What a short normal stay it is.

“It takes a lifetime to learn how to be able to hold your own ground, to go out to the others, to be open to them without losing your ground. And to hold your ground without shutting others out.” -Martin Buber

Hey kids, DNA here, ready to take you through the forest and over the stream, to Grandmothers house we go. I’m sitting in my office in Northern California on a cold, damp Monday morning listening to community radio. I just heard Jimmy Buffet sing “Uncle Johns Band,” and now I feel the urge to go out and do bad things, but I will restrain myself till this jambands vignette is complete. So what could an anxious neurotic journey-ist like myself possibly say in this last month, of the last year, in the last century of the Millennium? Well, we hope I would say something of significance, but please, no breath-holding on my account.

Mr. Budnick has been gracious enough to allow me to have a column that dealt with the inner workings and intricacies of bands, yet, perhaps due to Jimmy Buffets slaughter of a classic tune, and the impending threat of Y2K, I feel compelled to stray through another window of life.

Have you ever wondered where we come from, or where we’re going? It would seem that these two questions would be burning their way through our cerebral membranes to make themselves known, yet those that choose to pursue such lofty questions are often labeled as nuts, cultists, bible-thumpers, zealots (and Deadheads). No religious or metaphysical path I have ever pursued has ever given me a manual that has accurately described the “here and there,” nor even been remotely handy when things got strange. In fact, out of all the philosophical doctrines and religious texts I’ve read, there has been very little that I’ve carried along and integrated into my life. Most of it is of less use than Algebra at Walmart.

There was one guy whose words did have some impact, his name was Martin Buber and I carried his little treatises around the hallways of High School like a Gnostic monk with a sacred text, or a squirrel with a mouthful of nuts. In my interpretation of Buber, Universe is constantly ‘talking’ or ‘communicating’ with us. Directly to each of us. Like a Candygram from god.

But who can exist in this day and modern age as if god were whispering in their ear, without immediate ostracizing from friends and probable incarceration and/or institutionalization? I don’t deny that many earn a sweet coin on the premise that some divine entity has entered their ear holes and now is available for all consultation on any subject. I’m sure that many of you have read Wendy Weirs non-fictional account of her ability to channel Jerry’s spirit as his soul journeyed through the Bardos. Weir’s account, while suffering from any accountability, is a heartfelt story of love lost and one person’s way of dealing with trauma. Of course, Wendy could be dead on in her tale. Maybe there is such a thing as soul. But what would this even mean?

Is there some other place where our disembodied spirits gather and smoke heavenly cigars? Are we limited to a duality between the physical and the ethereal, or are there many more dimensions in which we exist? Is this place that we call reality, just a thin veil that shrouds us from what is ‘out there?’ I’m in no position to jump to conclusions, but I am certainly entitled to speculate and hypothesize. And isn’t that what all expert statements on the nature of reality really are, mere hypothetical ideas?

Not one of us is a definitive source for such important knowledge, such as “where do we come from,” and “where are we going,” hell, weathermen (now known as meteorologists), with all their fancy equipment, can’t be certain of tomorrows weather. We still don’t know who killed Kennedy.Mulder, still doesn’t know how to stop the alien invasion, and we’re still trying to figure out why Kimock left Phil tour!!

I urge each of you to take time to contemplate the divine and come up with your own unique idea of what it all means. As Quicksilver Messenger Service said, “if you stand up for what you believe, be prepared to be shot down.”

And like Bob Dole on Viagra, “Get up and stay up for what you believe.” Be sure to check out my site at http://www.nowherexnowhere/ and keep on rocking in the free world.