No Mads

Guests in town last night, today, and also the night before. They're nomads, travelers from another continent: Australia. They've spent the last month held up in Nevada City on a what sounds like a sort of artists' commune, or a hippie collective for the worn out and weary masses looking to lend a hand and get back to nature. They regaled me with tales of industrious labors; collecting firewood, digging trenches and cutting crops; mistakenly mining gold. The woman there who provides the sanctuary practices numerology, dances and sings. She walks around naked and is beautiful. I want to go.

We went for dinner at homy Indian restaurant nearby, and dined family style. We feasted on savory meats and vegetables, perfectly spiced. Lamb korma, butter chicken, sag paneer, a tandoori cheese, garlic and onion nan, red wine. The host was a warm jovial woman with a contagious smile and contented eyes. We spoke with her about someone named Amma, a guru revered as a saint. My friends had visited with her earlier in the week and received hugs from the spiritual leader. Some wait nearly a day in line to share an embrace with the woman; coincidentally so had the host's husband.

A quote from Amma:

"Attempting to change the world [completely] is like trying to straighten the curly tail of a dog. But society takes birth from people. So by affecting individuals, you can make changes in the society and, through it, in the world. You cannot change it, but you can make changes. The fight in individual minds is responsible for the wars. So if you can touch people, you can touch the world."

I think maybe that's what Michael Jackson had in mind when he did it, he just wanted to get em when they were young. There's more potential that way; children are the ones with the most time remaining to inspire change. Or maybe he just liked their little buttholes, who knows. Either way, Amma's approach isn't an unreasonable one.

At dinner we spoke of the importance of pushing outward against the world to avoid feeling overburdened by its weight. Its mass takes a toll after the years accumulate and it's easy to fall victim to depression. Depression is a kind of slow collapse, a falling inward. It's necessary to push back against the forces that seek to tame us, in order to retain some feral puissance. It's essential for any sort of semblance of happiness. But it is not anger. It's more of a leaning forward to prevent yourself from being toppled by the mammoth force pressing itself against you.

All the earth wants is a hug.

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The Aussies have woken, I'll need to end this now. More on hugs later.