Radical Transparency

Thought about posting Suite: Judy Blue Eyes.

Turns out I already have. It spurred a little discussion about mustaches. Which is often the goal on this blog.

This song works way better anyway.

Gamble Everything For Love is track 2 on Awake Is the New Sleep.

Click here to download:

Gamble Everything for Love.mp3 (3246 KB)

I think we were walking north on 18th St. 

We'd walked all the way from the ceremony grounds at The Capitol and cut through the grass halfway between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial.  We passed swarming jumbotrons.  We jumped a barrier.  We high-fived a giant raccoon.  We did not buy a totally awesome but totally outrageously priced peace sign Obama button from an Asian hippie with dreadlocks.  We walked uphill against a trotting sea of latecomers.

And we kept our eyes out for the perfect street to take us back east to Union Station.

Giuliana: G might be our street.
Jake: G for Giuliana.
Giuliana: G for Good.
Jake: G for Gangsta.
Giuliana: G for God.

Neither of us have any idea what we were talking about.  But we laughed.  And took H instead.

After spending the past two weeks surrounded by our cousins and overflowing with the goofiness we inspire in each other, my sister and I decided last night that we need to keep heavy doses of uncontrollable laughter in our lives forever. 

No adult seriousness.  Never.

There is tragedy everywhere.  Tragedy in the mundane.  Tragedy in comedy.  And we should feel it and acknowledge it.  That's compassion. 

But there is comedy everywhere too.  Comedy in tragedy.  Comedy in pain and fear and death and anger.  And feeling that and acknowledging it is not taking things too seriously, remembering that, whether or not you take it as deep as Bill Hicks did, it really is just a ride.

We figure all we need are the right people around to help us find the funny.  And the occasional return to Step Brothers for inspiration.

Let's say there is a desirable and attainable and even archetypal psychological arc to life.  One running parallel to the ignorance to knowledge to wisdom arc. 

Does it flow from uninformed, giggly bliss to brave gravity?  Or does it flow from frustrated suffering to smiling, enlightened invincibility?

I think Steinbeck chooses the latter:

She went back to work.  "Do you think it's funny to be so serious when I'm not even out of high school?" she asked.

"I don't see how it could be any other way," said Lee.  "Laughter comes later, like wisdom teeth, and laughter at yourself comes last of all in a mad race with death, and sometimes it isn't in time."

I support that choice.

And laughter the key to your heart.

Man.

That's a line.

And this is one of the first times they ever played the song live...

David Crosby's mustache is amazing. Inspiring, in fact. If I ever become a
rock star, one of the first things I'm going to do is grow a mustache.

Then I'll learn Almost Cut My Hair and rock it hard at my next show.

I talked to the Nevinator last night about the future of the remnants of LanguageCalls, his day job plans moving forward, and what I see lying ahead for The Carrot Project.  Nevin's an unusual guy, but I'm glad to know him and have him in the carrot project orbit.

Overwhelmed by the document clutter on my desktop, a had a scan a few minutes ago for things I could delete or drop into folders.  I found a note titled Andrew Nevin Jan 13.  Given last night's call, I opened it up.

There were a couple of questions in there, a couple of ideas Andrew had given me back in January, and a two line dialogue I'd wanted not to forget.

Jake: What are you gonna do tomorrow?
Mimi: Get into as much trouble as I can.

Mimi died five days later. 

Hard for me to imagine a better granny. 

http://www.moreperfectmarket.com/2008/01/used-tissues.html

And hard for me to imagine a more characteristic joke.  Mimi was funny right through the morphine, right down to the very end.  It made things so much easier, knowing that she was still having fun.

Great to come across a little something like that.  I'm glad I wrote it down, glad I left it on my cluttered desktop, and glad the conversation with Nevin last night led me back to it today.