Aloha and being grateful for what you have and what one does Not have.

I hate trite but am guilty, guilty, guilty . . .

Aloha on a late night . . . tireness seeps through my bones and reflections resonate through my thoughts. My brother and wife have been together since they were 16 and now have a child. I was married once and even now I remembered that once I began desiring a child . . . that the full bright flame of that desire burned violently within me. Yet now, almost 15 years later, it still is there but also is the acceptance that I cannot have children of my own. There is some pain, burnished with great regret, sadness and love, empathy and desire.

There are far too many humans on this planet, I know this, yet my desire is not borne of logic or quantitative calculations of replacing the dead. My desire is from my heart, the same heart that loves my lovers 13 year daughter. Like my own daughter if I could have had one. My love for her is as unreasonable as a drowning man loving the rain, it exist without question, thought or desire, it is as immutable as the doppler red shift and the vibrating strings of the suspected twenty alternate possible dimensions.

Still, every time I see a baby my yearning washes over me in a cool and blistering tide. Each time I care for a child in the ER I think of my own selfish desires, if only for a brief moment.

This all brings new meaning to that idea of being grateful. I am, for so much of what I have and do not. I treasure my love for the people in my life, the women I have loved and love, the families who have taken me in on whatever continents shores I have washed upon. So be grateful, thank your god(s) for all that you have and do not have.

Wishing you health and happiness - whenever and wherever you are reading this.

Malama pono

David

Robin Williams "Plan"? No it's not, you Idiots!

The following is from an email I sent to a friend.

Please feel free to forward this response to those on your email list so they can correct the idea that Robin Williams sent that crap out! This so called 'plan' seemed way too mean spirited, thoughtless, cruel and unintelligent (did I mention knee-jerk and prejudiced yet?) to have come from someone like Robin Williams. I do not know him personally. However, he does not present himself this way at all and a friend of mine has acted with him and another has done business with him.  I have seen this passed around before so as usual I checked it out at: www.snopes.com and specifically at: http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/williams.asp

Here is part of the text from that site:
Origins: We don't yet know who is responsible for the piece quoted above, but it definitely wasn't actor-comedian Robin Williams (of Mork & Mindy fame). This item's debut appears to have been a 20 March 2003 posting to the USENET newsgroup alt.motorcycles.harley, and from there it was rapidly disseminated via e-mail and blogs, credited to either "author unknown" or no one at all. The Robin Williams attribution wasn't tacked on until several weeks later, apparently because along the way someone appended a genuine Robin Williams quote to the list as an eleventh item: "The Statue of Liberty is no longer saying 'Give me your poor, your tired, your huddled masses.' She's got a baseball bat and she's yelling, 'You want a piece of me?'" - Robin Williams. Obviously the Robin Williams attribution for the final item was interpreted as applying to the list as a whole, so now the entire piece is making the rounds as 'the Robin Williams plan.' Last updated: 24 May 2003

This is David again . . .
As far as the United States total reliance on our oil addiction I recommend and excellent book (I have not finished it yet!) called: Out of Gas: The End of the Age of Oil by David Goodstein.

It is not my area of expertise but educational, readable and fascinating.  I agree with your suggestions about gas guzzlers and so forth. Gas in Northern Californa is now over $2.00 a gallon. Keep in mind that in most of the world it has been much more expensive than that for a long time.  If we tacked on the price of keeping the Gulf open and safe for shipping 'our' oil, the price would be even higher. Subsidized addiction so to speak. I love to hear Americans complain, the whiners! We simply refuse to recognize how lucky and absolutely spoiled we are.

Personally, I would expect something like that rascist and ignorant rant to come from some ignorant moke on a usenet group like alt.mororcycles.harley.  The puzzling thing is that most of the folks I know with Harley's are not knee jerk reactionaries like I am tending to be around this issue!  Obviously, I have my own prejudices to contend with in this regard.

A friend just bought one of those Toyota Hybrids. Maybe it is a start . . . I don't know. I think it is too late, the oil economy will gently slide down and eventually crash hard. Pessimism rules, at least at this writng. I don't think people give a damn or care to educate themselves.  It is easier to complain, to blame it on the outsider, easier to not think critically and just pass on thoughtful, engaged, well thought out critical thinking.

Look forward to working with you in the ER soon. Meanwhile, I better get back to burning oil in my car . . . I always remember to embrace and celebrate my guilt and the wanton destruction of our environment!

Love & Passion wedded to reason has some place in affairs of the heart.

Aloha! The below is a brief response to an acquaintance who is in love and considering a fiance visa to bring their love to the United States.

The fiance visa is no guarantee of smooth sailiing or long term success. However, my ex-wifes twin did it twice with her Australian fiance and it was a great thing for both of them. They still had thier problems/challenges. It will allow you both to evaluate each other in your indigenous environment. To evaluate yourself, your reactions to him in your world. Him to evaluate you, your relationsship, this country. All over time and not in the fresh love smashed haze of fresh love, untrammeld by time and tide (uh oh! here I go!).

I don't know you at all, nor your honey so maybe you have it all wired. You are young though and I advise so much caution in affairs of the heart. At the same time, would I have listened to my advice at the age I was when I was in love and had the boundless confidence that can come heart in heart wtih youthful passion? The confidence that can only come from untested faithful hearts, with endless faith that true love can overcome all?

I wax far too poetic. I offer you this - that one must follow thier passion and love. Yet somehow, in that volatile mix, let passionate reason be wedded with that most noble love that you bear with this man. Caution thrown to the wind is not caution, preservation of one's heart and soul must remain paramount, the guarding of the love you bear for each other is paramount.

So be cautiously in love but passionate. Temper one with the other but nurture both. It is making me sound so old, yet I am not and I remember like yesterday the invincibility. You sound wiser, more grounded, perhaps already wounded in love more than once or twice? I do not know.

So do call if you wish and I invite you too with all my heart. This love of yours, this greatest of journeys, this most perilous and lovely voyage of magnificence must be well thought out so as to be well lived. You are doing so, I commend you.

Though we know each other not a whit (and please forgive me my Shakespeare!) I wish you the best and hope for your happiness. You will find I am much more practical on the phone I think! But one must give voice to all shades and sides of the heart and here you have part of mine.

David