09-04-01

Today I finished reading Fierce Invalids Back From Hot Climates by Tom Robbins, and I was disappointed. The main character comes across as both pedantic and childish. A CIA rogue agent who is supposed to be so charismatic and good looking that even though he behaves like Pee Wee Herman with a PhD he managed to seduce most of the women he comes across. And, even worse, he manages to seduce them with his oh-so-clever and look-ma-no-hands erudite lectures. It's more like Robbins showing off his research. Too much telling, not enough showing. A junior level flaw in a non-experimental narrative story. And he also tries a bit too hard to hit classic and clichéd sexual taboos: sex with hot underage women and sex with hot nuns. These women just seem to fall all over themselves once he shows them how clever he is. It's definitely written from a man's perspective and reminds me of the "great man" theory of history. History is all about the "great men" who run the world. Robbins' character certainly revels in elitism. There were a few very clever lines and great ideas sprinkled throughout the book, but I'd pass on this one.

A big shout out to my friend Jason Pettus - a great writer who very kindly plugged me on his e-journal today. You can find his confessional, insightful journal at http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Cafe/7135/

I have two cats, one big orange fuzzball named Ares, and a sleek black cat named Shadow. While writing the preceding paragraph, I had a wonderful moment with Ares as he stared into my eyes. I can tell deep in his brain he is recognizing my beingness. I know that he thinks, he remembers, recognizes people. He has some rudimentary ability to understand words, but I believe his thoughts are of a more primary nature than humans. There is no language to define objects so his sense of them must be purely sensory. A chair is not "a chair" but it is "that object over there that looks like that" as opposed to his "food" which is "that object over there that looks and smells like that." The sense connects directly to the is-ness. But when he looks at me, there is a conscious level beyond the visual, an awareness of the act of looking at each other and an awareness that I am his friend. Well, I could be imagining it.

Are you familiar with the hypothesis of the boiled frog? It may be true or not; it's one of those theories I simply remember reading somewhere. (And I'm not interested in testing it since I'm a vegetarian.) Regardless, the story goes that if you toss a frog into really hot water, he'll hop right out. But if you put a frog into a pot of cool water, and then slowly turn up the temperature he'll stay there until he's boiled alive. Nasty. And it's a great metaphor for how Americans during recent times have allowed our rights to be taken away by corporations and have allowed the Earth's environment to be destroyed bit by bit.

The metaphor is practically literal when it comes to global warming. The heat is building up around us frogs, and it will eventually boil us off the planet. Is ten years long enough to sense change? I feel it subcutaneously. In my body. It's true, I'm obsessed with global warming. Some might say my psychology is leading my senses, but I think it's the reverse. I believe I have a subconscious sense of the patterns. And I'm not a guy who remembers things like "oh yeah, 1997 was a really cold summer" nor am I the kind of guy who believes in spirits, psychic powers or new-age any-crap. I can't prove it, but I believe the weather patterns right here in Chicago are changing. I've lived here ten years now. I have that body sense of it. And I feel it's becoming more erratic than ever before. It's not about heat - that will come much later. It may very well get colder first as the Gulf Stream shuts down which brings America warmer air from the South. And the oceans will become colder as the polar icecaps continue melting. But the erratic weather - that will come sooner. It's already started.

The news article today "Weekend Shark Attacks Kill 2" refers to an attack off the North Carolina shore and one off Virginia. The last fatal attack by a shark happened there in 1957. Why twice in one weekend after not happening for so long? I believe the sharks know something is going wrong. They have incredibly powerful sensory organs, smell, movement, temperature. They are spooked. They know something is deadly wrong. Ladies and gentlemen, now would be a good time to panic.