The Nature of Things.

In order to learn the nature of the myriad things, you must know that although they may look round or square, the other features of oceans and mountains are infinite in variety; whole worlds are there. It is so not only around you, but also directly beneath your feet, or in a drop of water.

-Genjo Koan

James: How often do we gaze out at a mountain or hill and see them as immoveable and symbols of unchanging constants that stand the test of time. Such views are reflections of the limited nature of our minds. We often see time within specific parameters and that if something stands outside those parameters than we tend to ascribe those things with labels that make them seem imprevious to time or of a separate nature.

Mountains are subtly different over the generations but seem to not change because the changes are so small and slow that our faced paced stream of thinking tends to easily over-look their evolution. For all the pride that humans build up about the perceived perfection and superior nature of our minds, they are quite suseptable to trickery and delusion.

For centuries water was seen as just water and only supporting animals. So imagine the surprise when the first humans gazed deeper into the nature of the life giving liquid and saw a whole world thriving within the tiniest drop. A microscopic world of microbes explode into our vision with just one adjustment in sight.

There is so much that we take for granted and so much we still don't know and might not ever know. I don't think that we are necessarly meant to "know it all." I don't think that knowing everything automatically brings us happiness and comfort. At times knowing more only brings us more suffering and stress. So I take comfort in just being another cog in the wheel. That being said I think there is value in being intellectually curious as well. It's all about balance as we know.

PHOTO: Koolau mountains on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. My wife grew up on Oahu underneath the Koolaus in Kahaluu.

---End of Transmission---

Crashing L.A. Traffic and MTV Movie Awards

A Baltimorean on their first visit to L.A. in twenty years is like a bird trying to stretch its wings in a 2 by 4. Don't remember how to get anywhere (should have ordered a GPS with the rental), people are less friendly, and traffic is a mother effer.

Seriously, going nine miles from place A to place Z can take two hours on a bad stretch. Tried to get from Venice Beach to Pico and Robertson just the other and sat in a jam for a full hour. Move a block, red light. Another block, red light. Did the traffic engineers out here go on strike too?


The scene outside House of Blues

Last night, my friend Gene Feldman and I, basically hung out on Sunset doing absolutely nothing. Oh, we stopped to have a drink in a heated outdoor cafe, and Gene ran into his cousin who was hastily making his way to the House of Blues, but other than some crazy guy yelling into his cell phone about a detached member in a getaway car, and some drunk floozy literally bumping into Gene, asking if she could use my camera to take our picture, the night was very low key.

And fun. Gene is a riot.


Sunset Boulevard near Comedy Factory

Trying to score tickets to the MTV Movie Awards tonight, but the leftovers cost a fortune. May just settle for a spot in the bleachers to watch the stars roll in. That is, if we can beat the traffic to arrive there on time.