“Life has become immeasurably better since I have been forced to stop taking it seriously.” ― Hunter S. Thompson
You know, when I first started this writing thing nearly ten years ago, I invented a style of sorts and gave it the name, ZenGonzo. I had no illusions about my talent or being good, aspiring to some level of accomplishment that would draw attention to myself. I was just a guy, reasonably intelligent, intent on sharing his stories with his too young grandson at the time. I started on this word journey at the ripe old age of 66 and all I cared about was making this discipline a habit, something to come back to on a regular basis.
I kind of like the idea of combining my Zennish outlook with a sloppy, in the moment kind of prose. In a way, it’s really not a big deal at all. We could effortlessly take tonight for example. There hasn’t been anything burning a hole in my brain that I felt I needed to share with you. For years now, I have been coming home on Friday night, with a mission of writing a story, or at least getting half a story down, followed up and flushed out on Saturday, around the same time.
I think we are so damn busy, filled with distractions. The idea of stopping the motor and sitting down in front of a screen is not something many of us bother to attempt. Mind you, I am not just talking about a screen, I am talking about taking a look around and seeing where you’re at. Sure, it sounds easy, but it’s really not. You could easily see a lot of things about yourself you’re not terribly happy with, too. “Mirror, mirror on the wall” is a fairy tale and sometimes what we see is not flattering.
I think I have become a bit of a selfish, old man, set in his ways, allergic to change. I am pretty sure I’ve always had tendencies, but the years have given way to borders. God, I don’t think I have done an outstanding job, but I suspect my standards are too damn high. I think that is the Gonzo side of things in my self-expression. There is this very quiet part of me that hopes much of my story is your story. We live with our rampant fallibility and it is meant to be embraced and not repulsed. Gonzo is filled with sharp edges and surprising turns, never losing a sense of humor regarding the sheer idiocy of it all.
I can’t say I was a fan of Hunter S. Thompson in his heyday. Like many, my introduction to him was the whacky film, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Hunter started his ascendancy to lunacy in the 60’s, writing for Rolling Stone, long before it became a glossy, slick magazine, following the demise of the counter culture, stripped barren by the amnesia of what mattered yesterday. He was a bona fide, wild man, brilliant and reckless and the center of everything he wrote, whether fact or fiction.
It is not easy being a human, whether you have a billion or a cube of bullion. This is where the Buddha enters the picture. He must be second, because experience takes precedence over realization, quietly following a cumulative consciousness, which subtly accrues to each of us, whether we are open to it or not. I decided it was time for me to clear my plate and make room for my life.
One of my creative passions has become accumulating all sorts of news stories over the course of a week and sloppily crafting them into a podcast. One of the interesting things about this ZenGonzo state of mind is that it doesn’t matter if anyone else gives a shit, because that is not why you give yourself permission to be a mere mortal, glorious in your fallibility. I introduce each podcast with, “I am a lone voice in the universe.” Sometimes, I get the flash I am the only sane person in an asylum of the everyday. “Does anyone see what I am seeing?”
In the beginning of this word journey of mine, I cared about how I would perceived and now it is borderline non-existent. I am the illegitimate child of the Buddha and Hunter S. Thompson. One chose to work from the top down and the other, from the bottom up. I feel like I met them somewhere in the middle, owning a piece of each. I think they were both honest, trying to make a difference, each in his own unique way. I feel like a fractured byproduct of these earthbound extremes.
I think both these guys tried to see things as they are and each, in their own way, stripped away the trappings of life’s endless distractions, looking for the truth of who we are. Every week, for the past year, I have accumulated stories that matter to me. What I see, is a world completely fractured by greed, fear and desperation. You can close your eyes, twirl the globe and land your index finger anywhere at all and that is what you’ll find.
For the very first time in our human history on this magnificent planet, we have created a global crisis, only solved by global solutions. Not knowing either of these guys, I am guessing both the Buddha and Hunter S. Thompson would agree that we are being victimized by our shortcomings and how we deal with the consequences is all that matters at this point.
I don’t think the Buddha would be quite as passionate as Mr. Thompson. Remember, he was around about 2,500 years ago and the future was not his concern. It was this moment that mattered to him. In a way, I guess it does makes him a contemporary of ours. What do we do in this moment? I don’t think the Buddha had a great sense of humor, but Hunter S. Thompson was all about the ridiculous, especially when it was masked as some appropriate response to rampant stupidity.
Mirror, mirror, on the wall.
Do you want to hear the news of the week, like you have never heard it before?
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1292459
Two guys, seemingly having nothing in common, put on a weekly show of what it’s like to be friends.