336. RABBITS COMING
OUT OF HATS
The wonder of a million
things is the same as the
wonder of one thing : I
stood around taking it
all in. If I can return to
the Staten Island Ferry
for a moment, I wish to
add that the perceptual
basis of all that, (see
previous chapter) as
I broke it down after
repeated seeings, had
the same elemental
quality as the rest of
life - thus the connection
of One Thing to the All.
Viewing Reality as a
farther-off fixed point,
everything before it, in
the 'foreground' as it
were, was (and is) always
in motion, and is what we
react to in our daily living.
Spinning and moving.
Life thereby gets its
weird perspective, and
the Staten Island Ferry,
by the obvious way
all of that happened,
was in actuality a
scientific trip through
that premise. If properly
explained, it could have
been a wonderful school
trip for any bunch of
5th grade kids. Of course,
the stupidly sanctioned
'school-teacher' crowd
of today can't think like
that; they'd rather have
their kids dragged in and
pushed around in some
dirigible-inflation of
poor information and
lousy air like the
Liberty Science
Center, where they
can get their science
delivered instead as
propaganda and
kiddie-fodder and
go home happy and
gleeful. I daresay
that's what passes
for educational
protocol today.
-
It would do no
great dis-service to
the world of today
if we simply got
back to essentials,
and broke down a
lot of the unseemly
crap that gets sponsored
and established by
government services
- grown way out of
proportion and into
realms where it no
longer has any business
and was never part
of the original
American plan at
all. Like any of
these Science
Centers and Zoos
and Hands-On Museums.
It's all such prattle. Back
in 1967, of which I'm
here speaking, man
when I hit the streets
of New York there
was no soft landing
or safety net. It was
real, and it was a
forest fire. There
was no one there,
for any of us, to
guide us along
and soft-talk us
into what we
should or should
no be thinking about
things - or if there
was it kept far, far
away from the
sort of crowd I
was mixing with.
Listen, I'm a veteran,
but of many different
kinds of things; and
I never got anything
from it. I had a friend
who came back from
Vietnam, completely
drained and voided of
any personality -
haggard and drawn
and crazy, with a look
in his eyes like he just
dropped his infant
baby down a coal
chute by mistake.
Yeah, that scary. Years
went by, I'd see him
here and there. He
was completely
unresponsive,
spinning around
town on his bicycle
like a mad hatter. For
thirty years plus, no
one would give him
the time of day. That
kind of veteran. Then
one day about ten
years ago I bumped
into him, quite by
accident, and he was
all cleaned up - they'd
cut his hair and his
wild beard; he had a
brand-new Chevy truck,
which he called 'my
Baby.' I asked him
how was everything,
and he responded with
happiness. The soldier
re-hab people had taken
him in, cleared him up,
fixed and mended him,
to the point where, he
said, he now felt
perfectly right
and normal. Which
all meant trouble to
me, but which to him
meant normal and
happy and right. I
was glad for him,
at that level anyway,
even though secretly
I was sad they'd
taken back another
one into their
infernal system.
But anyway, he
said he was about
to embark on
a round-the-world
plane jaunt, on
regular commercial
jets, with free passes
all, and maybe six
or eight stops along
the two-month journey.
It was all paid for, the
travel part anyway, by
government stipend,
available to all military
vets as part and parcel
of their completed
treatment. So he
was going off, and
thrilled by the idea
to finally get to
'tour' the world.
I thought of myself
and my little battles
with those same
bastard authorities
in 1967 at Whitehall
Induction Center on
Broadway; (same
induction year as
this guy, as we were
the same age, or
within a year),
and I just laughed.
Yeah man, I was a
veteran too, but
of what, I couldn't
say. But I do hope
Kenneth enjoyed
his jaunt.
-
That's what that
whole fixed horizon
thing is about -
how that distance
stays the same but,
right in front of
us, all things change
and transform. Life
is a magical realm,
and I had trouble
distinguishing the
magic, one trick
from the other.
Rabbits coming
out of hats is
one thing; acceptable,
sort of. But I had
hats coming out
of rabbits, which
made lots of things
really difficult
for me.
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