Communication

When people communicate I think they are always trying to recreate they're experience for whoever it is they are trying to communicate to. If they're experience is not coming through or being understood then I think there will always be a breakdown in communication. I believe however that it is the responsibility of the listener to let the experience of the communicator in. Once achieved the listener has no choice but to react from the other persons experience and therefore create a relatedness and understanding of the communicator that can contribute to an affinity between the two. It is in that affinity that I believe real communication occurs. Even in the face of disagreement.

There is nothing you can do about the way people do things, the way people behave or the way people treat you. People will always be people and behave like people always have. You can't change, help, teach or save anybody. Never. But you don't have to go through life being the victim of a world full of people who create frustration and conflict in your life. Feeling like a victim is the result of giving up your power and giving others the power to dis empower you.

The only thing you have control over is the way you listen to people, the way you can let things in, accept, forgive and then act from love. People will always disappoint you if your listening of them is from disappointment. But once you start listening to people from a different place, a place of compassion and love, acceptance and forgiveness then they can never disappoint you again because you will have destroyed the realm of "disappointment" all together. What opens up is the freedom to feel and react in ways that empower you and your relationships to people instead of in ways that create conflict, confusion, disappointment, frustration and pain.

It's all harder said then done, but it's always good to be reminded that in any circumstance you have a choice. You can choose to live in the types of emotions that feed your insecurities and fears, which in turn destroys your relationships and affinity to other people, or you can choose to let go of that old model of being and step into the realm of freedom and acceptance. I know that when I have succeeded in letting go of whatever habits my ego is addicted to, I feel much calmer, much more free and much more content with everything and everyone.

People are who they are and they will never change. The true question is this: can you love them regardless? Even when they don't love you? Can you exist in that love so that when people are around you they will have an experience of you as love? Because when people start to experience you as love they become extremely attentive and will never let you down.

Robbed

Its a sad day. Me and Elijah of all people were on an extremely spontaneous wilderness adventure up in the state park in Baldwin Hills. We wandered around in the woods, hopped over tall fences with barb wire, found an underground tunnel that was powered by a generator that was triggered by us opening a trap door in the mountainside, and ended up being spat onto La Brea where the street winds through the dark hills and turns into a mini highway where cars are move as fast as 70 miles per hour. We got caught on a narrow sliver of sidewalk where there was this blind spot and cars where coming at us out of nowhere extremely fast. So we had to carefully cross the dangerous and giant street, which forced us onto another narrow sidewalk that slithered down the hill and took us straight into a neighborhood called "the jungle", a notoriously dangerous housing development where gang related activity is extreme and few white people would ever dare go. Elijah and I lived in this vicinity for a year and were not as concerned as most because not only did we have experience in this neighborhood but we have actually been inside "the jungle" and lived to tell about it. At the time we were accompanied by a retired gang banger which helped. I was hoping that our luck would hold. Two guys jumped over the short wall that separated the street from the jungle and headed right for us. They were about six feet tall and were built like football players. They both had black hoodies on and over they're heads and they both wore leather gloves, which was a detail that scared me the most. We had nowhere to go. They stopped us, backed us up into the wall and immediately started frisking us. I was holding my jacket in my hand and one of them grabbed it and found my cell phone and i touch in the loose and exposed pocket. They asked us where our wallets were but seemed not to care after finding my stuff because at that point they turned around, hopped back over the wall and slowly walked away before they ducked right and disappeared into the shadowy alleys of the jungle. Fucking A! What was I supposed to do? I now have visions of fighting back and being victorious, or making a break for it and getting away. They never flashed any weapons and if we moved fast it's possible that we would have been ok. But in my opinion the risks were to great, the outcomes to uncertain and the environment to dangerous. We didn't end up making a move and it was over before I knew it. Shit happens and people get robbed. It's been happening since the beginning of time. All that I know is that I didn't get hurt and that all I lost was just stuff that will be worth nothing someday.

Obama and the D.O. Double G

All I want to talk about is how freakin smart Barack Obama is. I've been reading "Audacity of Hope" before bead every night and he is not only an incredible writer but his intellect is through the freakin roof. But instead of writing about how dope Obama is I'm gonna post the Sexual Seduction video by Snoop Dogg.

Barack Obama and the Difference Between Power and Possibilities

I'm supporting Barack Obama because he talks about possibilities instead of power. Hillary Clinton still talks about ultimate power and how much progress she can make once residing over a Democrat majority government willing to work with no one who opposes them and only those few Republicans who will be cooperative . I agree with her to some degree that Democrats with ultimate power can help people more then Republicans with ultimate power but what irks me is that she is still operating in this realm of wanting power as if her obtaining it is the solution for this county and for the world. As long as power is the focus of leaders and politicians there can be no real progress or transformation for humanity. What she is essentially saying is that she's gonna treat the Republicans the same way that the Republicans treated us. Great!!! There goes the never ending cycle of eye for an eye till we either destroy ourselves or the entire planet while people continue to suffer and struggle.

