The Learning Tree

For so long, had very little to write about, now I’ve got EVERYTHING to write about. My experiences and my impressions. I’m feeling RIGHTEOUS. I’m feeling like a BLACK and BROWN and PINK and YELLOW, RED, GREEN man. An alien of sorts. A Legal Alien. The world is new to me, after so much time in the cocoon!!! Time changes and it is still regular, but with a different URGENCY. The nagging reminder of our own eventual demise. Everyone gets to experience Death, even if only once!!! It may not be as mysterious or mystical a moment as we were expecting. Death is hyped-up, there are a lot of proverbs about Death, some hopeful, some miserable, but who can really say? Do the dead know death? Does anyone really “experience” death? Or is it just an assumption? We cannot know what we do not experience. 

We feel the slowing of the body with older age. We feel the changing processes of LIFE. Our anatomy, our bodies, the things that are we. The things that we are. The mystery that is life. Who can truly know all there is to know about life? Isn’t it just a daily accumulation of perceptions and senses and thoughts and feelings over space and time? All the shits and pisses we’ve had. All the food we’ve eaten. All the sex we’ve had. All the baths. All the showers. All the smiles we’ve experienced. All the conversations we’ve shared. All the shared experiences. All the views. All the hotel rooms. All the hospitals. All the schools. 

We know we need some meaning, some cause, some effect, some reciprocity. Some exchange. Some spontaneity. Some reading. Some writing. Some singing. Some dancing. Some acting. Some painting. Some video games, some movies, some TV, some YOUTUBE, some music, some architecture. It’s like the VIDEO GAMES we play, remind us of all the other times we played. We are playful beings. Curious beings. The universe or God’s playthings. Life feels a bit like an open-ended game. The game of life. Its pleasures and rewards and good vibrations, good feelings. All the cool moments are remembered. Maybe not all at once, but gradually, over time. The good memories remain. You just need to be in the mood to receive their joy. Not all moments are joyous, but you can navigate towards HOPE, LOVE, GEZELIGHEID, PEACE, Tranquility. Harmony. 

The world is a wonderful experiment and a wonderful experience to share with all the people you see and meet and greet and wave to and hug and dance with and you share all your Life. Life is a gradual process. A revelation. Sometimes a REVOLUTION. Even as we revolve around the sun and rotate on the earth’s axis. 

Life is beautiful. Yeah Man!!! Live long!!! Experience all you can. Live for all those who can’t experience life no more. Those ‘fertilizing  daisies’. The past human beings of earth. They each looked and behaved uniquely. We have NO CLONES. We are unique. Individualistic. A distinct flavor. Explore your flavor. Revel in your flavor. Mix the flavors. ‘GET JIGGY WITH IT’. Yeah!!! Love comes. Friendship comes. Romance comes. Even disagreements come, and heated exchanges. But it’s all part of the mix. The smorgasbord that is life. We play along with all life’s variety and seasons and proclivities. We are physics and anatomy and neurochemistry. 

We are religious about life. We have faith in life’s goodness, life’s value. We extend our feelers and are receptive to life’s idiosyncrasies, and rhythms, and waves and pulses.  We grow to expect certain unexpectednesses and certain repetitivenesses of life. The wide open oceans and seas. We are also oceans inside. We are water-containing vessels and blood and semen and vaginal fluid and sweat and tears and pus and cerebrospinal fluid. We coalesce. Life is motion and stasis. Action and reaction. Action and rest. Life is mystical, death is mundane.

I’m “officially” a Buddhist, Rastafarian, Dudeist. 3 Religions. One from India, one from Jamaica & Ethiopia, and one from USA. Mutually-beneficial combination. FLAVORFUL MIX. Gives me spirit, and fraternity and community, and individuality coz who else right? EXACTLY!!! Say it coz it’s TRUE!!! Ain’t nobody like me!!! I am my genes!!! And I’ve imbibed all my different environments. All the spaces I’ve occupied. All the motion I’ve experienced: roller coaster, bungee jumping, running, dancing, swimming, ships, planes, trains, taxis, automobiles, bicycling, motor biking, kayaking, and other movements, like a merry-go-round, say. “Whatevs”.

Shall we converse? I’m quite an entertaining conversationalist!!! I learnt the skill or behavior from many women talking at my grandmother’s house when I was just a wee little macker, a picanin, a little GREEK prince in Africa. My father, NICHOLAS JOHN ATHANASSIOU, was my KING. He was greater than SOLOMON and DAVID and JESUS and all the other men admired by my people. St Paul and his DAMASCENE conversion. I have had a conversion of sorts myself. Many different revelations, some physical, some emotional, some intellectual. I’m a changing thing. An evolving entity. A learning tree.