Thanks, Friends

I owe you all some thanks.

In January, on the heels of a tough holiday and the decision to get a divorce, etcetera, I wrote this:

"2009 is an infant at this stage, and I'm already understanding just how much of a bitch she's gonna grow up to be."

Today I'm reflecting, and can see where I was right. 2009 was a bitch. Is now a full grown bitch. I have so much freaking work to do in the coming weeks. Papers, exams, moving, resettling, job-finding, grad program applying... And, while separated, I'm still not divorced, which makes me feel a bit constipated.

It is easy to be negative about all this, but here's the bright side: I realize how lucky I am. I get to travel the world doing work that I love to do with good friends. I get to have terrifying rides through the Oaxaca mountains in the backs of vans. I get to eat good food and drink good drink. I get to read and write. I get to talk about motorcycles and sheep farming. I get to think about the future. I get to create. I have love. I get to be happy with myself and the people around me (or far away).

Yes, 2009 has been hard, but it was not joyless.

At lunch one day last week in Mexico, Gale said something funny. Really funny. In fact, I lost my shit. I laughed like I haven't laughed since... Well, I honestly can't remember. It was the kind of unchecked, choking, food-coming-out-of-your-nose laughter that seems to happen once a decade, but should probably happen daily. My laughing got Gale laughing, and we both made a ridiculous cackling scene in the restaurant that just went on and on. I couldn't see straight and, though we were stone-sober, I'm sure we appeared to have had a few too many shots of complimentary mezcal.

This year so far, there have been hundreds of instances like this. Maybe not laughter exactly, but equally poignant for sure. If you're reading this, we've probably had at least one together. Friends, don't think that the value of times like this is lost on me. I appreciate every second.

So, to all of you, for all the joy in this bitch of a year, Thank you.

Lost Souls CAlling Long-Distance Salvation

3:30am:

Early drive to the airport for the Mexi-trip. I usually listen to Public Radio in the car, 90.1, but this early it is some canned classical music show that was guaranteed to lull me into roadside-statistic-hood. So, I scanned. By the time I got to 95.7 I had already passed six evangelist stations, all varying degrees of psychotic. I did stop on one for a while. Mostly because the preacher's "JE-sus" and "SA-tan" style iron-fisted iambs were guaranteed to startle me awake every once in a while.

A couple things I noticed in general.

1-He made no sense--the thread of his conversation was so broken, I never knew if he was originally talking about premarital sex or the apocalypse. Guess it is all the same thing to some people...

2-Rampant misogyny--According to our wee-hours fanatic, God is at the head of man, man is at the head of woman and woman belongs in the house. At first I thought I had time-warped back to before people were smart. But, alas, I did not mis hear or speak. Examples followed. It is clear that this preacher actually said and meant that men are better than women.

Now, that concerned me on a couple levels. First, I'm generally bummed out that this sentiment exists. It is a very bad interpretation of a perfectly good philosophy, it is based in fear and hate.

Second, the radio is saturated with this claptrap. Bandwidth isn't cheap. That means that there a lot of people buying what this jerk is selling. In response, I have to say this: You people are assholes. Will you listen to what this guy is saying? I'm sure Jesus didn't hate women.

Over and out.

Finally, a Race

Getting up early enough tomorrow to justify not going to bed at all. Gonna catch a plane to Oaxaca. Racing. Bicycles. Friends.