ten / five / oh six

i thought it would liven things up a bit if, instead of giving a run-down of what i thought were the major things that’ve happened since the last full moon (as is my wont), that i would instead describe the events of a single day. And the one i’ve chosen is last Thursday, Oct. 5.

i’d read in an email from Democracy Rising the night before that Oct. 5 was planned to be a day of nationwide protest, over legislation that the US Senate passed the previous Thursday, involving (perhaps you’ve heard) the loss of habeus corpus, increased legalization and codification of torture (i’m still in shock that this is even being debated! As a writer on Common Dreams recently wrote: “What’s next – the pros and cons of child molestation?”

i was really upset about what i read, and started thinking about taking the day off work in order to go up to Arcata, a little town next the Humboldt county seat, and join in protests that were called for noon. After breakfast i went up to the store and told my boss Megan of my plans. It meant the store being closed for the entire day, since Megan was scheduled to be interviewing for her replacement, but i felt strongly that if ever there were a time to skip work in order to devote one’s energy to the bigger picture, this was it.

She only asked that i add to the store-closed sign something about why the store was closed, which i did.

Caught a ride up with my friend and recent graduate Candace, who’d been back at Heartwood to give a talk on eating disorders. Former kitchen manager Art Brown was along for the ride, at least as far as Redway, where he’d heard that a march to Garberville was planned for noon, a distance of about 2 miles. He carried a sign he’d made that said, Bush sucks ass. (!)

After dropping him off, Candace and i arrived about 12:45 on the plaza in Arcata – a block in the center of town with a couple of royal palm trees, some benches, and a statue of a dead white guy – to find about 5 people marching around with signs, and a smaller handful standing on one corner, talking about issues.

One guy let me borrow his sign which i carried around the plaza a couple of times, before deciding that i’d like my own. Got a sheet of carboard from a bookstore, borrowed markers from a “peace and justice center” that was just up the street, and made a sign that said (on one side),

GOT HABEUS CORPUS? (Not anymore you don’t.)

And on the other:

U.S. – Torture R Us.

Candace and i were only gone about 15 minutes, but when we got back the protesters had left, and it wasn’t long after that that the others had left, too. But i’d gone up there to do my thing, and so i walked around the plaza for another couple hours or so, holding up my sign so drivers and pedestrians could see it. One of three teenage guys across the street read my sign and said, “I don’t even know what habeus corpus is!” and so i went and explained it to them. They were cool. Lots of positive feedback, but a few people pretending they didn’t see me. But protesting against government policies in a place like Arcata is a lot like preaching to the choir. It’s a pretty hippified, left-wing-leaning place.

Around 3:30 i walked down the street to grab a burrito, then got my butt onto a 101-South entrance ramp, this one close to Humboldt State Univ., which (i realized) was the ideal place to hitch out of Arcata from. Took about 15 minutes to get a ride into Eureka (about 15 minutes away by car), got a ride from a really handsome dude named Jules, who went out of his way to drop me off in front of the K-Mart at the edge of town, the best place for hitchers headed south.

Stalled out at this point! Waited from 4:30 till 7 pm – rush hour! – till i finally got a ride from an older guy named Bill, headed to Sacramento from Medford, Oregon. This guy has made his money from a process he’s patented involving putting a plastic surface over the concrete flooring at dairy farms. He had two degrees, in Agriculture and another science, i think, and has a patent on a certain kind of fertilizer he’d developed. Said Chemistry was what had made him wealthy. Since i’d mentioned the Redwoods Marathon on Oct. 15, we talked a lot about running – he said he’d run a bunch of five-minute miles when he was in his 20’s. His life has been pretty good, although a 17-year-old nephew who he’d been training to take over his business killed himself not long ago. So it’s not all roses. But he’s happily married, has also made money sailing people’s yachts to them after purchase – his kids grew up on yachts, he said – and some friends and he are doing the figures on whether or not to lease land from the Bureau of Land Management in order to exploit a vein of silver they’d found there. He had a BMW and a Mercedes at home, but liked driving this new VW he had. It was a gorgeous car, really powerful and smooth.

Anyway, got into Garberville by 8:30. Only a few minutes till i got a ride to the top of the hill 8 miles away, and waited there under an almost full moon for a full hour – still 13 miles from Heartwood! – with hardly any traffic: 3 cars passed me during the half-hour i waited. Just as i told my guardian angels that if the next car didn’t stop i was going to start walking – while worrying that they would then think that i didn’t trust them to provide for me the ride i’d requested – a car full of Heartwoodies stopped! Third-quarter student Mike Mastros at the wheel, returning student Hannah Lee, and two staff-dudes in back: “Maintenance Sky” (widely referred to as such in order to distinguish him from "Student Sky;" i just call him “the other Sky”)! They had room for one more, and i was back on campus by 9:30.

A roots-reggae band named Vegitation was performing in the Lodge, and after devouring the dinner that i’d phoned ahead to have set aside for me, i boogied like there was no tomorrow! Man these guys were awesome. The best part was student-Sky showing up about ½ hour before the end of their second set, who also proceeded to shake his student butt in a most professional manner. Man, when he tapped me on the shoulder as i was dancing and i turned around to see who it was, we hugged like we hadn’t seen each other in years! Later that night, i thought about how i wanted to tell him that, although we’d hugged and i’d said something like Hey man!! that what i was feeling inside was the urge, restrained, to KISS him and tell him that his showing up had made me .. "insanely happy" is i think the best way to describe it. Because those two things were exactly what i was feeling at the time. (But i didn’t.)

There were 2 really great messages from dear friends waiting for me on the answering machine when i finally got home around 11:30, that seemed to make a wonderful day even more perfect. i can’t remember the last time i fell into bed with such an overwhelming feeling of gratitude.

Oh, i could go on. i haven’t said a thing about going to Earthdance the weekend of 9/15-17 with Student Sky. My birthday was Sunday, his was Monday, and the whole weekend was a lot of fun.

i’ve revived my own bodywork practice, and have given 5 massages in the past two weeks or so. Feels great, and have gotten some great feedback, too. i’m going to ask permission tomorrow to take a one-week Hot Stones intensive course offered at the beginning of November by an instructor named Erica who was in the sauna tonight with me. She’s running the half-marathon on Sunday, and we’re going on an hour’s run tomorrow morning.

By happy coincidence i ran into her this morning as i was returning to work from a tea-break at the Lodge: she’d left her class looking for a “table-angel” to demonstrate meridian massage to her students, and after clearing it with Megan, i got a really wonderful half-hour massage on my back and butt. (It was a slow day at the Welcome Center.)

Ah such is life at a massage school. My big task over the next few months: bringing clarity and focus to my vision of a transition out of Heartwood, by this time next year.