The Morning Fall

Getting up from meditation, I heard a pop and then fell forward this morning. I hung onto my left foot and hopped nothing broke. I prayed and hoped it was so because I don't have insurance and I don't have money to see any doctors. I couldn't feel a part of my foot. About 8 hours later my entire body started to twitch and spasm. I was exhausted and everything was hurting. Even my back was out of alignment from the fall. I had to lay and rest at 3pm and called it a very long day.

Huston Smith

Went to an event where Huston Smith spoke along with Henry Rosemont, and Martin Verhoeven. Huston is quite an amazing person and has a great sense of humor.

Better Than Ever at 88

I was able to go to the sold out show at Freight and Salvage as part of the Old Time Music Convention week featuring Benton Flippen, Foghorn Duo, Rayna Gellert and Partick.

The music was superb. I smiled the whole night. The energy in which the performers performed tonight were ..... well, created a space of safe haven somehow and full of bright strong sunshine energy.

Benton made his fiddle turn to water, flexible, the tree was gone. He is 88 years old this year. How his career started; He first bought a guitar but felt it hurt his hand to play. Then he went and traded it for a gun and he didn't like that either. Then he traded it for a fiddle, he still has his fiddle today. He is a self taught musician. He is legendary in Old Time Music.

On the stage tonight, it was full of respect, honor, and reverence for Benton. Tonight, it was as if I went back in time to a different era, a different country, were civilized, basic human beauty of interaction were the norm and the norm was everything was in balance, in harmony with the nature around us and within us. I was taken to a place, a time where people had time for each other and each person mattered and integrity was honored. This brought a peace to my mind.

On stage with Benten was Paul Brown, Frank Bode, Paul Hostetter, and Ed.
www.musicmaker.org/artists/index.php?bandid=10
www.brownpaul.net

Foghorn Duo just arrived from touring in Ireland. Sammy and Caleb were full of raw yet mastered energy through their strings. I loved every bit of it. www.foghornstringband.com

Rayna and Patrick had a very sweet sound. They are both children of famous Old Time musicians. This was their first time collaborating together. First time they performed together, both are Sagittarians. www.rayna.utopiandesign.com

Homeless Lifestyle

I passed by a homeless man who was packing up his stuff off a drive way 9:30 in the morning. It was not his driveway.  He just decided to park himself there as a residence.  I first was afraid to talk to him or even look at him but I was curious. I thought to myself, what would Viral Mehta do? He would walk up to the guy and talk to him like a human being. So I scrambled up some courage and walked up to him and introduced myself. I wanted to know how he became homeless, what happened, and what keeps him in this lifestyle.

John is a baby boomer who sang the song of victimhood. He had problems with his parents, he did not feel his parents loved him and according to him they were ashamed of him. For what reasons, he can't seem to point out at all. He felt his mother did not financially support him because he had to pay for his own college. But they paid for everything else in his life and let him live with them until 7 years ago. That's a long time because the guy is like in his 50's.

He loves backpacking alone because he can't seem to get along with anyone long enough to enjoy their company. He was a commercial photographer and went to art school. He met his wife there and they were married when he was 24 years old, for a very brief period. Today, he still has the ring on his finger. He fell from a mountain because he was wreckless and didn't get full trained or educated on rock climbing or ice climbing. He is on heavy medication. He's at war with the Mayor for not taking better care of him. He prefers to sleep on the street then to rent a room because he said he needs to rent money for his lifestyle. He has money, because all his gears were top notch. The guy evens has a laptop. He claims 900 dollars of governmental support is not enough to have his lifestyle so he cannot rent a room, nor does he want to move into support housing.

I stood in the cold for 45 minutes talking to John. For the first 35 minutes John's body shook in fear, anxiety, and nervousness.