In My Perfect World

 

If priests had any idea whatsoever about useful or reasonable counseling of their parishioners regarding real life advice, we might anticipate a scenario such as this:

(Interior single-lens over-the shoulder shot of a penitent inside a confessional booth; only the silhouette of the confessor is seen as lit by the dim image of the priest as seen through the ornate screen separating the two.)

“Father, forgive me. I cannot stop sinning; I masturbate at least a dozen times a day. It’s all I can think about, even at work. cold showers, prayer and meditation, even imagining the Mother Superior naked…which is not an attractive image at all…”

“Yikes! You can say that again!…no…come to think about it, please don’t…I have to eat lunch in an hour.”

“Nothing seems to work. It takes up all my time, energy, imagination, and I spend almost all my money on internet porn….

What shall be my penitence?”

A conspicuous silence follows as the priest strokes his short, neatly trimmed beard.

“Hmmmm…I know exactly what is needed here. I am going to give you one hundred dollars from the poor box. I want you to take it and go down to the docks where the hookers stand.”

“You will find a young woman there named Erin O’Clogherty; you can’t miss her…she is quite beautiful. She has a gorgeous head of chestnut hair, fine alabaster skin and jade-green eyes.  You may even recognize her; she sings regularly in our choir.”

“Go to no one else, even wait for her if she is not there when you arrive…do you understand?”

“Yes Father, but what should I do?”

“Well, first of all pay careful attention to what I am telling you, and stop touching yourself…you are going to need all your strength for this.”

“Yes Father.”

“Offer her the hundred dollars to go out with you for dinner and a movie.”

“I want you to go to Marino’s that Italian restaurant about six blocks from here. Their family is in our parish, and they have fallen on hard times despite their excellent cuisine…I’m afraid it’s because of the neighborhood; they’ve lived here for three generations and they don’t want to leave, but that’s another matter….”

“They will appreciate your business, and tell them I sent you. They will understand; Mario will probably give you a wink or two, but trust me, you will not be disappointed. Tip them very generously…this part will all come out of your pocket, by the way; it’s part of your penitence and you can afford it considering what you pay for internet pornography.”

“Are you paying attention?”

“Yes Father.”

“After dinner, I want you to walk her to the movie theater around the corner. It doesn’t matter what’s playing, I want you to go to that theater only.”

“Throughout dinner, and after the movie, be sure to compliment her for how lovely she looks, but don’t go on about it in a salacious way…just notice her for who she truly is.”

“Listen to every word she says and engage her in conversation, but don’t try to impress her with what you have to say; If you two were dancing, I would instruct you to let her lead. She has a sharp wit and an imaginative sense of humor, so it won’t be difficult.”

“Offer to drive her home. She has to use a baby-sitter to watch her three young children, and she has no one else ever since her abusive alcoholic husband abandoned her to run off to Miami with the neighbor’s wife, which taken on balance was probably a blessing for both families, because Molly was quite the tramp, and broke her poor husband’s heart as well.”

“Walk her up to the house. I am quite sure if you mind your manners, she will invite you in; don’t worry, the children will already be asleep.”

“I can guarantee you will not be disappointed, so see to it that she is not either. Her emotional and physical needs should come first…if you’ll pardon the pun.” 

“Is that my penance, Father?…I am not sure that I understand…”

“Well, in case it wasn’t obvious, all of the parties involved…even the family that owns the theater are members of this parish, and each has the ability to help the others.”

“The Marinos need the business, and dinner will be a proper way to begin the evening; Erin needs not just the money, but the validation of her worth as a human being who is valued for more than just her body…and YOU definitely need to get out more often!”

 

Namasté

नमस्ते

Chazz Vincent

02/27/2017

And Now for Something Completely Different…

This is a copy of an engraving I purchased at a sidewalk art show on the Jersey shore in the summer of 1971.

It is an unsigned print by an author named Hans Bellmer, a German Surrealist/Dada/Erotic artist of exceptional talent.

It is entitled Madame Eduarda. At the time I bought it, I had no idea of who he was or the significance of his works.

I thought I would share it with our readers; If it appeals to you, I would highly recommend looking him up on the internet. He was incredibly prolific, and there are many images of his works there.

Namasté

नमस्ते

Chazz Vincent

 

 

 

Silent Thunder

When I woke up this morning, this phrase came to me like an intimate confidante whispering in my ear.

Don’t get me wrong…I like it Loud…at least sometimes.

When I’m in the mood, I like Rock music so loud you can feel it.

Symphonic music live, is surprisingly loud; to listen to it properly at home requires speakers and amplifiers more than capable of generating noise complaints from the neighbors.

The passion of opera cannot be fully appreciated in the hushed, whispered tones of your neighborhood library, but that’s what headphones (…really good ones) are for.

In my twenties, I played electric guitar in bands so loud that you would have thought you would bleed through your eyeballs and your ears would ring for days afterward.

So loud that once, while playing a feedback solo in a seedy little bar in Terre Haute that was practically built on the railroad tracks, I broke a window.

Ten thousand watts was a lot of power, even for an entire band, given the venues we played back then.

But between the trains and the drunken audiences with no respect for much of anything, it was about the only way to drown out the noise and command their attention.

I once lived in a neighborhood across the street from the Miami Jai-alai fronton, just slightly north and east of Miami International Airport. It took a stack of Marshall amplifiers just to drown out the noise from the fly-overs, but when the cops came, I didn’t even hear them pounding on the door until they turned on the yelper.

