The Fountainheads

Grand Canyon, Sundown

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“When you asked how I was doing, was that some kind of joke?” – Bob Dylan, Desolation Row

You need some time, you need some sleep. What if nobody cares? Do you care if nobody cares? Does it matter that nobody cares? Does it matter that at least one somebody cares? Does it matter if that one somebody is you? Is it worth worrying about whether or not it matters if anybody cares? What are you trying to achieve? Does it matter if you succeed? A psychologist will tell you that your life is just a collection of habits, John Lennon will tell you that life is what happens to you while your busy making other plans. The church will tell you that life is a gift from God. The scientist might tell you life is a gift from the stars. A pseudo-scientist will tell you life is a gift from Mars. But what is life? What’s it all about?

Is it the biggest house, is it the nicest car? Is it a good house and a good car?

Is it waking up everyday and doing exactly what you want to do? Is it waking up everyday and doing exactly what you don’t want to do?

Is it just waking? Is it just dreaming? Is it a haven from death? Is it a prison keeping you from heaven?

Is it being on time? Is it always running late? Is it how hard you work? Is it landing that lucky break?

Is it getting ahead? Is it falling behind? Is it going somewhere? Is it going nowhere?

Is it getting somewhere? Is it forever going? Is it taking time to stand still?

Is it pacing your self? Is it a sprint to the finish? Is it swimming to shore? Is it treading water?

Is it a beginning? Is it an ending?

Is it kicking a habit? Is it true some habits are good? Is it knowing your way? Is it getting lost in the woods? Is it keeping quiet? Is it making a sound? Is it knowing when to stand tall and when to back down?

Is it a winding road? Is it clearing your path? Is it a chance to deliver the perfect pass?

Is it following your head? Is it following your heart?

Is it about going without? Is it about looking within? Is it about listening for answers that blow in the wind?

Is it about paying a price, for a chance to be free? Is it about winter red suns behind trees with no leaves?

Is it a manifestation of justice? Is it learning how to forgive?

Is it trying to learn? Is it learning to try? Is it learning to fly? Is it all of sudden flying right by?

Is it trying to take off? Is it getting cleared to land? Is it learning to see beauty and how to hold it in the palm of your hand?

Is it playing it safe? Is it risking being thrown out? Is it surviving the bases loaded and nobody out?

Is it doing what you’re told? Is it telling others what to do?

Is it protecting the truth? Is it changing the laws? Is it searching for someone and finding them above all?

Is it time with your family? Is it time for your self? Is it time in your hands? Is it time running out? Sometimes you know who you are. Sometimes you know you’re the one. You’re the best kept secret under the sun.

This morning I logged onto the internet. The World Wide Web. The forever growing, forever changing accumulation of knowledge and culture, truth and fancy, passion and destruction, blessings and sins, grace and vulgarity, the pulse of humanity, electricity running, rushing like blood through veins racing through a complex network that rivals the nervous system of a human being. I pulled up a search engine and asked this modern day Library of Alexandria, “What is Life?” After all who better to answer this confounding question than humanity itself? And the answer…

1. Life Cereal.

There you have it. Cancel that trip to the Himalayas in search of the Great Sage. But hold on here… slowly this strange derivative began to meander around. Perhaps this was an answer better than all the others, more ambitious and more profound. Sure this was no literal resolution, yet still there was something significant buried within this, something hidden between the lines. The more I thought about it, the more certain I felt that there was something, although intangible and esoteric, ultimately truthful about it. Go ahead try it.

Life. Hey Mikey likes it and you should too.

-C. Hornisch 07/06/2004