Hometown

Have you ever returned to your hometown after a long time away, to find so many things changed, and so many things the same? Like a midnight drive through a grotesquerie of memories and imagination.

I find my first love that way tonight, winding through and around the lazy, darkened streets of Asheville. I have always loved this place, and always will, regardless of what the people here may be or do. It's my religion: The Religion of Place. Why does anyone settle in an unknown area, or stay when they could be safer or more successful elsewhere? Even beyond the people we interact with, the Places we inhabit are holy and full of power. If we let the land speak to us, we learn inherent secrets of the Earth. If you know how to combine the magic of the land with the efforts of humans, you can benefit from both camps.

Here I shift seamlessly from wending through woods, to strolling down streets. In Buncombe can I combine the two sides that make up my spiritual genetics: raw Nature, and human gatherings.

My parents gave me biological roots, and fostered my growth, but the mother of my soul is Asheville, and its father is the Appalachians.

My literary forebear wrote, "You Can Never Go Home Again," but it is merely that one cannot return to the home one once knew. Remembering that your home will always change, the moreso the longer your absence, you can return as often as you like!

NB

Night Watchman

Sometimes, I end up as one of the only human beings awake in this town.....

It fascinates me that towns very close to major Interstates can just shut down after about 9 or 10pm. I work in a hotel, though, so for me, there is no such thing as a "sleep schedule." I work any and all shifts, so it is not unheard of for me to have a week on the schedule where I will work from 7am-3pm one day, later I will be in from 3p-11p, and then maybe finish the week out on 11pm-7am! Oh, the joys of hospitality.....

This was a great industry for me to get into, straight out of college. College kids don't know the meaning of the term "sleep schedule!" I, least of all.

Now, the trouble is that everyone in hospitality who works at the Front Desk stands (or sits, lucky bastards) here and says to him/herself, "Man, I have a lot of free time in between doing things. I could write a book or something!" Some people actually pull that off! (I'll let you know as soon as my friend is done with his post-modern take on classic Southern Gothic literature, in part inspired by Stephen King) I, on the other hand.....

Well, does it look like I'm standing here writing a book? Literally, not metaphorically, obv's....

Of course, about 4am, you start seeing the infomercials, and then you know it's in for the long haul.....The lucky ones, like myself, work in a hotel with its own restaurant, so you'll see a few coworkers in around 5 or 6-ish am or so, to start opening breakfast. Then, at least, something is happening.

Until then, I keep myself entertained by...the Intarwebz!!


So how about you folks -- what's the most boring job you've ever had? Or comparable. And isn't it nice to get paid to do nothing? ;-)


NB

Welcome...To The Future of my Past!

This Present is Always Running toward the Future, but Often Looking Back at the Past....

And that present used to look like a lousy gift to me. Knowing now what kind of gift Life is, always, and also remembering that I have nothing except the present, ever, I have decided to just blog away, here, and let everyone see what I think!

'Cause why not?



So here's my question to the world, and I want some answers, people! Or just comments, down below. Those are fine, too.

Is it better to write a story that excites and diverts people's minds from the toil of real life, or a story that shows the real depth of meaning behind sometimes even the smallest detail of that everyday life. making people appreciate more what they have in their own?

Also,

Is an artist only truly an artist when that person creates art truly from within, with literally nary a thought spent on what others may think of that art, or how it might make people feel? Or is an artist just as much an artist when that art is designed to entertain, or to distract the viewer, when the art was created with a specific goal in mind that the artist wishes to perform on his or her audience? Are these not both valid forms of art? Art is just an expression, in a personal way, of one's thoughts and emotions, put into some concrete external form, and in this way, all our lives are art, just in the living of them.

Experiencing the world can be a personal art, for anyone.


What have been your favorite personal experiences? (That you are comfortable sharing on the internet.) Yes, you, I'm asking you, the one there clicking away, with neither hand on the keyboard. Get to typin' somethin'!! Creative expression, let's hear it! :-p


NB

Do you ever feel like you would be really good at something, but you haven't tried it yet? Have you convinced yourself you were "meant for greater things," but just not fully taken the leap to jump on it? I know how you feel!!

My passion is people. My interests are the Arts. My loves exist for my soulmate, for music, for good writing and great food, for my pets. My spirit is most at home outside, away from civilization and technology, with my dogs or without them.

What are your passions? What do you want to make of yourself?

I hope to be a well-loved writer one day. I am also fully resigned to the possibility, as unwanted as it may be, that this title may be bestowed upon me posthumously. I sure hope that doesn't happen!



NB

For A Man must be Unafraid to Speak his Mind....

Too often for a working man is it frowned upon, or worse, futile! for him to speak his mind.

To remedy this, A Man must be able to Write His Mind, at the very least.



Perhaps in doing so, A Man may learn to write the minds of countless others, as well - both real and imagined.



Too often I look around me and see truth in the words of Karl Marx,

It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousness.

And so, determined to keep my own consciousness about me, I write out my innermost mind, that I may always keep firm grasp upon Myself.


In expression does the artist find self worth.


NB