These days slip by without incident, one after the other, blending, unchanging.

Sunrise, sunset, the morning and the evening of the first day, just like the last day, just like tomorrow. Just like one million years ago, just like one million years from now. But this is now, here, the present, where you are, where I am, and this is us. What matters is the space of time that we can perceive, that we can understand. What matters is the ones around us that we love, and the difference we can make in our own tiny little bit of time that has been given to us to live within.

These jobs, these dollar bills, these television shows, these lying commercials, these popularity contests of politicians, none of them matter. This art, this poetry and music, this prose and these lasting and powerful stories, they do matter, the are the things that will last....forever.

Goodnight, Goodbye, Auf Wiedersehen
Now time has come for sleep
May God forgive me if I dwell
Once more in glorious dreams

History is always clear to us, but not as clear to those who lived it, who were a part, who were there the day it happened. Clarity comes after. But that implies a single event. History moves slowly, unseen, unnoticed, most of the time. We often say things like "this is a history making event" but we never say that about a Tuesday afternoon when seemingly nothing happened. But history notices everything. Systems evolve over time. Social systems. Cultural systems. Biological systems. These go unnoticed but for the eyes of history. We can chart the changes on paper, in a class, on an overhead with fifteen colors and multiple vectors, but for those living through those times, the changes are imperceptible.

Jealous and greedy, star of David
We made them kneel
But still their God couldn't save them
goodbye, finito, the final solution is real

There was once a country, a beautiful country. The landscape was stunning, and still is to this day. But at this time, there was a recession. There was unrest, and people needed direction. They feared they would lose their land, feared they would lose their identity. So they responded by quietly letting insanity enter the government, unnoticed, unseen, imperceptible to many.

I dream of old Bavarian Skies
And mountain views beneath
I loved my country, just like you
But times turned out so strange, so strange

At first, it was good for the country. They were unified, had a strong self identity, but were slowly going blind, and drifting into something unnatural. They became paranoid, they became greedy, they became the aggressors.

There is no smoke without a fire
"Them Jews they are liars, now we have proved"
"Such an excellent scapegoat, let's move them"
"They're better off where we sent them"

The war strengthened them even more. They became more and more unified and sought glory on the battlefield in the name of their commanders. They conquered many countries without fanfare or resistance.

On the outside, the rest of the world looked on, not quite knowing what to make of these events. They didn't know or understand how these things could have come to pass. How could it have gotten this far? Imperceptible, unnoticed, and unseen as usual, the passage of history was.

Germany was going bad, all wrong
So we asked our God for a strong man
To give back the glory land
That was the beginning of impact

For this little globe hanging in space, it wasn't the first time this sort of thing had happened, but history repeats. It starts repeating before people even notice, much of the time. But at this time, one tiny island noticed. One tiny green island with pithy and tight lipped inhabitants looked at the coming storm and said "no, this stops now!"

Others joined the causes on both sides, whatever those causes were. Both were perceived as righteous by those who believed them. Current events are cloudy, unsure, complex. History has to take time to sort them all out for us, and even then, information can change history's vision. Nobody really knew what was going on inside the aggressor country. Nobody really expected what they found when it was all over, and the smoke cleared, and the disaster was revealed.

We were all so strong, how could we all be wrong?
For once, God's glory shone over Germany
No more defeat, no more retreat
So unified, we were all so proud
We were "uber alles"
What a glorious feeling of power

History had repeated itself. With each repeat, it seems the damage is greater. Our ability to destroy, maim, hate and kill gets better with each successive repeat. But we've learned so much, we see better now, maybe next time, we'll see the repeat coming before six million Jews have to die.

---

The song that inspired this post, and the song who's lyrics I've quoted within the post in italics are causing a bit of a stir among listeners of the band The Flower Kings. Their latest album, Paradox Hotel is a concept album about people, types of people, all inhabiting this hotel (life, globe, I haven't quite worked it out yet). This song obviously deals with extremists by using the example of a Nazi war criminal on the run. It is sung from the perspective of the Nazi, causing a stir of controversy among some proggers. However, proggers being intellectuals, for the most part, should be able to work this out among themselves, and move on.

Give this song a listen for yourself, and you decide.
Artist - Album - Song
The Flower Kings - Paradox Hotel - Bavarian Skies

And, as usual, if you like this song, please please buy the album either at their site or at Amazon.com.

I don't often do this, but I was hit today by the power of a post I read at another blog, and must share it with you. Please go and visit this post by sheryl over at Wave of Modulation. It seems that the rumors are true, she's alot more than just a great photographer. Enjoy, and take a tissue!

Today is "National Missing Children" day, and that's serious business. But when I heard that this morning I kept wondering how I'm supposed to find out if MY children are actually missing children, because they sometimes seem like someone else's children. I wonder how I'm supposed to find out if maybe I'm missing...because, you know, you never know, right? I'm contradictory like that sometimes.

