Adulthood

Still enjoying every day here in Canada where the lack of cultural stimulation is culturally stimulating. What I mean by that is I don't have the stimulation of foreign culture to keep me amused. And it WAS amusing in Korea sometimes when I sat across the table at a BORED meeting from some shiny suit wearing, dogma damaged, slave to some mystical "code of honour" that fostered the primate-band competitiveness which prevented him from relaxing unless he was swamped in soju. More than once I have laughed at the charade that is bolstered by protocol and rules rather than self-knowledge or inner resources and the verification was the way it completely self-destructed confronted with said laughter. The suit, cover blown, looked surreptitiously around in fear that he might be found in violation of adulthood and quickly progressed to anger. A good laugh can sometimes get you into trouble. I really wish that weren't so. But this is the world we live in.

We miss so much trying to be grown up and professional! But now I'm in the land of, "Perfect!", "You have a good day now,", "Real good. You?", "Good afternoon soft and inoffensive company name spoken an entire octave friendlier than natural, how may I help you?", "May I offer to convince you by my outward appearance that this is not a service I'd rather not be offering?" Where teeth trays, whitening strips, foaming toothpaste and thousands of dollars in dental work will make your smile as shiny as the car you're financially chained to, the shoes you're wearing and the life you're selling.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. I prefer to bring my Eastern mystic experience to bear upon the situation. When we become convinced that the human situation is hopeless, we approach serenity. That's what Zen masters say. I'm just outlining for the edification of others, the winding road that will undoubtedly get me to that state of mental perfection.

"I'm so happy! The birds are singing. The sun is shining. Take care. All the best." SLAP! The birds are relating the history of the survival of their species in song that transcends American Idol judging and cannot be penned by Mozart and all the while with thermonuclear nonchalance the sun converts hydrogen to helium at the rate of 4.2 million tons per second!

Why don't we know this? Because we're too busy doing what we're told by our owners. I just came from the post office. No mail but the customary handful of flyers. There's a sign at the post office requiring everyone to take all of their mail. And there is no trash can in or outside the post office. You are forced to keep that corporate suggestion for at least as long as it takes you to walk to the nearest garbage can. We can't rent movies, cars, buy headphones on a plane or stay at most hotels without a credit card. Lots of places are becoming "cashless for your convenience." Maybe it's so we don't notice the Harmonious Sales Tax we pay on everything against our wills.

When we're young we're pushed around in strollers; when we're old we're pushed around in wheelchairs; in between, we're just pushed around.

The worst example I can think of is rearing its ugly head these days in BC. Signs are being planted on front lawns and mud is being slung on TV commercials all over the province. It's election time. The local paper had a gal, possibly well meaning but at least posing as the commonly misinformed columnist she is supposed to represent herself as publicly, saying "vote, vote, vote" and proceeding to complain about the HST and other troubles the politics of the past have caused us all. But we still do as we're told. For what is politics, Tom Robbins says, but the compulsion to preside over property and make other people's decisions for them? Liberty, the very opposite of ownership and control, cannot, then, result from political action. What then is voting but showing support for the engine through which our liberties and freedoms are limited?

And I'm saying this from the relative luxury of Canada, a place where we DO have a lot of beauty and good things. I am finding more and more that the good stuff is the real stuff and most of the bad like politics, banks, big business, money, they're abstract, barely real ideas that we are told we must believe in and support in order to be good adults.

I'm not a perfect person. I've got skeletons in the closet and spit in my harmonica, but I reckon if we tried to avoid these things we'd see how abstract and toothless they really are. Don't use your credit cards! Don't keep your money in the bank. Don't pay the fucking HST! The businesses are just government collectors forced by some unseen entity to collect for them. THEY'RE not going to make you pay. They don't even WANT to collect it! Who will chase me down and put me in jail if I just refuse to pay this Horse Shit Tax? Nobody if everyone else in Canada could somehow sack up and stop paying it too. But as long as we have our creature comforts we are apathetic to revolution.

Well, I'm going out to get some beer to drink while watching the Canucks play Chicago on high def. Hockey Night in Canada tonight. See ya next time!