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January 2010 - Dance While You Can
Today it' extremely hot with an almost white light baking the
pavement and sand here in Rio de Janeiro. Due to heavy rain the
beaches are posted with warnings not to enter the water because
of pollutants. It's going on three weeks now, and it's not too
great for the typical tourist who can only stay one or two weeks.
A five months stay allows me to relax. When I'm inside my guy
has my attention and when I'm outside the Brazilian images flooding
my senses block out most thinking. But emails, especially the
ones that give unexpected input, encourage a little introspection
and have caused me to do some more work on this site.
Emails from others support and reinforce an idea that seduced
me in Carlos Castaneda's writings - that the less importance I
give to the idea of 'me', the better off I am. It's a big part
of why I like to travel - it gives one a chance to practice being
without the cumbersome baggage of one's ego and the expectations
of others. One's past, one's reputation, one's progress or regression
is not the point. For me it's just about being out in the world,
interacting with the people, the place, and the time. Traveling
can be about creating and enjoying and sharing one's physicality,
one's intelligence and experience and labor as well as one's money.
It's about dancing to the music and paying the piper. There's
thunder on the mountain - best to be out of monetary and emotional
debt.
Emails from a Chilean in Texas humble me. He's a challenge to
be better, know more, do more, risk more. His metaphors and historical
references dazzle, and are a reminder that the depth of intelligence,
hunger and energy of the world at large is veiled by a pervasive
and controlling dumbing-down media, and the sins of country and
forefathers left unsaid. But it's an unsustainable ignorant bliss
if one travels and sees the world unfiltered.
By traveling, you start seeing yourself as others see you, and
if you're lucky discover you have seductive qualities that make
strangers want to connect - seduction comes in many flavors. And
so does trouble, and they often walk hand-in-hand:-) Do your homework.
Don't do the dance of death.
You see them moving their dark, honey or light skin, drum-tight
abdominal walls, muscular backs, soccer thighs and genetically
endowed glutes and pricks. They are innately and sexually desireable
in a way that a first-world gym rat or educated college stud can't
duplicate. I wish I were one more of them, but it's wishing for
the moon. Somedays they're nowhere to be found, and you're again
awash in dirty water.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OR-wxI0Fwhg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSYrjSjdozk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8Q8xWDhrFQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgukAHbsbSQ
In reality there's more variation than you're led to expect on
Brazilian beaches. Like the half-ton of trash left on the beaches
everyday here in Rio, beach-goers are often in contrast to the
mythical Copacabana and Ipanema perfection that the foreign media
spawns. That said, Brazil is a type of fun and folly few other
countries know. The 'I', the ego, is not so rigidly or easily
guarded. They prioritize a nice ass, whether male or female. And
they know how to use it. Condoms are free during carnival. Like
Hawaian leis, your gifted with them on arrival.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOVyyKRuvOs&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEJx9FHmu_s
A French art collector emails me saying the nicest things in
the nicest way, giving me more desire to stay on the dance floor.
Links to other of his favorite artists were included and those
artists had links to their favorites. We're all connected ; the
butterfly effect is in full force and everything changes. It's
one's choice how much one trades of the time one has to
cruise, joke around, dance, play cards, fly a kite, whatever and
instead concentrate on one's profession and bank account. Carlos,
and perhaps countless others, said that we lose by default - meaning
we live unaware of life's options. And no matter how much I wish
I could feel my body as it used to be as it moved to the music
of my times and places, or keep these guys forever in these fun
youthful moments, it's not to be. And yet...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdQf1M3vDjI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMkZtE0YMhw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvN0hwBTlkg
January 20, 2010
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