"Strange travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God"--Kurt Vonnegut

So does this mean I'm a pretty good tripping the light fantastic? I'm not sure if the process does include aiming a dart at a map or maybe we actually choose to go to these places. Now fast forwarding from when I first started this particular piece. How many days have gone by? Train now back on track.
There are new words of new places to add to my vocabulary. Ometepe, Granada, Masaya, Leon and that's just Nicaragua! Addng places to stay and things to do. We might stay at a plantation to observe how it is run and work it if we want to. How about an ecological preserve, same deal? Leon, part of the "college town" segment of the trip with its counterpart, Granada, reported to be tranquilo. I read that the markets of Masaya are some of the livliest around.
As I wrote 2 years ago when this screed began, the transformation is the fun part. Eat lots of rice, beans and soup. have the Gypsy Kings for musical accompaniment along with Santana, dig out the t shirts of Che Guevera and Subcommandante Marcos and grab the cash and go.
I'm pretty certain that entry 100 will occur somewhere in that part of the world.
Is 100 blog entries something of note. I think so. At least for me, its part of letting my voice be heard even just back to myself.
So...mas comida y musica ...

oh very young now is your time...

...evidence of faith in action today in the Episcopal Diocese of NorthWestern Pennsylvania by electing a 32 year old man to lead as Bishop. I am overwhelmed at the possibilites and potential for our diocese. I can only imagine in my wildest expectations what Sean Rowe is experiencing. I could feel it from both he and Carly at the Cathedral. I was not unbiased or secretive about my support for Sean. I was also my stealth self. This satiates and makes peaceful any residual fire of anger toward religious and others of similar stature. The light left in me is to guide the way, not burn the place down.

Sean and Carly, my prayers and spirit are with you both as you continue to adjust to the idea of actually being gifted with what you worked so hard to obtain. It can be overwhelming when looked at too closely, too far away.

A 19 year old US woman became the youngest American to climb Mt. Everest. She has also climbed all the major peaks on each continent to be a member of one of the most elite climbing groups on the planet. At such a young age...

I am grateful to be involved in bearing witness to any of this at all.

Oh very young waiting on the world to change

Tony Soprano takes peyote and screams at the top of his lungs "I got it!, I got it" Another scene to add to the cinerama in my head at any given moment. What does he got? Guess we'll see sunday nite. Only 3 episodes left. TV families are missed from time to time and this will be a hole for a little bit.
Meanwhile, "I got it" for a brief moment. Listening to Cat Stevens then and now, as well as John Mayer now.When I was a whopping 14 yrs old in 1975, the Cat Stevens melody always reminded me of a preaching old man, who didn't get it right the 1st time. Fast Forward to 2007 and the same song feels so different. Is it the old man who didn't get it right the first time OR did he get it right to his satisfaction and he so desperately wants to pass along how fast the time really goes.? I lean toward the latter now because that's where I am . Music, the great inkblot test.

Oh Very Young - Cat Stevens

Oh Very Young
What will you leave us this time?
You're only dancing on this earth
For a short while
And though your dreams may toss
And turn you now
They will vanish away
Like your dad's best jeans
Denim Blue faded up to the sky
And though you want him to last
Forever you know he never will
(You know he never will)
And the patches
Make the goodbye harder still

Oh very young
What will you leave us this time
There'll never be a better chance
To change your mind
And if you want this world
To see a better day
Will you carry
The words of love with you
Will you ride
The great white bird into heaven.
And though you want to last
Forever you know you never will
(You know you never will)
And the goodbye
Makes the journey harder still

Oh very young
What will you leave us this time
You're only dancing on this earth
For a short while
Oh Very young
What will you leave us this time.

let's see if I get this...

