Tuesday, September 29, 2009

The Sunday Offlection for Sunday October 4, 2009
I have titled this work "The Sunday Offlection", as this best expresses the many motivations, forces of conscience, and the single longing of my heart's provocative hunger for beauty and peace. The Peace is within reach. My criticism and ridicule of others because of my own inadequacy is the distance. And, suddenly aware that the fierce fighting cessation has calmed the battlefield, I see the legions of my angels exhausted, fallen, and fully spent..........and among them the battalions of my demons weary, wasted, and worn. A holy kick ass energy begins to glow, and, as I muse comic over yesterday's zany conversation with a dear life long friend – spiced with tabbouleh recipes and reports of a crony's curse upon him to die in hell with prongs inserted in his skull for stealing the dirty underwear of an unsavory zombie - I sit at my keyboard and begin.
I begin with dedicating this to my daughter Althea, from whom I have learned while struggling to understand hope with only minimum success; that full awareness of such is the work of a lifetime.
The meaning of my life is clearest in the love, affection, support, and energies of my friends and family. They are grace. They have been and continue to be that wonderful sustenance that performs miracles, works magic, provides point for reality checks, ministers the balm for my hurting heart and stands firm a fixed compass for my lost soul. They are without place, yet everywhere - seminaries, jails, churches, brothels, email, prime forests, urban slums, gated communities ….........they exquisitely dine on rare cuisine at richly appointed restaurants anointed by the gods, and the cinder-block containers of steam tabled items nearly impossible to distinguish one from another in a milieu suffused with bleach and Lysol …............. they are wives and lovers with whom portals to bliss were opened; reasons to aspire, create, and transcend given; and that perfect communion of souls experienced.
So let me give, with deepest gratitude, the names of those whose support made this work possible, in like totally random order: Ed and Helen Karwowski, Caesar Krzymowski, Linda Hill, Barb and Mike Lofgren, Mike and Sherrie Kelly, Amy and Andrew Przybylo, Steve and Deb Ohrn, Jonathan Shapiro, Peggy Shannon, Sharon Anderson, Shelley Arthur, Peggy Mulryan, George Jendrach, Sister Desolata, Caroline Webb, Kathy mon cheri, my brothers (Bob, Jerry, and Thad), Karen Becker, Buzz Victor, Zaba Inan, Stephanie Schuck, My Godfather/Uncle Ork, and my aunt Nina, Tim Hiatt, Vivian Kolpak, "Becca", Chelle and Bob Medow, The Jebeiles, Bob from San Jose ...........and others ~ the names of whom are somewhere among the infinities of my neurons..........
The Read
They were already there waiting for me by the tree – the one tree in the universe that did what it did. I was just recently granted the privilege and took on the weighty responsibility of “crossing the alley”. Dutifully looking both ways east and west along the alley as well as making sure there were no cars coming off Lawndale avenue, this four year old passed safely onto the land “down the block” where the meeting of the secret society was convening.. Traversing the distance of 5 houses through the melange Kielbasa smokehouses, giant ringing Church bells and, the Polka being danced by Polish and English tongues, I found my co-conspirators. Johnny and Darlene already at their duty stations - 2733 N Lawndale. This was the home of our friend Christine, where the door to the cosmos, disguised as a tree, was located. As I joined them, Christine emerged from the enchanted sunken gangway of her garden apartment. I know we were all close to 4 years old because we initially talked about the ensuing start of kindergarten "next year" – and everyone knows you start kindergarten at St Hyacinth School when you are five years old. Once the “gang” had established the initial rituals of greetings and small talk, our attentions turned seriously as we spoke of the tree that we were encircling and its “magic”. Something like a trance that elevated us to a higher state took place and we were free suddenly from things mundane. The ultimate idea came up: “When you die and go to heaven, what are you going to ask God?” Frankly, I can't remember Johnny, Darlene, or Christine’s question; but mine was one based in a concept with which I had already wrestled and would find myself driven to somehow interact with the rest of my life. At the age of four, I already felt constrained by elements of the universe. Therefore, with it being my turn, I said to the group, "Well, when I die and go to heaven, I would ask God to take me to the very end of the universe, as far as it is possible to go; and, since I was with God, I would ask God for us to go one step farther.
Join Captain Flip Side in his true life adventures every Sunday!
Happy daze,
The Captain