oh, for the probable moment.

while reading this post, i think the most suitable song to listen to would be watashi wa's song ten years and separating...
let me be up front and honest. i have no idea what i am going to write about. i look back at the last couple weeks and try to wrap into words all that i have learned or experienced for some type of reading enjoyment. so instead of giving some psuedo-grandious story i will chop it up into my to-be-expected adhd rantings.
i applied my philosophy that i adopted from leonardo di vinci of being a universal man/women. 'it is better to know a little about alot, then alot about a little.' instead of being one sided when it comes to music i have been exploring the last couple years... but my latest discovery is the blues. my favorite song these last couple weeks has been 'i live the life i love, and love the life i love,' performed by buddy guy. jazz is the pop version of blues, blues comes right out of the abolishment of slavery. its heartfelt lyrics of sorrow are more easily swallowed than the swooning and complaints of some kid and an acoustic guitar from suburbia today.
while in sacramento we played a show next to a jazz club. i went in and met an elderly man named stan, he asked what i wanted to drink and in the spirit of striking up a conversation i asked him to pour whatever he liked the best. i think he was hesitant as to my curiosity into his knowledge of jazz and blues as he probably looked at my hair/skin color and my attire and second guessed my inquiry. i think i overtook him when i named the album playing quietly in the background. it was dave brubeck, and i exclaimed he was one of very few white guys that i would ever listen to play jazz, he laughed, then agreed. we went on to chat back and forth about favorites.
the funny thing about the whole thing is i know so very little about jazz and even less about blues, but instead of living in my callowness i felt i would i could learn more by acting like i knew something, and to hang on every work he had to say. most were opinions, but i was more willing to take his opinions as truth than my own inclinations on the subject. i think that in some way we can learn so much from just the simple pursuit into the unknown.
last night was amazing as well. wondering the placid and exiguous streets of salt lake city at 1 AM on a sunday night can be, well, uneventful.
passing a broad street right off of main st. two hippies were sitting on the bench talking in low hushed voices, the young lady asked for a couple bucks for a beer. instead of letting the probable moment pass by i asked if they wanted to join me and i would buy them one. sarah and josh acted like they were reacquainted friends from some time ago, she had very clear green eyes with just a slant of yellow in her right eye. i loved how inquisitive she was, he was a little more uptight but was very appreciative to the situation that we had just met. i on the other hand wanted to know everything. what brought them here, what did they learn from a life so separate from mine.
sarah clearly could have fit in in the '70's even though the amount of black she wore spoke of living in our day and age. she had a constant smile on her face, and i couldn't figure out if it was because she was trying to act if the whole time was not uncomfortable or if she was genuinely content. for a time in her life sarah worked at a burrito factory to afford the bare necessities to live a life of part seclusion upon a nearby mountain. fascinating. the one thing she said that her time in the mountains had taught her is that there are good people and bad people wherever you go. whether it is in the mountains or in a beach community, whether in a cafe' in paris, or in salt lake city on a sunday night, there are good people and bad people everywhere. noted. i walked away thinking though socioeconomic class, color of skin, or religious differences people are people. we are all the same, some more intelligent, some better looking, some lonely, some quiet, some outgoing, but no matter where we are/or who we are all connected by an inexplicable force called humanity.
and that's where this short novella ends. a lesson in my life learned, and hopefully yours.
your assignment:
first, sometime in the next two weeks find someone you may know or recently met and have them teach you something completely foreign to you. whether its there music, culture, history, or opinions seek them out.
secondly, go and meet a complete stranger and ask them what life has taught them up until this point in life.
please post comments and tell me about who you met and what they taught you.