and you're the weird guy wearing outdated fashion.

I teach this technique in my Fierce Qigong classes but you don't need the classes to play around. If you get in trouble just step into any moment and look for the people wearing the purple jackets and the Bofo masks. They can help you get where you want to go.

That's all there is to it. Have fun. No need to thank me, it's the least I can do. By the way, you can move into the past just as easily but I don't recommend it. The past is a much more dangerous country than the future. 

That Familiar Feeling of Impending Doom

I woke this morning with an unusually large sea of cats around me. I don't know how many cats are the recommended maximum dose for an adult but I'm sure as hell that it's not all of them. I began levering them out of the way and as I did so I became increasingly aware of a feeling of impending doom.

I know you're thinking that the Genome is jumping the rails. But I'm not actually saying that the cats are responsible for the feeling of foreboding. Not even a brindled cat can bring that much damage in a single morning. The feeling I had was undoubtedly the work of Princess Amy, that bad apple of the limbic system.

If you've been following along, you will be familiar with this princess and her dirty work. She has a tendency to stir things up from time to time by pushing the thalamus around causing an imbalance in naturally occurring brain chemicals called feel-good hormones. If left unchecked, civilization staggers and Hell's foundations are shaken.

"Not today, Amy," I said to myself and then, "Poopsie, I have a feeling of impending doom." This last statement arose at the sound of soft footsteps coming down the hall. When those footsteps entered the room, she looked my way and burst into laughter on the magnitude of a steam boiler explosion. Sometimes I wonder if cossack blood runs in the veins of this descendent of the Russian Enlightenment.

"Not funny," I said.

"But, Beignet is stretched across you like you're a moose that he's just brought down, and Uma is on your pillow looking like the hat Daniel Boone wore." She said as though she felt it excused her laughter.

"A moose?" I said, offended not a little. And neither would you be only a little offended if the woman you loved described you that way.

"No, not a moose," she said. "Boone, as in Daniel, and why do you think you won't enjoy yourself today?"

"Well you know how it is," I said, "some mornings shine with promise of a day that will be the merriest of all the glad new year and others not so much."

She gave me a look that included a moue. It is called a moue I believe, when someone shoves out the puckered lips and then pulls them back to starting position?

After a moment of silence, which by the way is always to be avoided, I said, "In many ways, life at the moment has its drawbacks."

On this solemn note, the phone on my beside suddenly tootled, causing me to skip to the high hills, which dislodged Beignet somewhere into the surrounding air. Glancing at the screen on the phone, I saw that some species of Aunt was on the other end of the call.

"This might be a good time to order the lilies," I said to Ms Wonder but it was too late. She'd disappeared into the salle de bains.

You Can't Go Wrong With a Full Moon

I moved a few cats from the bedside table to make room for the strengthening cup of ginger tea that Ms Wonder had just delivered. "Good morning, Ms Poopsie," I said, "am I correct to assume that it's morning."

"It's a beautiful day," she said opening the curtains to let the sun-smile in and then she gave me a peculiar look, which led me to wondering just what she meant by that remark.

We will soon be celebrating our 31st Halloween together and I must say that it's been more good than bad, just like each individual moment is more g than b. But then I suppose that 31 years is just a bunch of individual moments all bunged together until they make one big mountain of time.

We first met when this daughter of the Russian Enlightenment provided pumpkin-shaped cookies and apple cider for the inmates of the 2010 NASA Road One crew in Clear Lake City, Texas. 

On that day, so many Halloween parties ago, I was on friendly terms with her facilities engineer, Enrique. By that, I mean that we had downed a good number of Dos Equis together. 

But I knew this Wonder Woman not at all. I wanted to know her for she had a profile that would have the sultans and pashas clamoring to win her consent to join the quality harem. And that hasn't changed.

When I asked Enrique, that deserving son of Monterrey, about her status, he informed me that she was affianced and soon to walk the center aisle while the customers remove their hats and the organ plays "The Voice that Breathed O'er Eden."

I don't know if you've had the experience, perhaps not, but in my school years, I once blocked traffic underneath the basketball net to allow Mitchell Chambers elbow room for the lay-up. 

Pay close attention because I am coming to the salient point. Being more mindful than I of the options in the moment, Mitchell made a choice that I had overlooked as being a possibility and passed the ball directly to me.

