The Enlightenment of the Modern Man

Sunday, July 4, 2021 We are leaving now.   Early in the morning, well, not too early.   We were able to get on the road just before 8 am.   Traveling on a holiday is never a great idea, but my thought is that if people went away for the weekend, they are already at their destination, and, I am going in the opposite direction of where many may go to attend the festivities.   It was time to leave.   Mom is up and around with a walking boot and able to move on her own.   Heck, she was doing exercises the morning after surgery, so my guess is that she feels fine.   I should not say guess.   I have been by her side for the entire week and she is recovering well and the surgery was a success so far.   We won’t be fully sure until she gets all of the stitches and pins out of her foot sometime later this month.   It is one of those things where this only so much I can do, and I need to get back and get some work done prior to the start of scho...

 July 28, 2020 The day of the surgery.   It has been two days.   I have survived the weekend.   I have taken Remo on numerous walks.   I mean numerous walks because I need to excuse myself from the stale energy that emits from the dwelling my mother calls home.   I need to escape the vast center of negativity and close-mindedness.   It sounds like I am picking on my mom, I am not, but there are two very different perspectives playing out right here.   Two very different views of life and the existence of life as we know it.   To hear someone who just complains about much of what is happening and how people are living their lives as the pandemic is slowly ending (maybe), damages my inner being and attacks my emotional awareness.   I realize at that time that I need to adjust to the contrast that is thrown at me and find my happy, but this visit and subsequent caretaking after will really test my ability to not be triggered by the action...

There was a moment back in the fall of 1995 when on a Saturday I brought a radio with me as I went with my father to Marlborough High School in Los Angeles to help him work on the sets for a play he was hired to construct.  It was early, and I was perturbed.  I was getting paid, and I was in the play as well, but my day was ruined because I could not watch the Notre Dame Football Game that Saturday afternoon on NBC.  Marlborough High School was a beautiful secluded all-girls preparatory school located deep within the elegant homes on the Beverly Hills and Melrose border.  A sister school of all-boys Loyal High School and filled with million dollar dreams and wonderful opportunities.  It was as graceful as it was exclusive, and my dad booked a job here as the set designer.  When visiting I felt like I was on the set of 90210.  But the opportunity to work for $20 an hour, under the table mind you, was lost upon me.   It was October 28 th .   ...

 Playa Del Rey, June 26, 2020 After battling traffic for over five hours, we finally arrive at my mother’s house.   I am realizing more and more that after the 18 years of directed captivity, many are taking advantage of their release from temporary confinement. Airports, roads, restaurants are packed.   Hotels are booked and it is hard to get a rental car or reservations for available activities.   It is open season for entertainment and indulgence, and travel shows it.   The break in the heat is nice, but the location is kind of a bear – it’s a condo, and Remo is a 115 lbs. German shepherd.   So, getting him out of the car and in the building involves opening and closing multiple doors and waiting for elevators.   I feel like I am moving a prisoner and stopping at check points.   God forbid I let him off of leash in the complex.   It has nothing to do with him, he listens – excepts if he sees a cat (or a squirrel) – it is the pretentious ...

Many elaborate and life-altering adventures happen during moments of mishap and misfortune.  When things seem to be gaining momentum towards a new beginning, to then alter and move life’s purpose into a new direction; one that is totally altered from the journey that was sure to begin.  It becomes pure moments of quiet when the thoughts and the answers come.  The great American writer John Steinbeck published his book Travels with Charley in 1980 and much of what he discusses in his text are the thoughts and pressing matters that concerned him in the later moments of his life.  More or less his adventure allowed him to look at the American condition.  My more recent travels have not exactly taken me across much of America, but the journey that I have taken this summer only magnified my observation of my current place on my path of least resistance.  Las Vegas, June 26, 2020 It is 10 AM and it is already 95 degrees outside.   I have just packed up ...

When we think of inspiration, it is the curiosity that ignites the mind to pursue any endeavor that leads to a path of the unknown and undiscovered country.  The spark that sends one into a fervor of rapid intellectual curiosity cannot be squashed by any means for it is that in which all stages of evolution have come about – whether they can be categorized as good or bad, stimulating or indifferent.  It is the intuition given from the divine as we co-create with the Akashic record that exists among our universal consciousness.  For as long as life has existed, there is a linear pattern of thought that connects all of it together in a symbiance of collaboration.  And within that coordination of thought, stands the people who live within the layers of creation and display the ornate and intricate details that satisfy us with excitement and exhilaration.   It is the power of story that drives many of us to aspire to become a better person, brilliant thinker, or d...

I remember the day fondly.  It was Friday, June 18 th .  It was hot, not July or August hot, but it was hot as I began my journey through and across the Mojave Preserve on a warm summer’s morning, heading towards my new area of habitation – in location only as the desert that had become my home since 2004 will continue as my residence for now and the near future.  My white F-150 was packed to the hilt with all that would not fit or that I desired to be hauled by the movers to maneuver to my new home in the city of sin – well, just north of it.  It was a hodgepodge of items that resembled more of a person evacuating a zombie invasion rather than a relocation, tools, a ladder, baseball bats, clothes, food, water and two dogs (a German Shepherd and Great Dane) along with their accompanying food and toys.  The cab was truly a site to see, as we were all jammed in together just as three people trying to share a port-a-potty.  It actually reminds me of a time in ...

 A key moment for many men as they get older is when they realize that the preparation and process is the true installation for success.  As wise men, the prerequisite for success starts with a perfect plan and habit for organization and initiation.  The execution of said plan is the “if” statement.  Many have used “if” throughout their lives as a mere crutch to achievement as opposed to the knock against any personal accomplishment.  “If” has become the biggest word in the English language for many and the most commonly used as it has defined why individuals still find themselves stuck in a rut of purgatory and personal anguish.  There have been case studies in which many men feel that they could have been a professional athlete if it was not for a coach that held them back or did not see their potential as an amateur.  The same goes for aspiring musicians and actors; if they were only given that shot, they would now grace us on magazine covers and be...

There are many times when you cannot see the forest through the trees.  Sitting down in the metaphorical dense thick woodland that blocked my clarity, so much so that I was unable to see the clearing that lay just beyond the outstretched arms, the future that I was about to engage in felt a great distance away.  The convoluted path that had been laid before me felt broken and unstable and I was waiting for a smooth surface to walk across as the crossroads of my life had felt visible, but was unable to navigate past without any difficulty.  I placed myself in this hidden dense jungle of who I thought I was and how I valued and judged myself.  And then all at once, an opening through the branches came into my view and I was able to find my way out into the clearing.  It was the start of the pandemic as the Morongo Unified School District had decided to shut down on March 13, 2020, and the stoppage of work was about to propel me towards a life-altering scenario t...

I am an English teacher; let me rephrase.  I am a teacher of the Language Arts, not a teacher from across the pond with an elegant accent, a penchant for tea, nor the need for a tepid ale (well, I do enjoy tea). But as an educator of the literary arts at the high-school level, a particular moment of resistance stems from the introduction of Shakespeare into the curriculum.  “I don’t understand it,” “It is boring,” “It doesn’t make any sense,” are just a few of the negative responses that are pressed upon me when I suggest that our famous bard is about to enter into our classroom and grace us with his presence.  And while there is agreement that much of the language could be argued as outdated and archaic, the basic premise, especially within the tragedies, are played out in front of us through reality and especially media each day under our noses without a second thought.  History, in fact, does repeat itself, even if it is on a theatrical level, but the inspiration ...