Ride the bus.

If the bus were cool, more people would ride it.
If the bus were cool, car drivers wouldn’t be frightened
of the “dangers” of sharing their motorized transit
with folks they don’t know – delinquents and vandals.

If the bus were cool, less gas would be wasted
If the bus were cool, admit it, YOU’d take it
You could take it to work or take it to practice
You might even like it, if you tried it.

Sadly, too many see the bus as a joke
Say these serious people and snobberly folk:
“The bus is for others, they’re not for my kind!”
“I am too busy, I am far too refined!”

But the bus, you see, is actually awesome
When people move together, the city soon blossoms
with texture and energy of those with whom you share
your ride as you ride the bus from here to there

Sharing your seat is not always grand
and sometimes, it is true, you may have to stand
Sometimes, though, you can offer a hand
And help someone in need, a mother or elderly man,

And there are times when your ride on the bus has a moment of fright:
someone clipping his nails, or a theft or a fight
and the bus – damned bus!  – doesn’t  always show up on time.
But give yourself cushion, and all will be fine

The bus saves gas, it saves you from searching for parking
It gives you a reason to do a little more walking
You can read a book, or the paper, or look at the sights
Buses are safe, economical, they run day and night

So the bus, you see, is not for the poor and “those fools”
The bus – like the train or the subway – is a wonderful tool
To take you shopping, sightseeing, to work or to school

The bus, it is true, is truly quite cool.

——-

This poem was inspired by Amanda’s post lamenting the total lack of public discourse on the many benefits of public transportation, in particular as  great means to get around when you are out drinking.

[...] buses aren’t being used as much as they should be, but a large part of the reason why is the mental block of growing up in a car culture.  Making it easy on people is only half the battle.  The other half if getting people to realize how easy it is, which sometimes feels like an insurmountable problem.

She posits that part of the problem is our cultural taboo on discussing potential good decision that can be made while engaging in ‘bad’ behavior. All of our drinking and driving discourse simply discourages drinking. But, why not have a parallel campaign that promotes public transportation as a viable alternative? After all, the bus is cool.

I have moved residences umpteen times in my life (I shudder to ponder the actual number), and thus have been forced, on a semi-regular basis, to leave old, unused things behind. And as I have lived in small city apartments for most of the past 5 years, space limitations have further encouraged me to banish the types of possessions that people often hang on to: files, papers, jackets, broken furniture, dishes, whatever.

So it is with regularity that I troll the corners of my closet, ‘junk drawers’, or beneath my sofas, looking for those objects which no longer belong in my home. Often, it is hard to make the decision to discard an old hat, pair of shoes, or towel. “Hey, I might use that if (fill in the circumstance).” Of course, that never happens, and one just ends up with the same unused crap six months later.

Knowing this reality, I find it fairly easy to let go of the unused, or even minimally used bags of things that I compile every couple of months. Usually I take them to Goodwill, sometimes I just place them on the sidewalk (goodbye, crappy microwave!), and I have even been known to throw the junk in the garbage can (slightly guilty about that maneuver). Afterwards, though, I always feel better: lighter, more comfortable, more relaxed. I even sleep better.

Why is this? I don’t really know. Perhaps it provides balance to the more common behavior (consumption) that I engage in pretty much daily. Maybe it is a symbolic gesture that reinforces the emotional cleansing we also require. Or could it just be that my apartment feels more organized, less chaotic, and less cluttered than it did moments before. I think it is all of these things. But regardless, the good feeling reinforces the value of the behavior, which is why these periodic purges are now just part of my life, whether I’m moving or not.

—

A favorite quote, from a speech given by Yoko Ono in 1966:

I think it is nice to abandon what you have as much as possible, as many mental possessions as the physical ones, as they clutter your mind. It is nice to maintain poverty of environment, sound’ thinkina and belief. It is nice to keep oneself small, like a grain of rice, instead of expanding. Make yourself dispensable, like paper. See little’ hear little, and think little.

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE …
enough money within her control to move out
and rent a place of her own
even if she never wants to or needs to…

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ….
something perfect to wear
if the employer or date of her dreams
wants to see her in an hour…

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE …
a youth she’s content to leave behind….

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ….
a past juicy enough
that she’s looking forward to retelling it in her old age….

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE …..
a set of screwdrivers, a cordless drill,
and a black lace bra…

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ….
one friend who always makes her laugh…
and one who lets her cry…

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ….
a good piece of furniture
not previously owned by anyone else in her family…

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ….
eight matching plates, wine glasses with stems,
and a recipe for a meal that will make her guests feel honored…

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ….
a feeling of control over her destiny…

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW…
how to fall in love without losing herself..