FUCKING LOUD….

Although it was a time of reacting to an anti-war culture as well as a worldwide cultural war, the irony of the fact that Rock sounded so warlike was not lost on me at least, even back then.

Jimi Hendrix’s live album, the Band of Gypsies contained a song called Machine Gun that echoed exactly that kind of sentiment.

Much later, I built an amateur radio station that used a six hundred watt linear amplifier.

That doesn’t sound like very much…six hundred watts…most hair dryers and electric hotplates are around fifteen hundred watts; but coupled to a three-beam Yagi directional antenna, I was able to send voice transmissions clearly to anywhere in the world.

Now the Internet allows us to communicate with a much larger audience with no limitations of weather or atmospheric conditions like ionic flux and even provides translators for languages of which we may have absolutely no kin whatsoever with a minimum of expense, expertise, or equipment.

During those years of attempting to communicate creatively, I began to recognize that it seemed as if certain trends of inspiration seemed to come almost from out of nowhere, echoed by other artists as well as audiences receptive to them as if they had bounced off the ionosphere in much the same way that long-range radio waves do.

Emerson touched upon the concept of how the transcendence of inspiration seemed to “stand hand-in-hand”, and that “one shock was felt the whole world ‘round.”

In those days, it took weeks or even months to communicate, and yet it was clear enough to him then how the common consciousness of One Mind unites us.

Before thoughts, or words we are all one…we are all the same; time does not exist, distance is irrelevant and we are all immortal once we shed the yoke of duality.

The physical world that is bound by impermanence, illusion and futility dissolves within the realization of the power of the vital essence of life itself as the noise of the entire world trying to shout over itself is drowned out by the silent thunder of the present moment.

Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei 

さよなら絶望先生

Namasté

नमस्ते

Chazz Vincent

02/17/2017

She Wants to be the Other Woman

(This is a re-blog of a previous post; it occurred to me that if it was appropriate for me to remember and re-visit this idea, perhaps we could all use the reminder.

Polyamorous or not, our significant others are often too easily taken for granted; we forget the thrill of Infatuation…The Crush that we once experienced with them.)

This post is dedicated to Suki.

She Wants to be The Other Woman

(There is an old Italian proverb that asks: If your wife and your mistress are both drowning at the same time and you can only save one, which one do you save?

The answer is your wife…because your mistress will understand.)

*****

She said

she wants to be

the other woman…

the one I yearn to see

when I can slip away

for a clandestine rendezvous.

Furtive hours

of stolen kisses

that must remain our secret

between we two.

The one who gets excited

to know I’m seeing her.

Mia Cumare.

Mia Innamorata.

Mia Fidanzata.

*****

I said

“I guess that means

that you won’t be telling me

how we should spend our money

or argue how to raise

our children

or forbid me to buy a motorcycle

if I should choose.”

“It also means

you can’t wake up

in bed with me

each morning,

or sleep in late on

Sundays long past noon

or be seen together

in public places,

or watch our children

accepting awards at school.”

But my dear

such is not the case.

You already know.

You understand.

In our perfect world

together

in our

House beside the Sea

you get to be

The Other Woman

as you may please

and still come home to me

or

better still

to share

another man

another woman

perhaps their spouses, too…

The circle grows

but remains unbroken…

unflinching fidelity

no lies

no excuses

no regrets

or apologies

required.

And yet it all begins

and ends

with

Me and You.

Namaste

Chazz Vincent

Just One Thought

Just One Thought

can spoil a lifetime

of Present Moments;

One Mind,

One Thought,

One Moment

can drown out

all the voices

of all the

Bodhisattvas,

बोधिसत्त्व

all of the

Patriarch’s,

पत्रिअर्च्ह्स्

and

all the Buddhas.

Bउद्धस्

***********************************************************************

It can obfuscate

all Wisdom

and Instincts

felt and known

(rather than

postulated,

elucidated,

and pronounced)

within

a mind obsessed

with

narrations,

utterances,

labels

and schemes

designed to seduce

your attentions

away

from

what is obvious

only

to those

who possess

Mu-Shin,

unclouded

by

Duality,

Fear,

or

Suffering.

***********************************************************************

One Thought

destroys

the Present Moment,

which neither leaves

nor arrives;

in so doing

it destroys

everything.

***********************************************************************

One thought,

conspicuous in its absence,

and

obvious

in its utterance;

creating something

out of nothing

when Nothing was

all that was needed

in the absence

of

a Witness

silently observing

a witness…

witnessing

the truths

that cannot be spoken

or comprehended

by the mind.

***********************************************************************

One Thought

Within

One Mind

for One

Moment 

is

all it takes

to create

All

The Suffering

In All the World

in the

Here and Now

which is

all there is,

ever has been,

or will be

…forever….

***********************************************************************

Namaste

नमस्ते

I bow to the divine in you.

 I honor the place in you

in which

the entire universe dwells.

I honor the place in you

which is of love, light,

peace and joy.

When you

are in that place 

in you

and I

am in that place

in me,

We Are One.

नमस्ते

നമസ്കാരം

வணக்கம்

নমস্কাৰ)

প্রণাম

নমস্কার)

ప్రణామము

దండము

ನಮಸ್ಕಾರಗಳು

ನಮಸ್ಕಾರ)

 

Chazz Vincent

02/04/2017