In a little boat now I can barely control. Somebody put me here and shipped me out beyond the breakers basically saying, “Sink or swim.” So I’m out here tryin’ not get brained by the boom, run aground, or caught in a current that takes me out to sea where I dehydrate and hallucinate mermaids, never to be heard from again.
Typical weekday while I think about things and try to learn sumthin’.
So I’m in my little boat now, fumbling for control of my course, fact- and spell-checking along the way, afraid to meet a whale. Afraid to meet a life. Myself. There’s handbooks here, tattered, yellowed copies of basic seamanship and how to maintenance the engine, spring, summer, fall, and winter. Hilarious. Might as well be a Yellow pages, for all that.
Abandoning ship, I decide to just fucking paddle a canoe instead. Much easier. Still afraid of whales and meeting myself but, whatever. Back to the lesson sermon rant thing:
Tonight it’s about moderation. “All things in moderation,” one of my elders used to say. It has a different meaning for me, these days. All things in moderation–even hate? I wish he was here for me to debate this idea. It’s one I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. Hate. Why people have it, why we do it, and can’t we just make the damn thing go away? Wouldn’t we have stopped hating long ago, if we could? What’s wrong with hate, anyway, full-fledged hatred for bullshit, weakness, opposition, beliefs, and race? Why can’t I hate without moderation?
And what about love? Why can’t we just off the charts love, love love love everything and everyone not in moderation but in bliss? Love of everything, everyone, a love so deep we want to eat it, wear it, sleep it, assimilate it into our bodies and souls, elevate it to the mountaintops and share the love with the whole world, even with the haters. Love like my love for pizza and music and the ocean! It’s free! It’s easy… wait, woah, hold on. Actually love is not always easy. Is hate easy? Why can’t I just hate? Hate the sorrow, the pain, the aggression, ignorance, intolerance, poverty, war, religion, the lack of love, I hate it all! Like I hate bananas or being cold?
All things in moderation? I dunno. Where’s my fuckin’ paddle?