My story is not for the religious or the atheistic or the agnostic... it is for everyone interested in the truth. This blog contains first drafts of poetry and prose for my series of books on Christ, the first of which, Waking Up Jesus, is being greeted kindly by critics. Thank you... John Scott Ridgway
WAKING UP JESUS...
We come into this life expecting too much and leave expecting too little
Friday, October 24, 2008
up all night
Living this artist life lets me get up when I want, sleep whenever. I nap a lot and then sometimes stay up all night. A lot of people envy me, with good reason. I worked hard to get here though, all those years of school and cab driving and living on next to nothing. Not that they were bad years.
Money was never a requirement for me to have fun. I mean, I like to have my pot, but sex and conversations and walks along the beach or the zoo and the free festivals here every weekend kind of making spending money something you can avoid.
No one has written about how great and mighty this city is. There is a spark lit laying by a puddle of gasoline. There is a poet with a pen in one hand, and a gun in the other. There is a young black kid, about twelve, who is trying to decide whether he wants to make a few hundred bucks a week or live in the poverty that has haunted him his whole life.... and me. I live the most integrated neighborhood in the most segregated city in the country. When we met a recent freind, an actor who just graduated from Columbia who is joining our actor troupe, and he is a black guy with dreads. And one of the first things he said to M and I, once we had bonded and figured out we all think in terms of revolution and change and racism, he told us that he was surprised we were not afraid of him. Both of us laughed at this -- he told us separately.
When I first moved here, I gave an autobiography of Frederick Douglas, because the passages on literacy are, to me, the most relevant writing since the bible. He told me, "Man, my friends don't even think white people like you exist. They hate all of you."
In the cab, I treated everyone the same; after having been a salesmen for a few years I knew how to put people at ease and get me tips, but mostly that is just the way I operate. Like saying hello to almost everyone I see on the street. I have to admit having a blue eyed, red Husky with a great big smile and a wagging tale makes me more accessible, but I say hello alone and get similar responses). As Nat and I walked our dogs tonight, I was telling him how dog walking was a renaissance, that people in the city were actually building communities based on talking while walking thier dogs. This is so true. People gather in the park and get to know each other, and the hellos eventually seep out into the entire neighborhood.
I am going to go watch the sun rise over the lake this morning. Just had a cup of coffee, a bowl of kind bud, a couple pain pills and a Valium, so I should be chemically prepared.
Some know, some don't.... I go by Johnny Pain because I have had my spine rebuilt with bones from my hips, a surgery they no longer use because you end up in chronic pain for the last fifty years of your life. Oh, well. I am not bitching. I have great doctors, and in a way, getting all the time off work gave me the space I needed to finish a few books. Life of course has a way of creating cliffs where you are sure there are gentle slopes.
I go to a new doctor today. The pain clinic at cook county is always trying to get me to go to some primary physician, but whenever I do, I don;t like them... one put me on medications that caused me amnesia and five seizures and months in hospitals.
Anyways... My kitten has proven to be about the best thing to happen to me in forever. The Husky footage of her mothering little gray Dash is about as precious as anything I have ever seen. You literally break into laughter at the site.
So I guess I will go to the doc's, go down and buy some paint at a store near there, and some lineseed oil... and a bit of loose canvas. I can't wait to put up these new paintings. We have the new camera, the dxg, but it doesn't want to work on my lap top, so we are setting up a pc this weekend.....
Big Love To All Of ....call me sometime 773-339-8099
You are welcome to spread my poems by ANY MEANS NECESSARY.
http://theelvesattic.blogspot.com
http://thereligiouspsychokillershitlist.blogspot.com
HTTP://generalfactorx.blogspot.com
http://secretposse.com
There is some overlap... but they are all different.
Money was never a requirement for me to have fun. I mean, I like to have my pot, but sex and conversations and walks along the beach or the zoo and the free festivals here every weekend kind of making spending money something you can avoid.
No one has written about how great and mighty this city is. There is a spark lit laying by a puddle of gasoline. There is a poet with a pen in one hand, and a gun in the other. There is a young black kid, about twelve, who is trying to decide whether he wants to make a few hundred bucks a week or live in the poverty that has haunted him his whole life.... and me. I live the most integrated neighborhood in the most segregated city in the country. When we met a recent freind, an actor who just graduated from Columbia who is joining our actor troupe, and he is a black guy with dreads. And one of the first things he said to M and I, once we had bonded and figured out we all think in terms of revolution and change and racism, he told us that he was surprised we were not afraid of him. Both of us laughed at this -- he told us separately.
When I first moved here, I gave an autobiography of Frederick Douglas, because the passages on literacy are, to me, the most relevant writing since the bible. He told me, "Man, my friends don't even think white people like you exist. They hate all of you."
In the cab, I treated everyone the same; after having been a salesmen for a few years I knew how to put people at ease and get me tips, but mostly that is just the way I operate. Like saying hello to almost everyone I see on the street. I have to admit having a blue eyed, red Husky with a great big smile and a wagging tale makes me more accessible, but I say hello alone and get similar responses). As Nat and I walked our dogs tonight, I was telling him how dog walking was a renaissance, that people in the city were actually building communities based on talking while walking thier dogs. This is so true. People gather in the park and get to know each other, and the hellos eventually seep out into the entire neighborhood.
I am going to go watch the sun rise over the lake this morning. Just had a cup of coffee, a bowl of kind bud, a couple pain pills and a Valium, so I should be chemically prepared.
Some know, some don't.... I go by Johnny Pain because I have had my spine rebuilt with bones from my hips, a surgery they no longer use because you end up in chronic pain for the last fifty years of your life. Oh, well. I am not bitching. I have great doctors, and in a way, getting all the time off work gave me the space I needed to finish a few books. Life of course has a way of creating cliffs where you are sure there are gentle slopes.
I go to a new doctor today. The pain clinic at cook county is always trying to get me to go to some primary physician, but whenever I do, I don;t like them... one put me on medications that caused me amnesia and five seizures and months in hospitals.
Anyways... My kitten has proven to be about the best thing to happen to me in forever. The Husky footage of her mothering little gray Dash is about as precious as anything I have ever seen. You literally break into laughter at the site.
So I guess I will go to the doc's, go down and buy some paint at a store near there, and some lineseed oil... and a bit of loose canvas. I can't wait to put up these new paintings. We have the new camera, the dxg, but it doesn't want to work on my lap top, so we are setting up a pc this weekend.....
Big Love To All Of ....call me sometime 773-339-8099
You are welcome to spread my poems by ANY MEANS NECESSARY.
http://theelvesattic.blogspot.com
http://thereligiouspsychokillershitlist.blogspot.com
HTTP://generalfactorx.blogspot.com
http://secretposse.com
There is some overlap... but they are all different.
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