...I do believe I have officially studied people enough to have come full circle or at least anticipate coming full circle with the technology and brains out there studying human brains. It all comes back to the brain. The 3lbs of matter and chemicals lumped on our shoulders. It all comes back to attachment, the fatalest of flaws to experience. The perceived experience of rejection, ambivalence, neglect, abuse etc. which add up to the gnawing feeling of shame of never measuring up. The countertransference and projective identification with those we encounter further perpetuating the dysfunctional cycle until someone says who, what, where, when and why. Allan Schore is a someone who helps to organize the attachment process at most conceivable levels. Consistent levels. He tells us that our primary caretaker at birth or attachment figure is not only responsible for our physical needs but sets the tempo for receiving cues and setting the stage for modulation of emotions. If there is communication breakdown at any level here, the implications are enormous for future attachments or relationships. The adult is also the perceived one in charge. But what if the adult is just cleverly disguised as one and really only a child themselves, or what if the parent is just a child themselves? What does that say about the culture as a whole. If we fail in relationship with ourselves and others, to what degree, length of time, and do we believe we are remodelable? The leap of the plasticity theory is quite a large one but one that is coming to fruition via fMRI and various pictures of the brain in action. Psychotherapy provides but one option to truly remodel the past for a person and if they go to lead happier lives then chances are greater that that positive emotions will win out in much the same way darwinian theory also applies to so many concurrent life forces. Sadly, negativity is winning the darwinian battles on many levels. As I go down this road I find myself ready to reimerse in things neuro and chemical because it really appears that is what the emotions and disorders are all about...the nature, nuture controversy is another way of looking at the mother/child bonding process. This opens up questions about men and the caregiving role. It opens up a shitload of things right down to the self beliefs that we are not crazy but merely responding to what has been mapped out for us. Can we change the mapping? you betcha and I hope to be blessed with sticking around longer to see that happen. I was called "crazy" or some variant of the word when I wanted to study this stuff back in 1983 at EUP. I got my way and I hope Dr. Culbertson is as thrilled as I am at the way this trip is going...Definitely more on this later.

destination....nicaragua and costa rica!!

June 13th thru July 6th. The same time as usual although a bit of different bent this time. Not really any mission work involved and its back to being just my cousin and myself. We have a bit more in the resource department so its a bit more "luxurious" travel if the "mosquito coast" can sound luxurious. Actually, from what I have scanned there is not a dense population in Nicaragua, so few people per square mile and lots of beach front. We plan to fly in to Managua on June 13th and make it to San Jose Costa Rica by July 4th to leave. Perhaps the 100th post of this screed will occur in that locale where it all began 2 years ago in Guatemala. Perhaps I will have written on nervously as the transformation begins...As it has many times before...take out all the clothes and money you think you need, cut the clothes in half and double the money and you are good to go. Get immersed in the music and food more so if possible and get your travel guide out. The rites of summer. Pools, picnics, parties, Portland, Pirates,Panama yet to come!! I do believe I have run out of P's for now.

P stands for peace which I have found in the comings and goings of people in my life and in myself...

signs, signs, everywhere there's signs ...

...blocking out the scenery........that's the wild part of todays journey. With time to spare, I thought a trek to the Peninsula would be just what the dr. ordered. The closer I got to the beaches the foggier it was becoming until the decent onto the neck of the peninsula was encapsulated in fog. Now, I had just left sunshine and blue skies and I couldn't see back across the bay toward the city. No city. Hadn't I just left a city. ?
I felt enveloped, cocooned in a strangely safe way. The beach has always been my haven for everything, esp pine tree beach. So there I sat not able to see much but the murky outline of the breakwalls, monoliths out of the water. I sat and thought. Something I can do well. I found myself grateful for the day up to that point and asked for strenght to help me help others. It's pretty simple these days. As I left the beaches behind the sun returned at the crest of the hill. strange days indeed.

As I write this at the close of the day, I am grateful to my guardian angels, those who walk this journey with me and very wild weather found only in eerie pa.

"Hordes of Nude Mexicans"

Spencer Tunick has managed to do it again!. He rallied 18,000 of our amigos in Mexico City to pose nude for his photo shoot. The MSN homepage article is interesting. Hold the arrow over the photo provided and my computer popped up with the title of the blog. Read on as our mostly roman catholic controlled neighbors experience the "decline" of what they feel is their culture. They also recently legalized abortion. Yikes what is Pope Benedict to do. ! Perhaps there may be a second "liberation theology" movement to remove themselves somewhat from the papacy that refuses to acknowledge that the next shoes of the fisherman belong to a Latino Archbishop. I found it interesting that the gov't said no to the shoot at Teotihucan but "ok" to the zocolo. Each very fascinating Aztecan sites.
My plans are firming up for Nicaragua and Costa Rica next month. As far as firm is with my cousin and I. My research shows that both places are near in location and far in culture. Border crossings will be involved!! Will they be by train, bus, car, horse, foot or even wheelbarrow!!? Let's wait and see. Good news for me is that they are basically on board with internet cafes so staying connected or not remains an option. I am praying there may be a point that I am so far removed from "civilization" that it would not be possible for even electricity to interrupt.! June 5th to the 26th looks to be the dates. Mentally, begin to shift in my head toward our southern neighbors just when spring hits. In harmony with the season. Hot Damn!

I had a shocker yesterday. "Dune", the Frank Herbert sci-fi classic is 40 years old, not the 30 years I felt it could only have been. 1st published in 1967, I read it in 1975 as an 8th grader. This masterpiece, along with "Stranger in a Strange Land" Robert Heinlein's classic hooked me on the genre. I have time traveled with these books for much longer than even I am aware!
stay tuned...