Another time, on another day, my wife asked me what we should get my parents for their fiftieth wedding anniversary, which is a serious and wonderful achievement. I answered by saying we should get something for them that we wouldn't mind seeing again in about ten or fifteen years or so, given their ages (my mother is going to hate that line...sorry mom). I knew an old guy once who said "you know, I think the other day I bought my last pair of underwear." You have to think ahead about these things...but death is serious business, right? Sometimes durable goods outlive us, even underwear.

Good morning all, do you think things that shouldn't be thought out-loud sometimes?

once clear, clean and new
now ringed in yellow pine pollen
you shrink and evaporate in the noonday sun
nothing lasts forever

Occasionally, I will take an alternate route home from work. One that takes me through the rolling farmland west of Cheney, WA, toward Spangle, WA. After you leave the trees behind, the land opens up. I love the look of this land. It's earthy, full of texture and color.

As I rise up and down the two lane road, curve around rises and small quaint farms, I get glimpses of vast open spaces, big skies, and distant mountains. My heart feels better out here. My body relaxes when I drive this way. This is where a person can stand on top of a hill, wind in their face, and almost see God in the clouds, the sky, and the earth-bound bounty that is constantly reaching heavenward.

Once, when I was driving this way home, letting the cares and stress of the week fall away like dried skin, I caught a flash, a reflection, of white, up between the blue expanse and the green waves below. It was hovering there, balancing a thermal updraft, and a southerly wind, almost completely still. I slowed the car and pulled to the side. My heart started beating faster, because I suddenly saw that I was seeing a Bald Eagle in flight, the afternoon sun glinting off it's snow white head and tail. I was stricken dumb, my breath came short and fast, and I longed to have my camera with me.

I don't know why seeing this majestic creature affected me so on that day, perhaps it was the mere beauty of it all, of the scene. Maybe it was what it represented in my head, freedom. Freedom to hover on a thermal, the ability to see the wonders of the land around from up there. To feel the wind in your face and to be able to ride it.

I will never understand why someone would want to hunt and kill an animal like that. I couldn't even imagine infringing on it's freedom and it's place in the world. I can't imagine doing anything but leaving it alone.

I long for hours and hours of nothing but play and freedom. I dream of the days I could daydream for hours and hours.

Time. I suppose growing up is all about using time differently. Allocating time to other things, like child rearing, eating, working, surviving.

But what about when we were young? Didn't we eat? Didn't we survive? We did because others protected, fed, and worked for us.

But what about when we were young? We, as a whole, as a society, as a people, a species, as it were. What about then? Who took care of us then? Were we more free than we are now? Did we take as much time to survive? In all that I've read about ancient man, about our younger selves, I've learned that there was more time then. Survival was simpler.

I want to swing. I want to lay in the grass all day long and stare at the clouds. I want to play hide and seek. But I can't. When I go home, I'm too tired, I'm too mentally drained to do anything but sit and watch the children do it for me.

I wouldn't give up the intellect we've gained over the eons, but I'd trade the complexity for a grain of sand.

I walked in just to see it, because someone said "that's where it all started, right there on Pike Street, that's where the first one was!"

So I did it. I walked in, looked at the worn wooden floors, saw the authorized memorabilia made by slave labor in China, then I smelled it. That smell. That's why I don't buy their coffee, well, that and other reasons. They burn it. It's not that they over-roast it, it's something else, something happens when they brew it that causes it to turn bad.

It's rare when I have a good cup of jo at this place. So I passed. I'd soaked up enough ambiance and history to at least say I'd been there, and that's really all I was after. So I left, walking past the authorized logo covered mugs that can be found in the countless number of stores that sprang up around the world when someone in this very store said "hey, wouldn't it be a good idea if we told people that this is the way coffee is supposed to taste, and took this show on the road?"

I walked out, past the barber shop quartet that was singing in the doorway, and went to see something unique.

He is three. He runs around, gets away from us and is fearless. He jumps off walls and disobeys us trying to exert his little will against ours, too often with success. He drives us to madness.

But the mischievous angels who sent him to us cannot have him back. No. They can't. I'd fight a million demons, and even more angels, to keep him here, with us, right now.

So, I don't know how you all have been able to handle being toadless for seven days, but I suppose you've managed.

I am now thirty-six. I am now the proud owner of a fire-safe, all three extended versions of The Lord of the Rings trilogy gift sets (you know, the ones with the little statues and all), and Adam and Eve by The Flower Kings. My little family has, since our last talk together, had a visit from my parents (grandma and grandpa), had a birthday party for our youngest, with whom I share my May 8th birthday, and done numerous other little projects around the house.

With my parents now gone, and the household schedule slowly getting back to something that more closely resembles routine, I will shortly find the time to entertain and beguile you with witty words and prose once again...or not. Nevertheless, I'll write again, no matter the result!

How has your week gone so far?

When I got across the street, I was immediately greeted by one of the longer haired of the many humans who were astrewn haphazardly like so many toy dolls across this grassy area with the phrase "Hey hippie!" Again, the long hair and sunglasses were working out well for me here. I smiled, did my signature 'wave-point' thing, and walked on...

