One trip around the block people.

[KB.]

I was in Washington DC last week and ordered Chinese. I’m a Pisces, so I place a lot of value into my fortune cookie saying. After several rounds of Garlic Chicken, I finally arrive at the summit to eat the stale fortune cookie and review my winning lotto numbers.

The fortune read as follows:

"A grand cake awaits you around the corner".



Several metaphysical technicians, a shrink and Freud himself could ponder the following saying for the rest of their natural born lives and still not figure out what the **** it means.



KB, go where you will be happy. This may be all we ever have. Life is too short. Quit being all analytical about everything and just say **** IT in usual KB fashion. Your life has always been more interesting when you approach a problem like that.



I guess, in short, your nine lives aren’t up yet, and your rose fragrance emitting glands that automatically emit when you enter the fecal filled vats of life aren’t dried up. Be the man you want to be now. Your writing is your most powerful weapon. Don’t let those of us down that live vicariously through your beautiful words.



Love you buddy. Find your way home.

~Mike Wiseman

My old friend Wiseman wrote that in response to the last story I wrote. I’ve known him since 1997 we have probably seen each other for a total of 3 hours since 1998. Half of those three hours was by pure chance. We had a year of damn good times and memories I will never forget. The Three Mikes. I feel honored that a man I knew 11 years ago and have seen for less than half a day in the last ten years still thinks that much of me. Nothing has changed as far as I am concerned, nothing major any way. I’m still the same old KB I was then, just a little older and wiser. Those few paragraphs made me feel a little pressure in my life. "Don’t let us down." You know better than that good sir. I may make you wait a little longer but what is a few months compared to a decade?

It just isn’t as easy to say **** it anymore. Don’t get me wrong if backed into a corner I will most certainly say it.

Never-never land isn’t real.

Listen to me folks. You’ve got one chance, one life, one trip around the block. Don’t be a parasite. Don’t be scared. Don’t waste it. You could put me in a room with a dozen people and let me tell my story in all of its ****ed up grandeur and half would shake their heads and say, "what a shame" the other half would say "wow". Some would call me a liar but I’ve got the scars to prove it. I’ve got references. Just look in those stupid "I refuse to let you bluff your way out of a wet paper bag" eyes. Ten years from now will someone you lived next to for a year still remember you?

Will you have a story to tell and will anyone be telling stories about you? Don’t you dare let these half-dead casualties convince you that you have to change who you are to fit into some pigeon holed existence. You shake your fist and tell them in no uncertain terms will you accept normalcy. Normal is boring.

I’m an average guy from an average town. I had average grades and average jobs. I make an average wage. I drive an average car, well less than. I’ve never been to Italy or London. I’ve never dated a supermodel, but I have dated a Muse. I’ve never met the President and could care less. I don’t travel across the country to major metropolitan areas for my occupation. I sell TVs.

At least one person in this world lives vicariously through my words. All I did was tell my story through the stories of all of the beautiful people I have met in my life. No one leads an "ordinary" life. It is impossible to do so. What the hell is ordinary?

Look at those stories. What is so different between them and yours? Who hasn’t been or isn’t in love, who hasn’t done something they shouldn’t have and felt good when they got away with it. Who doesn’t have friends they will remember forever. I stayed in a monastery for a week, so can you. I fell in love at first sight; kiss my ass if you don’t think it is possible. You won’t know until it happens. It may not happen. My story is no more interesting than yours. Hell it ain’t even that interesting.

You got to go all the way to the damn bottom to appreciate the top.

I may have never left a place the right way but I have never left it worse than when I got there. You shouldn’t either.

One trip around the block people.

Nobody owes you **** and this doesn’t make sense.

Give me a crooked smile over a fake one any day of the week. Don’t expect 12 dollar an hour commitments out of people you pay 7 bucks an hour.

"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go."

~T. S. Eliot

One trip, one life, one you.

"You’re absolutely one of the greatest blessings in my life and one of the few men I believe deserve more than just the world."

"Don’t let those of us down that live vicariously through your beautiful words."

"I usually enjoy them and am fascinated by your Muse"

"This is darn good writing. Could it be that in two pieces you have become my favorite writer and thinker on this site? God forbid you win me over so quickly.

My muse is dancing in the glow of your words and begging me to shine more of them upon her."



"This is why I like you. Why I relate to you. What I saw in you, early on. You have integrity, and an amazing soul. It is also why, yes,... you will probably always be poor. Poor, in dollars that is, but so much richer than so many walking the earth."

"Get this, KB. Her last name is Mewes. No lie. Don’t be gone long, friend."



"Standing on the land and regarding the sea. But that’s the nature of adventure, isn’t it? The main thing, as a writer, or so I believe, is to collect lore and have a story to tell. And you have to go places and meet The Blue Million to do that. That’s the kind of thing that makes you a rich soul."

"K.B.

I save your stories as the last thread I read for the night.

They’re like a glass of straight up Chivas before bed.

I lie down with a wistful smile upon my face and fall peacefully asleep."

"I’ve never met you, I will never meet you, but I love you. I am in love with you. Your words are anesthesia for my soul. I want more. I want them all."



"Amazing.



Words have energy, yet I'm always surprised by just how much energy they possess.

I wonder how the world would be if we all regarded each word we said or wrote as we would a note played on a violin or a bullet fired from a gun?

Heh. So you're a virtuoso AND a marksman." (Thanks Rob)



Then there was the email I had waiting on me when I got home tonight. I did my usual routine and talked with Brandon about work, found out I’ve got three waitresses moving in a few apartments down, my weakness for enablers flared up. I made myself some supper, read some news, listened to some music and then sifted through a dozen emails.

I almost deleted it.

It was from a young woman in Glasgow. She read a letter I wrote to a beautiful baby girl who was about to turn a year old. Lots of people call her bug, the baby girl, not the woman in Glasgow. She was emailed the story by someone who got it from someone who got it from someone else.

The power of the internet.

http://www.forumgarden.com/forums/showt ... light=Addy

This young woman was in a moment of tribulation. She was (and still is) pregnant but her husband of three years told her she had to have an abortion or he would leave her. She told me she read the story 16 hours before she was scheduled to have her abortion. She read my story, packed her belongings, and left that ugly want to be man and moved back in with her parents, good Catholic people. The baby is due in seven months. If it is a girl she already has a name picked out same if it is a boy.

One life, one trip, one chance. Make a difference. You ain’t got to be a heart surgeon or President. You can sell TVs or pour drinks. Tell a story.

Kevin

"Cause I refuse to die in vain

The circumstances put soul in me

And there ain’t no holdin me

I’ve got a heart made of gold in me

Hah, can you believe this is where I’ve been?

And when adversity comes again

I’ll deal with it then"

~Gnarls Barkley