F@#$ that! We need something new, a new way of operating in order to start to heal, rebuild and recommit to the the country and to the world. Barack Obama talks about this new way of operating. He said in the last debates that he wants to surround himself with smart people who can tell him yes OR no to his face. He said that he doesn't want to be in a Washington surrounded by "yes" people because he understands that he is not going to be right on every issue and understands the importance of communicating and listening to other people. None of us are on this planet alone. None of us are bestowed with the gifts of ultimate and undeniable knowledge of everything. We need each other in order to make this whole thing work. Barack Obama understands this. For me, an example of his intelligence is his pledge, when president, to bring all the leaders of the world, including those who are considered our enemies, together in order to listen, not talk, but to listen to what they have to say in order to bring true awareness and communication to the international conversation. That sounds a little more like a true human being to me, one who's living up to the greater potentials of humankind, one who's not interested in power or position but is interested in the possibilities that can be created by working, talking and listening to other people. Obama strikes me as a man who understands the complexities and contradictions of the human condition, and from a place of true compassion, knows that a great conversation must be had by not only a select few, but by all.

29

Ah the time has come for me to be 29 years old. What an interesting age. The important thing to do at 29 is not to hold on to the past, to gracefully live in the present and to willingly move into the future. Trouble starts to brew when the number becomes significant, a signpost pointing in the direction of death. But once the number becomes just a number and one can free themselves from the delusion of age and time, immortality can become a possibility and the age of 29 can become a figment of the imagination.

Obama Being Human, Obama Being Real

I have been a fan of Barack Obama's since his now legendary speech during the 2004 Democratic Convention. I consider myself a Obama supporter and have been since before he even declared that he would run for the presidency. Last night I had some trouble sleeping so I started to read my copy of "The Audacity of Hope". All I can say is that through listening to him speak and reading his writings I have a sense of Barack Obama as a highly compassionate, intelligent, educated, well read, communicative, and strong human being who's goal is to bring true transformation to this country, this planet and every human being on it. That is someone who I want to be the president of the United States of America. The most impressive thing that I heard him say during the Democratic debate in Hollywood this past thursday is that he wants to surround himself with individuals who can say no to him and tell him that he might be wrong from time to time because as he said "I am not going to be right about everything." I have never heard a presidential candidate acknowledge the humanity within themselves to the point of admitting self-imperfection. The ability to balance strength with compassion, intelligence with awareness, ego with humility is a trait that I believe the leaders of the future should have. The problem that we've had throughout human history with people in places of power has been the common and accepted delusion that power is unconnected to humanity and once obtained can be allowed to replace one's own connection to compassion, awareness, connectivity and love. Hillary Clinton, an incredible woman, has not let go of the conversation about power. She still talks about power as if it is relevant to people who are sick, poor, hungry, hurt, alone and dying. I like her, don't get me wrong and if Obama was not in the race I would be supporting her all the way. But Obama always seems to take the conversation to a place that I see as spiritually revolutionary. He talks not about power but about possibility, not about policy but about progress, not about problems but about prevention. Hillary talks about a government dominated by the Democrats with the help of cooperative Republicans where her party can do whatever they want to do. Barack talks about changing the whole system of power in this country entirely. I believe that when faced with a difficult situation, Barack Obama will not just be a powerful president, he will be a powerful human being.

Magnum Blast

So a gang of us have  been frequenting the LA gun club in Downtown Los Angeles.  I think it's the shooting range's equivalent to a dirty dive bar.  It is located in the heart of downtown's warehouse district at the end of an industrial coldisac.  The area is a labyrinth of old warehouses, factories and abandoned buildings and the population, when seen, is a combination of factory workers, zombie like homeless wanderers/crack heads and fashioned out artists/hipsters who dwell in the vast mega-lofts.  Nestled inconspicuously in the heart of this industrial labyrinth is the LA Gun Club.  Hidden in the core of Downtown and generally unknown by the outside world it has developed a policy of having basically no policy.  You can shoot semi automatic rifles to shot guns with ultimately no paper work, no rules and no regulations.  So last night, my birthday night, before going to a fashion show literally across the street that friends were throwing, Tomas and I walk into the range, I'm dressed in my 196o something texas Panhandle Slim western suit with my handmade vintage El Dorado cowboy boots on, and we proceed to get the biggest hand gun on the planet the Magnum .500.  Dirty Harry's gun is a mini-me compared to this bad boy.  We put on our ear plugs and goggles and I get ready for my maiden voyage into the mightiest blast that I have ever produced.  If you watch video's on youtube of people firing this thing off you will see watermelons explode, rows of jugs of water disintegrate and grown men cry.  So, not knowing what to expect I took a deep breath, pulled the trigger and away we go...