"Hey there dude." Another voice. Darker. A black man sitting on the concrete wall that held back one of the grassy knolls reached out his hand without standing up..."how you doin' man?"

"I'm good, you?"

"I'm Derick Dizzle, the biggest shizzle of the fizzle!" He smiled. I couldn't restrain my laughter, and he smiled even more. "You like that?"

"Yeah man.. That was pretty cool."

"What brings you out today?" He went on...

"Nothing dude," I withdrew, concerned that he would try to perform some sort of 'whatever' for me to tip him for. For you see, there were several street performers about. This was not a bad thing, but some were obviously better than others. There were the two living metallic painted statue people, they were really cool. Every time someone put a dollar in their till, they would sing for about thirty seconds, moving about like he was a puppeteer, and she the puppet, then they'd freeze. There was the Asian musician, he was really good. There were the many Hispanic guitarists singing Mexican and Cuban standards, and the guy down in the lower area singing acoustic versions of Bob Dylan music.

"I'm just hanging out man." I finished, walking on and smiling in a way that said 'hey, I think you're cool, but I just want to go over here and be alone for a bit, ok?' At least, I hope that's what it said.

I walked on, not far, to the base of one of the massive totem poles, to the rail, and looked over. There was a small road below me, and beyond was the waterfront. In the distance, to my right, looking like clouds above the horizon, were the snow covered peaks of the Olympic Mountains out on the peninsula. Straight ahead, a large land mass some miles away, covered with what seemed to be houses and apartment complexes that peaked out from behind the millions of trees. To my left, massive cranes. Really massive. Like, the biggest cranes I had ever seen in my entire life. Cranes that could probably lift an ocean going vessel completely out of the water. These were some distance away, so their size seemed disproportionate for their distance, hence my confusion.

After soaking up this for a bit, taking off my flannel shirt and tucking it into my backpack, I walked back into the market area. I had been debating what to get the kids, and my wife, who I wished were both with me to see this place. I settled on a cute "Going to market" and "flowers and tulips everywhere" t-shirts for toadgirl, and a fancy bit of Roquefort cheese (she digs the blue). For the tadpoles, I got something simpler, some candy and some of those tiny powdered sugar donuts. I didn't really see anything else there that they'd be interested in a ages six and three. I didn't think a big 'ole hunk of Alaskan Salmon was going to do it for them, so I settled on what I knew they'd like at their current ages, sweets.

After this, I went to a little place for a sammitch and a cappucino. While at this place, I inadvertantly sat on Tom Hanks. So I moved around the corner of the little counter, and promptly sat on Rob Reiner. Not wanting to have my butt defile a local landmark, I moved one more place to the side. I had walked into the place where they had filmed a scene in Sleepless in Seattle. The seats that Tom Hanks and Rob Reiner had sat in for the shooting of that scene were marked with little plaques. I thought this a little odd, and ended up moving over even one more place as people kept taking pictures of the plaques. I decided that they probably didn't want my fat butt in their vacation shots.

more later...maybe

So I ended up making it down to the World Famous and Infamous Pike Street Market in Seattle the last day of my training. It was pretty cool. A good mixture of touristy crap, and local culture and products.

"Are you the 'second of John Lennon?'"

It was a voice behind me on the lower level of the market.

"Sorry?"

"Are you the 'second of John Lennon?'" The heavily accented voice said again.

"Oh, ha.. no.. sorry, I'm not."

Walking around the market, hair down, sunglasses on, I suppose it was possible that I could have been mistaken for Lennon, or someone...maybe more like Jim Morrison toward the end of his life..the 'fat-and-bearded' years, I like to call them.

The little guy, who looked to be Korean, maybe Vietnamese, was following me now, so I turned to him. This was, after all, a little of the experience I was looking for here, interaction with the local culture.

"Hey," he said, "Can you set the time on my watch?"

"What? Set the time on your watch?" This was an odd request. He held out the more than likely stolen watch with the time from some other time zone on it (it was exactly two hours off, not some weird amount off, like would normally happen with a regular watch).

"Uh, oh, no, I don't know how to set the time on your watch." I finally choked out.

"No? Sure, you know how." he held the watch out again, I took it in my hand, then shook my head and gave it back.

"Sorry dude, I just don't understand watches." I said, and abruptly turned away. Oh well, another cultural interchange ended in ruins.

After this, I continued my reconnaissance of the market. This is my strategy, you see, upon visiting a new place. I survey the place from the outside, then work my way inward, slowly circling the place a number of times, intentionally avoiding entering shops, but making note of where places are, so that I can return to them after the initial survey is completed. Weird? Yes, I know. But oh so logical to me.

After finally finishing this endeavor, I ended up walking out into the open area, toward a place that had several human covered grassy knolls, and two towering totem poles. People were laying out, enjoying the rare and wonderful sunshine that had crept into the Seattle forecast for that day (all glory and thanks to the Bob for that!). Those of you who are locals, will likely know the name of this place, I do not. I wanted to see this area, so I crossed the street.

more later...