Friday, July 9, 2010

Re: Skip the Meds...

                                                 2010-07-07 09.14.22_Burlington_Ontario_CA.jpg                                       2010-07-07 08.28.44_Hamilton_Ontario_CA.jpg

A case in point...

I skated an epic roller blade in Hamilton the other day.  On my last lap I stopped along the trail at "Baranga's on the Beach" for an amazing Greek salad and a tall, refreshing soda - anything more in that heat would have invited disaster on roller blades!  A solitary diner, I sat at the patio's edge, smugly comfortable among the groups of chatting business lunchers and day-trippers.  I was euphoric in fact, after logging 40 exhilarating kilometres on my skates.  The sun was still high and scorching but I did not fight it.  I met it joyfully but with compromise and respect!  Every 8 kilometres or so along the trail, to the surprise of anyone standing nearby, I rested briefly and conducted a ritual self-baptism to keep cool.  Filling up my water bottle with fresh cold water I poured it over my head, neck, shoulders and body - a mini version of a daily water dousing ritual practiced by many eastern Europeans and martial arts practioners. 
When I stopped for lunch I was nevertheless hot and depleted; anxious therefore, to compose and recharge before completing the last 6 kilometers of my skate.  I took off my skates and socks stretched my legs and arms and relaxed all muscles.  I turned my face towards the lake and let my eyes feast freely on the hazy horizon of the distant shore.  I experienced perfect peace...
The view was incredibly beautiful - an expanse of blue water, sandy beach and a vague, distant skyline in front of which, in the haze and smog, looked like a ridge of low purply mountains.  Knowledge, a priori, informed me that I was in Hamilton, Ontario but a capricious muse convinced me that I was on the Bulgarian Back Sea Riviera.  By view alone I could have been in any one of a dozen or more exotic locales.   That was a very comforting and peaceful thought; it banished any wish to be other than where I was at that precise moment - it fixed me joyfully and satisfied in the present.  Of course my muse prodded my imagination to transcend the present.  While I continued to drink in the distant skyline, the idea of a globally generic scene started to populate my mind with a curious character named George; a legend in his own mind, a mediocre sales type - bored with his own existence who fabricated other personas with whomto interact with others on a larger than his own life scale.  George's exploits kept me amused and entertained for some time.  He is a very captivating character with whom I may one day further acquaint you.

Quiet my inner voices?? Not any time soon!

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