“My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind.” Albert Einstein
“Oh crap. I have to tell you this one thing, before we get going. For some reason, I started prematurely jotting down notes on this story. By the time I got home for my ritual Friday evening, first half of the story write, finished on Saturday, I already had a shit load of notes. So, I sat down with a printout and a mini-scissors, chopping together this beginning. It felt like working with flimsy, paper pieces of a puzzle, very strange. For better or worse, when I tell a story, all bets are off.”
There I was, minding my own business on a Wednesday afternoon, during one of my creative timeouts.The night before, I recorded by Naked News/Improv, my award winning news podcast. I also have time before I start getting serious about my next Sunday morning blog, pried loose from the pulpit of my mind.
I don’t know why, but I broke training when the following headline abruptly grabbed my attention, “Scientists Identify Mind-Body Nexus in Human Brain”. It was all about how scientists were finding all these links between how mind and body orchestrate our essence, who we are. To me, it was pushing in the direction of trying to understand what makes us human. Science wants to know fucken everything, even the unknowable.
I hadn’t thought about the umbilical connection between the mind, everything we know and have yet to learn, forever residing in this incredibly complex creation, the human body. In the Tarot of Life, there is also the Spirit Card and it has no image, because it truly lives in that nexus of mind and body, intuited and never seen. Where is it in science’s life equation?
I got two more things to share about Wednesday, guaranteed to tickle that nexus. I was walking home, pounding up a pretty good hill to my place. Kauai’s delicate evening was slowly embracing the beckoning tranquility, with just a hint of darkness. It’s like nature knows this ageless dance by heart. On cue, Fat Freddy’s Drop, exquisite musicians from New Zealand, exploded in my ears with an incredibly, infectious piece of music, called Flashback. I left my body and became the landscape, invisible to myself.
This next episode is totally mind-blowing for me. After bopping up the hill, still buzzing from that orgasmic, piece of music, I walked in to my place feeling really solid. It felt like the moment embraced me. As part of this story, you also need to know I am a poster child for George Carlin’s pure-life poetry on the subject of STUFF. My excuse is I get confused easily and keeping choices to a minimum is good for what’s left of my mind. As a result, I really don’t lose shit.
Well, I couldn’t find my wallet and freaked out to the max. We’re talking sandpaper throat, a pounding chest, and a case of aggravated, serious pit precip. I have never, ever lost any wallet and have always been hyper-conscious of its whereabouts. Suddenly, I morphed into an aging, neurotic Jew from Queens. Barely audible over the pounding of my chest, I hear my own voice saying, “I can’t even prove I exist now. I am fucken invisible. What do I do next?”
I was pretty much giving up on my wallet safari. However, it just didn’t compute for me. Calming down, after even going to fucken Costco, it was time to allow the mind back in the door. Retracing my steps, it just had to be in the house. I came home in the middle of day to get into my shorts and walk back to work. The calmer me knew I left my wallet home after changing. I was certain of it, in spite of its obstinate invisibility.
Well, what was different about the day? So, if you’re a detective, you look for the unusual. Amarosa cleaned my house today. Don’t bust my chops, I know it’s a studio, but Larry don’t clean. I’ll be damned, she covered the wallet, right where I left it. She put one of those lens cleaning cloths over it and I couldn’t see the fucken thing. When I uncovered it, I was instantly weightless, leaving my body, exploding into my mind, definitely screaming at the top of my lungs, certain there will always be invisible forces that science will never see.
It is now Saturday evening and it is time for me to finish whatever it is that I started last Wednesday. I really put most of this together Friday evening, which has been my seriously, neurotic rhythm for a bunch of years now. In the midst of this word jig saw of mine, a brand new, stationary bike arrived in a box today. The wonderful details of putting it together are not the purpose here. I was incredibly excited to see it, just like its picture. I took a brief spin to nowhere. It worked just fine, seriously fine and I was thrilled beyond words.
Although a late bloomer, movement and I have been inseparable for decades and decades. I think I may have been too self-conscious as a young kid, holding in that explosive energy, because I didn’t want to fuck up. For years and years, I grew to love pushing hard every morning. To me, when the hard work is already done, it’s down hill after that for the rest of the day.
Now, I’m thinking, I’ve got you reading on the verge of too long, so I need to wrap this puppy up pretty quick. These few experiences I just shared, will not be found anywhere in the science of impulses that transit between the body and its mental conductor, with the baton of internal authority.
I got one more thing and I’ll make it short. I am thinking science is this incredible, crystal-clear mirror image. Jesus, it looks just like the real deal. Then, when you get close to touch it, it’s lifeless, icy cold and perfectly smooth. It is what the mirror actually sees that can never be duplicated or explained, only experienced by you and me.
Divinity can’t live in an equation or a formula or a machine or a mirror. I wrote this story and good luck trying to figure out how and why. I have no idea and science will never figure out things like this either.
Ain’t life grand.
Lost wallet reminds me of the story about the guy who’s searching his front yard for his keys when his neighbor steps in to help search. After a while the neighbor asked if he lost the keys in the yard, no the guy replies I lost it in the house but the light out out here is better.
Kind of a metaphor for looking for answers in the wrong place.