Spring Fever

It was still barely light on the trudge home. The days are just starting to lengthen. As the Earth approaches the equator -the rate of change of daylight is speeding up. The winter solstice marked the dark assymtote - now fading in the rear view mirror of time. The sap will be rising soon. Tease me, o' warmer days. I long to run through Cades Cove chasing frisbees. I wish to paddle Calderwood and imagine I am a Cherokee on the way down stream to my Settaco (Citico) Creek village. The pull is strong.. In the words of Ian Anderson, "Madness blooms like flowers in the Spring." --James
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End of Innocence

Today I discovered that a once virginal thing had been violated. When new....there is a constant vigilance looking for defects. The skin is thin- yet its integrity symbolizes some sort of innocence. What am I worrying about? May as well get it over with. It is certain that some stray missile will find it in a chance encounter. It’s abnormal to expect a new car to remain free of dings and divots. Kind of like life... tabula rasa --> experience. --James
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Right Brain Collision

Diversions. Knoxville has such idylls to discover. Live After Five. 3 bucks and large round tables. The Spades Band is Buddy Miles Fusion. Their sound track is the Cone of Silence. Bump bump, the back beat. Unwinding a coiled spring. Exhale. James Joyce' Penelope. The original Streams of Consciosness. Water seeking its own level. Canoeing, still TVA waters run deep. --James
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The Procrastinator

Ambivalence. Andy wondered if I put things off until the last second because I just didn’t believe in the cause. Is it an ADD thing? Is it some Oedipal fear of success ? Maybe control struggle a’la toilet training. O’ cursed lack of preparation. Deadlines are motivational. From third grade homework, thru term papers in college, to a talk last month before 150 peers. Just one more game of hearts- then I’ll get busy.--James.
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No more Real than a Dream

I hope this is a dream. I am feeling helplessly sucked into this drama. It seemed fairly innocent at first. Sometimes you don’t know you have stepped on the Landmine of Life until it is too late. Aren’t we supposed to take chances? It’s going horribly wrong. When I heard Colleen calling upstairs that Wolf Blitzer (with Cameras) is at the front door wanting to interview the alleged perpetrator, I went from sickening revulsion to joy…as I realized... Colleen is in North Carolina...this is just a dream.--James
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One show is too many, a thousand - not enough.

Is the Saturday morning Today Show really just Tabloid TV? It's like a drug. I am a little embarrassed to admit I watch it, engrossed, like some voyeur. I know a few people that have elected to have no TV in their life. They don't want to know about Firefighter Rescues, Pregnant mom killing wanna-be pregnant mom in self defense, or the Baby that wasn't thrown from a car? I need to set TiVo for Entertainment Tonight: Child Stars, Where are they now? I think I'll switch off the Time Waster and play a little computer solitaire.--James
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The Great Imitator

There is a fun, yet self indulgent side to having a flighty mind. Stream of consciousness. space travel from your chair. But there is also a dark side if your psychology (or genetic loading) includes hypochondria. No one knows what makes a hypochondriac. Psychoanalysts might say it is due to the guilt-based Oedipal Complex. Biologists may see it as a variant of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Who knows?
But let a few vague symptoms start to creep into your minds ear... you start to feel the drops of dread... Is this the Big One ? Do you know too well the review of systems for Angina.. Diabetes.. Cancer? Hiatal Hernia may be the final common pathway to hell. You can know too much. Rob says that knowledge is the root of all evil. Thanks for your sympathy, Rob. Ignorance is bliss.--James
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Missed the plane.

I almost missed my plane on Super Bowl Sunday. Thank goodness for that obnoxious clock radio that was playing from its own internal script. I was at Speaker training for an exciting new drug tool useful in alcohol dependence. The Zin and new acquaintances at the Boca Raton resort made for a very late night. But that is not what is memorable for me about this. 35 years ago last month I was in the same scenario with a less desirable outcome.
I played high school football in 9th and 12th grades. I played chess and duplicate bridge in 10th and 11th grades. When I sprung up to 6' 3" I went out for football in senior year after August 2-a-days had completed. (there was some resentment ) I was on the "scout team" third string -got in 3 games when the outcome was not in doubt. As a reward to the team for a 8-2 season some benefactor paid for the whole team to fly free to the Sugar Bowl on 1-1-70. I had a (rare) new girl friend, Lynn, that NewYears Eve and stayed too late at Charlie's house. I didn't set a clock radio to be able to get up at 05:00- Did we even have those things back then? When I was the only one who didn't go to New Orleans- It was a painful life lesson. But not huge in the Big Picture,
(I think.)--James www.flight-of-ideas.com

It's mnemonic, man.

Cure for cancer? Meaning of life? Wanna make gold from lead? Better write it down. Clever plots are like ether-one breath of life -then poof. gone. Some of the best ideas occur while riding in a car at 80 listening to a Book-On-Tape. It's all about the associations. The window on that world flying by- just a glimpse. I once thought of a metaphor for memory. (I think I thought it up- maybe I read it some where) Memory is like water based paint. Give a thought time to dry. It may crystalize into long term memory. But a bad night of sleep will wash it away like a spring rainstorm. Do you write on your hand, too? --James
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