The Barefoot Man

He was walking barefoot down the road on a day that was hot enough to make the tar strips slippery when you rode over them.  I remember passing him thinking, that guy is either nuts or totally hardcore.  Well 10 minutes later I met him.  I had pulled off the road onto an overlook in the dirt and it was easily 94 degrees out.  I had just pulled my camera out to take some photos and there he was, walking towards me with a big smile.  He was and older man, i think Japanese, with a red shirt on and a clean white visor that held a head of black and silver hair.  I was struck immediately by the fact that his skin was smooth and very tan and his appearance was of a young adventurer out for a leisurely stroll..the kind of stroll that John Muir used to take when he walked around Yosemite for miles and miles just exploring and walking.  I couldn't help but look down at his feet thinking I would see a bloody mess but there they were, strong and a bit fat and standing on the hot dirt.  We spoke to each other, at first in a small talk sort of way that included the fact that me on a motorcycle was something he couldn't understand and then as we got more into our discussion time seemed to stand still.  I quickly learned that this man was 71 years old and not only walked every day barefoot to help his balance, but still runs marathons.  It was quiet where we were and the occasional motorcycle would go by, or bike rider and I could here the wind and smell the dust all the time thinking..."how on earth does he walk barefoot all day??"

Tai was his name.  He has lived through 3 wars, is a retired DA/lawyer and thinks religion is a farce.  He believes in the good of man and living for yourself to care for others not believing what everyone else tells you to believe.  He believes that running marathons is the best analogy for life and that if we could all just live in the moment of one foot in front of the other, the world would be a nicer place.

Tai was so real and passionate and full of life and he kept telling me that I should run a marathon, at first I thought, no way...but by the end I actually started to believe that he might be right...that maybe in this life the things we do in the most simplistic way are the things that really matter, like losing track of time in the middle of a day to talk to a person because you know you'll be talking to a Sage...We talked for over an hour in the hot dust and sun and by the end I couldn't wait to get home and start training for a marathon.  I felt like I wanted to do it for him, but I realized he was just voicing my own words in this life...I realized I had met an older version of me, albeit a Japanese one...who has lived his life in a way that made him happy and healthy and real...not worried about money and status and what others think...

In the end I invited him to see a new Greek play I am in because that was what I could offer him and since he majored in philosophy it made sense.  I felt that sharing my own passion with him was the least I could do, and his belief that Marlon Brando was and is the best actor of this century was encouraging since Brando was someone who made his own way...It was only then that we actually introduced ourselves and when he heard my last name he said that the best actors were always Italian.  A fact that I had not been aware of, but probably true.

The last view I had of Tai, was him sitting peacefully on a bench that overlooked the mountains, his bare feet in the dust and his majestic aura invading the scrub brush around him.  As I rode away on the motorcycle I felt I had just met someone who embodied what it was to take one step at a time in life and I was content to know that its always a good idea to stop in the dusty heat and wait to speak with a barefoot man.

Oh and yesterday I ran 3.5 miles and the whole time thought about Tai and marathons.  I don't think I have ever felt so strong and swift while running....

Love and Understanding.

Swimming Upstream

Lately there is a feeling of understanding that i have had and it has to do with swimming upstream.  I don't know much about Salmon but I do know that their lives depend on the action of swimming upstream to live.  It is an action that defies the senses and odds and along the way the obstacles are great and many.  These days there is a fight in my life to maintain the life that I have lived that turns me upstream and at the times when i most need to go in that direction can also be some of the most confusing times, since when i look around, most are going downstream.  I am not saying downstream is a bad thing, but for some it is just not why life is important.  There are certain traits and people and tribes who go against the grain and live a life least expected and often not understood.  There are people who risk it all to find life and to live a little wilder and and a little freer, but to commit to that path is also saying that life as we know it won't be enough.  It won't fulfill us in the way it fulfills the others, content to let the water push them and take them out into the sea.  As I awake today i feel an urge to fight harder than ever before and swim harder than ever before up the stream past the rapids and through the hunting bears and the fisherman and the boulders and the nets...to a place where only a few will finally make it to live and know that it was for a purpose and a reason and that the waters weren't always there to soothe you, they were there to mold you and make you stronger and braver and bigger than ever before.

Love and Understanding

The Pond and Other Musings

So my new job...its located in two large office buildings in a part of town that is fairly busy and bustling and i find that its hard to find a spot that is quiet and relaxing, however there is one which happens to be a very long and large Coy pond located between the two buildings...in it are probably 40 or 50 pretty big Coy and they are really amazing to see.  I find myself walking next to the pond on my way in and any time that I am outside walking just to peak at them.  When you get close they swim up and put there face out (do fish have faces?) and sort of make this big open mouth movement as if to say "hello!"
I called the above fish Flavius and we had a moment...its the moments like that where I feel a little out of place in this world, when everyone else is running by with their phones texting and not noticing the simple beauty. I am not saying i am better than others, I am just saying when i have a quiet reflective moment with Flavius, i am remembering that i beat to a different drum and being in the corporate world again makes it all the more evident that this needs to be fostered and supported.  And so now i make a point to see Flavius and the others each time i come by.  I am reminded to take it slow and notice things as I try and still take pictures of the simple moments around...like below, this was in a little restaurant yesterday and I just loved it...the old scale, the flowers...it was perfectly set and its those moments of secretly knowing that I can still see them that grounds me....especially now that I carry around two phones and wear a watch.  Funny how things work.  Well at least it's Friday and I get to have a weekend....Love and Understanding. J