Daily Life
Hillview
There exists a small displaced band of hippies who have escaped the turn of time, and are still happily weed-smokingly living out their days in this small town. They are resolutely happy in their ignorance that it is no-longer 1968, and that there is no danger of the draft.
I encountered this little band of flower-children while working. Although I was there to fix the reception of their cable TV, I doubt that any of them even noticed that I was there. There were four of them, all sprawled on the faded couch, like dead flies stuck to the rim of a glass, no one moved at my approach. The air was thick with the sickly sweet scent of weed, and the TV was mostly snow, only the outlines of figures moved on the old RCA Floor Console. I had come to make the snow go away, and so that is what I did.
I repaired a bad connection, and this solved the problem. I worked silently because I couldn’t think of anything to say, and the stoned bodies on the sofa didn’t bother to interact with me in the least. I felt as though I had stepped into and then back out of a small time distortion. There had been nothing in the room to indicate that I was in any other decade than the 1960s, everything there would have been at home in that decade, nothing betrayed that this was indeed a new century, and the 60s a distant memory.
When I took my leave (Of the only person in the house who was lucid) I glanced back once toward the room, and shrugged at the oddity of what I had just seen.
Oh-well, only one more day in the life of a cable-guy.
The Constellation Of Music
This is a screenshot from an iPad app called: Planetary. It is a graphical representation of a music library. (In this example you can see a selection of artists in my library)
I use it when I want a beautiful interactive view of my music, or just to browse through and enjoy.
Check it out, and best of all its free!
Read MoreThe Source Of Poetry
Poetry is not something that simply spills from the mind unbidden.
No, Poetry is an essence that travels from one being to the next; it is shared by ingestion of life.
A life absent from the poetic expressions found in the trees, the fall colors, the simple poetry of life will never give birth to anything more than a crusty paper of a lie.
One who lives on a steady diet of hard truth, dipped deep in the stone well of natural poetry will become suffused with the stuff until it weeps from the very pores, and spills dark ink upon the page already stained with tears.
-Ezra
Read MoreLucidity
‘Lucidity’ is an absolute clarity and understanding. As if all the shadows have been cleared away, and all that remains are hard truths. In average existence, our minds are busy with the details and routines of everyday life; we often exist almost as machines. As if the conscious mind stays just behind the present, and reacts on delay.
I used to work cutting tires for a disposal service; the job was repetitive in the extreme. Pick up a tire, throw it on the table, pull the lever for the ram, reverse the ram, rotate the tire 1/3rd turn, and repeat, throw the cut piece and then rotate again, cut and throw. Then repeat the same process once again. In the mornings I would see my huge pile of tires to cut and it would seem an impossible task because my mind was too aware of time and of my own existence. But after the first 10 minutes I would begin to lose the present and become more detached from what I was doing. Time would then begin to move much more quickly and aside from interludes of clarity (or lucidity) I was just as unthinking as the machine I worked with.
Much as sleep is an existence where the conscious mind loses it’s grip and in effect dies to time for a while, only to be re-joined again upon waking, so it was for me in working that repetitive job. All those hours were lost never to come again. And what did I gain for them? Nothing but a few dollars spent on bills and items long lost to memory.
So I ask you, how many of your waking hours do you spend in lucidity? How much of your life have you really lived, not just existed?
Think back on your life, what are the moments that stand out? The seconds or hours that have defined your life?
Live in Lucidity
Originally posted to ezrahilyer.com
Read MoreAssumptions
Sitting patiently waiting for my wife to come out of her spa treatment, ( her birthday treat from me)
I was approached by the receptionist with a copy of ESPN Magazine in her hand. She had noticed me sitting reading a copy of ‘Better Homes And Gardens’, and must have assumed that I was only reading out of lack of options. (There aren’t many men’s magazines in the waiting room of a Day Spa apparently)
Little did she realize that I have far less interest in sports than in gardening. I just don’t care about sports or who got traded to what team for how much. What’s the point? Not that I am a gardener -I’m not.
She made an assumption that because I am a man, that I would prefer sports. An assumption that is as understandable as it is wrong, and not unlike many I have made myself.
Stereotypes, ( Though they might as well be called Monotypes) are easy to make and usually about 80% accurate. It’s the 20% that bites you.
In my daily job, it is necessary to make snap judgements on the temperament of people and large dogs several times a day. ( I am perhaps more accurate with the dogs) I spend a lot of my day inside other people’s homes making holes in their walls, carpets, and floors. I move their computers and expensive audio and Tv equipment around at will, I put ladders on their houses, and walk across their roofs. Reading people is important.
A dirty house unusually means a careless person, an immaculate entry, and white carpet means precision and a whole different set of expectations. Knowing what is expected goes a long way towards reaching complete satisfaction for the people I have to please.
The oxymoron isn’t predictable.
Read MoreA Clutter-Free Life
Lately I have become obsessed with the idea of a clutter free life; and consequently a clutter free mind.
There is an old saying:
“The more you own; the more what you own, owns you.”
I really have begun to feel that way. it seems that I am simply full of stuff. Little things that take up my time and consideration. Part of this is not so much what I have, but how I have it organized. If I compartmentalize my life I don’t have this problem, I can do what I need to do without the various pieces getting in the way of each-other.
For instance all of my photography equipment, lenses, cases, lighting etc. I don’t feel overwhelmed by any of this because it is all neatly in cases ready to be used whenever I wish. The same with my gadgeteering parts and tools, I have it all catalogued and it is simply there for me to access whenever I have the need to do so. My data archives are getting there, I have been steadily moving and consolidating ten years of writings, photos, and other data into one vast data library, this is some progress, and it is encouraging.
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