Well, I don't need to tell you the aftermath of passing a basketball at close quarters to a teammate who is not expecting it--ruin and damnation ensues, that's what. 

It was an equally disastrous R and D that ensued upon learning that Wonder had so recently been taken out of circulation. I took it hard. The tremors reverberated, if that's the word, from brilliantined top knot to shoe sole. But what can the preux chevalier do in these circs?

One is either preux or one isn't, of course, and the only option for a parfait knight, like the Genome, is to accept the situation and get on with life. Live life on life's terms, is the way I've heard it said.

And so the long winter wore on until the day my office door opened and a face like a Mexican leprechaun peeked round to say, "She came in looking sour this morning and when I asked her about it, she said, I'll tell you what the problem is. That pig-headed, tyranical, uncompromising, jack-in-office that I have the good fortune to no longer be engaged to, that's the problem."

Do I need to say that two minutes later I was in her office with the rent check and a suggestion that what might cheer her up was the new romantic comedy opening on Friday at the Bijou? She accepted the offer. It surprised me no less than it surprised you to learn of it. 

Perhaps for her it was merely something do to pass the time, but for me, it was like hearing you'd been chosen for a second interview in heaven. And what of it if on that Friday, when we parked at the theatre, I tried to get out of the car before unbuckling? I think you understand.

This woman is the brightest star in my firmament and I am so grateful for so many things that went right--that Enrique was on my side, that the movie was about a loser who is transformed when he falls in love with one of the quality, and, oh yeah, I'm grateful that the movie was about a great big, full moon too. One can't go wrong with a full moon.

Take a Line Through Napoleon

Uma enjoys nothing more than sneaking beneath the duvet in the early morning hours, but on this morning, inches away from her entrance to the underworld, she was confronted with the head of the youngest poppet, Lucy. 

It was not a welcome sight for Uma, who returned Lucy's gaze with the look that Amy Vanderbilt reserved for guests who used the fish fork with the salad.

I sympathized with her distress. The situation was her equivalent, all things being relative, to having an aunt arrive on the scene at the worst possible moment.

Napoleon by Ortizvlasich

Now, it is generally recognized by those who know me best, that I am a resilient sort of bimbo and where others fear to tread I can be found rising on stepping stones of my dead self to higher things. This is what I'm told and I see no reason to doubt it.

Look in on the regulars at Dulce Cafe and ask anyone if the Genome spirit can be crushed and they will tell you that no matter how dense the slings and arrows, the Genome will not eat pine needles. (There it is again. I must tell you the story one day soon. I promise.)

Take yesterday morning, after leaving those two young hearts in springtime, Jenny and Bill, I was tootling down the highway, with the daughter of the Russian steppes beside me, on my way to River's baseball game. 

You remember this River as the god-grandson, who achieved Near Earth Orbit on the occasion of his last birthday. River is now playing kid-pitch baseball in the Autumn League.

There we were, Wonder and I, basking in the love of good friends, the morning sunshine and the joy of Car Talk on the raido, and yet something unmistakable in the air spoke to me of the shape of things to come, and I didn't like it. 

Although the village was quiet with the normal Saturday morning doings--the farmer's market, the Jordan Lake wind surfers, the down-dogging yoga classes--the portent was dark. 

Suddenly, turning the metaphorical corner, I looked toward the horizon into a surging sea of aunts. There were tall aunts, short aunts, stout aunts, thin aunts, and one aunt who left a voicemail telling me that I was late to a business meeting--on a Saturday morning, of all things.

I immediately thought of Napoleon, having just captured Cairo, walking around town rubbing his hands together and thinking about tomorrow's headlines in the French newspapers that would compare him to Alexander. 

Then grabbing the extra edition of the Cairo Observer he learns that Nelson has sailed the British fleet into the harbor and burned all the French ships. I'm sure you don't need me to describe the aftermath. You could read those headlines from here.

Well, you can do worse than learn from Napoleon, of course. When faced with these unfavorable odds, he declared his work done, knotted the sheets together for a quick escape, and didn't take time to pack. 

Even though the lesson of the Cairo Campaign was clear, here we were in the stands urging the Red Hawks on to near victory in an exciting 11-9 game on a beautiful Autumn morning in South Durham.

I would be deceiving my public if I said that happy endings were flowing freely all round but the spirit was mildly effervescent. Go Red Hawks!