THE BRAVE NEW LAND

Party-time was always difficult for me. I wanted to go, but when I got there, I was that weird guy that was sitting on the roof or outside in the tree, looking at the stars and thinking about whatever came to mind. When I danced, I was usually by myself, exploring the inside of things. The world around me pulsed and moved and I absorbed it and then spun and wove it into my own story. It was my narrative. It fed me and when I returned to my studio, where I would regurgitate the narrative in some fashion, I would revel in the knowledge that I had gained about the universe. My narrative grew as my radio antennae gleaned from the mazal dripping from above and became a life of its own. It spun its way into many objects and images. Giant posters and murals of TVs and couches were sprouting around the towns that I lived in. Spinning living rooms and clay cartoons crept from my mind and splashed with clanks and splats, as they formed themselves from the unconscious universe, unknowingly collec

"Life is growth. Since stagnation is the antithesis of growth, it is also the antithesis of life. We can exist without growth, but such an existence lacks true life." Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski Photo by eddiefriedman.com

First of all, I need to give credit to my Mom for not only not doing many of the things listed here, but also doing many of them. Oh, and thanks as well for forwarding the email quoted below! TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED THE 1930s, '40s, '50s, '60s and '70s!! “First, we survived being born to mothers who may have smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes. Then, after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-based paints. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, or locks on doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had baseball caps, not helmets, on our heads. As infants and children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, no booster seats, no seat belts, no air bags, bald tires and sometimes no brakes. Riding in the back of a pick-up truck on a warm day was always a special treat. We drank water fr