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW…

HOW TO QUIT A JOB,

BREAK UP WITH A LOVER,

AND CONFRONT A FRIEND WITHOUT RUINING THE FRIENDSHIP…

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW…
when to try harder…
and WHEN TO WALK AWAY…

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW…
that she can’t change the length of her calves,
the width of her hips,
or the nature of her parents..

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW…
that her childhood may not have been perfect…
but it’s over…

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW…
what she would and wouldn’t do for love or more…

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW…
how to live alone…
even if she doesn’t like it…

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW…
whom she can trust, whom she can’t,
and why she shouldn’t take it personally…

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW…
where to go…
be it to her best friend’s kitchen table…
or a charming inn in the woods…
when her soul needs soothing…

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW…
what she can and can’t accomplish in a day…
a month…
and a year…

that what you write is really

any good at all and he said, ‘You can’t,’

‘You can never be sure.’

‘You die without knowing,’

‘Whether anything you wrote was any good.’

‘If you have to be sure don’t write.’

– W. S. Merwin

O, Husband, please do not give me diamonds and furs,
Just bring me each morning
Til the end of my days
A lovingly prepared cup of tea.

7:19 Tracy: Do you think the men in black will be victorious?
7:24 Me: I wish but I seriously doubt it
7:30 Kickoff…
8:29 Antone: Disaster!
8:35 Me: Craptacular
8:42 Antone: Poopoolicious
8:49 Me: Great doodoo, baby
9:24 Louella: What’s up with the Raiders getting spanked?
9:33 Me: They’re freaky like that
9:36 Antone: Shitastrophy!
9:38 Me: Shiteous
9:42 Me: Cacatastrophy!
9:43 Antone: Aaron “no look� Brooks and the Offensive Swine
9:51 Me: You are fuckin hilarious Smeagol
9:48 Antone: Smeags said he wants to play QB!
9:52 Me: He’d probably do better than brooks. Gargbage.
9:50 Antone: What da fuck!
9:54 Louella: Taking shots of tequila
9:55 Me: Go Smeags go!
9:56 Antone: Turned it off. I’m done bein a radier fan until Al Davis kicks the bucket.
9:57 Me: Holy crap this is embarassing
10:01 Me: Good move

This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is it vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished, as the once vital voice of the verisimilitude now venerates what they once vilified. However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation, stands vivified, and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition.

The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose vis-�-vis an introduction, and so it is my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V.

so to speak

i got lots of little words

for you and me

got my cup of joe

my instant news

and lots of normal people

to compare myself to

tapping on the keys in such a lively manner

i feel like dj red not mc spammmer

(chicka boom boom boom)

got a minute to kill or

maybe ninety-five

but dont tell my boss

cause i might get fired

oh yeah yeah yeah

wish i was home

chillin with the dawgs

not waiting here for an office to be open

got a twitch in my shoulder

nah, the one on my right

in the past three day

i worked an average of twelve hours

but only have i slept

twenty-percent of the time

i be illin’ i be reelin’

and i rilly rilly rilly am lookin’ forward to my weekend

hoo haw yeah yeah yeah!

uh, actually it;s not that great, but hey, it the thought that counts.

so here’s what been occupying me lately…

this reminded me of day about two months ago when you ‘splained the whole .bomb thing to me and how our friends and family ALL lost mucho dinero. I think it’s pretty horrible that people can justify manipulating other people out of their money. Of course, who am I to talk? I spent ten months working for loan shark just so I could escape from the hell that was retail sales.
Ya know, every now and then I look for blogs or journals by people who work in that environment, but nada. Guess it just leave you too tired.

now wadini and I have been talking a lot about the nature of reality. We were reading a lot of Philip K. Dick for a while – he wrote o Anrdoids Dream of Electric Sheep: which became the basis for the movie :Bladerunner: – now one strong theme of PKD, as he’s called, is that the truths of reality that are not really truths or to put is differently our beliefs shape reality. He was convinced (this is my analysis of it) that reality was more than it seemed and that many aspects of reality have their foundations in the “truths” that are so ingrained in us that we don’t even question their basis.

Okay, that got convoluted.
Well, earlier this week I was reading some stuff by this guy Julian Tibbell who wrote a book about his experience with MUDs. In one he talks about the the virtual aspect of rape. Then later he talks about what virtual reality reveals about, uh-loss for words here, vurtual=actual reality, specifically what does money in its many aspects reveal to us. Why do we value what we value? Even this morning when we kind of squabbled on the phone about who said what got me thinking as to why we act the way we act. Why do we think “brotherly” love is such a high ideal and what do we expect from our siblings? So that is what is laying around composting in my brain…

I’m thinking about MONEY and REALITY.

1st. I need money to live-even this–I just write it down without thinking WHY
2nd. I have a long list of things I want to do and very little time to do them
3rd. I want to do something else to get no. 1 so that I have more time for no. 2