At The End Of Two Roads

   I wrote this when I was 18 ( so many years ago)...its meaning has deepened with the passing of years........and even more so with the events of the past week......

                                           At The End Of Two Roads

  Two wanderers met at the end of two different roads. They greeted each other with a smile and began exchanging the tales of their long journey. "I was on the most awful road you could imagine" moaned the first wanderer. "All I saw was war, famine, illness, greed and hate". The people  on that road were ruthless!...Why, I am lucky to even have made it out of there!"

  The second wanderer waved his hand "that's nothing compared to te road that I journied on. My road was far worse! First, the streets, they were lined with gold. There were diamonds the size of your fist, everywhere! Trees were bent over with huge fruits.It was a horrible path to be on! Especially for such a long  time!"

  The first wanderer had an expression on his face of complete puzzlement. "What??" He questioned. "How could you possibly believe that the road you were on was worse than the road I was on?"

   The second wanderer drew a thin smile and then replied "there was nobody on it."

.................................................................................................................

   Now many years later, I look at this road we are all on...there is war, there is hatred, we have mad men killing our children, killing each other! I see illness and disease taking away the love of life from so many. Yes, this is a hard road indeed., but I have come to witness......that for every heart which is torn, there are a ten hands around that will try to mend it. For every person surrending their life there are 100 hands that want to carry it.For every soul that has lost its way, their are ten hands that want to guide it.

We are on a road that is paved with something that outshines diamonds and gold..we are on this road together!

I hope you see this before you reach the end of the road.

My thoughts  go out to all whose lives are being affected by grief and despair...I hold my two hands together and pray.....

Peace....Marc :)

Binoculars hang from the head of Mule

 

   I grew up in a "black and white" world. Television sets and programs were in black and white, kitchen appliances were available in white only, All the colors of wheel were in an 8 piece box of Crayola Crayons.

 A movie was released "The Mask" where you were handed a pair of 3 d glasses to watch the movie with. While viewing through the glasses, it seemed as if the characters were just a few feet in front of your nose! I was overwhelmed by this extraordinary technology! I was allowed to see something...that really wasn't there!

 I held onto my souvenier glasses, believing that they might help me see other things that were not there! Ah! the imagination of an 11 year old! I kept the glasses in the top drawer of my desk. They were always ready at a moments notice. I used them to decode secret messages on cereal boxes, I used them to watch the black and white programs, feeling they gave color to the screen. A few years passed,and yes..late at night, when the house was asleep,...I used them to carefully view each image in my sacred copy of Playboy Magazine...making those women come to life! Superman had his cape, Marc had his glasses.

  Time passed,and on one very hot July day, I was cooling off at the swimming pool that belongs to the apartment complex I lived in. I can recall enjoying the refreshing crispness of the cool water, and the big blue, cloudless sky above. The sun beaming its rays across the surface,making my eyes squint. My attention was drawn to the diving the board, where the most beautiful girl in my universe was standing. She called out to her friends below. "watch me!!...Look at this dive!" I stared, and could not believe what I was witnessing....I could see right through her pink and white bikini!  I gasped, this was not a picture, I was not wearing those glasses, this was real!  She jumped in the pool with a scream! I held on to the side of pool, closed my eyes and murmered, "please....jump off the board again!"  

  That was the first and only time she wore that pink and white bikini, perhaps her mother or her friends saw the same thing I did.I just saw it with a great sense of admiration and an acute sense of provocation!

   Around that same time, my drawers were dumped.Many things I had carried with some type of childhood endearment were discarded...amongst them, those glasses.....the extra sensory powers that I had given to them had lost their significance. I was on my own...stepping into the threshold of adolesence.

Now, many years later, my glasses are back on....not the 3 d type, but binoculars...always keeping an eye on my past!

 

BLACK MAGIC WOMAN

....Along came an afternoon when the college gave us one of those days off. She invited me over to her house to spend the aftrernoon. When I knocked on the door, she opened it just a crack and commanded, "close your eyes or I won't let you in". Always an obedient one, I shut them tight. In the next instant she was fashioning a blindfold over my eyes. Speaking softly, "don't worry, I have a surprise for you" she said. She took hold of my hand and instructed me to follow her. She led me a few steps and then said, "there is a chair right behind you, sit down!" Then continuing with her commands, "I will tell you when you can remove the blindfold".

   There wasn't enough time to anticipate..this was so unexpected, like a person woken out of deep sleep. Then the sound of an erie organ chord began playing, the opening chords to Black Magic Woman by Santana..."OK, take the blindfold off!" I removed it and was simultaneously joined with the percusive beats of the song....and there she was...in a black leotard and black tights.....doing a modern jazz dance to the song!

Got a black magic woman
Got a black magic woman
Ive got a black magic woman
Got me so blind I cant see
That shes a black magic woman
Shes trying to make a devil out of me

A student of Modern Jazz dance, she sauntered, swayed, arched her limbs in a way that I had never seen.The suppleness of her feminity told me I was outmatched. A lump quickly formed in my throat, my rapid pulse kept it there.

On the last notes she moved ever so close to me, and with the finish she setlled herself in my lap., her arms lightly wrapped around me.

I applauded her with my smile.....the line of the song "make a devil out of me" resonated.

I invoked a French accent..."ooh la la, Pierre likes  your dance very much... I have a Swiss Chalet with a fireplace...will this madamoiselle like to join me?".... She loved Pierre, a romantic, French Playboy character that I had invented ..who always promised her the finest that the world had to offer...."wee" would be her pat reply....."Then close your eyes and we'll be there soon."

...............................................................................

These moments quietly flicker, like candles, in the deep recess of my mind. So many years later I am left wondering, did she really put a spell on me....as the song goes...

Got your spell on me baby
Got your spell on me baby
Yes you got your spell on me baby
Turning my heart into stone
I need you so bad, magic woman
I cant leave you alone.

Well....at least I left her with "Pierre".........

APRIL FOOLS

Many (many) years ago..................

  She said "yes, Saturday night will be fine, what time will you pick me up?"

It was the girl that occupied 7/8ths of my mind for several weeks, courage and trust converged and she said "yes" to a date! My mind began to plan the night out on the town........

I was attending college classes in the morning and my afternoons and Saturdays were spent working in New York City. My workplace had me pass down the streets of Madison Avenue, where the stores that cater to wealthy are lined. My first move was to a fine mens clothing store where I was admiring this one shirt that was displayed in the store's front window (where the remaining 1/8th of my mind was at!).The shirt cost me the equivalent of two full days of pay, but do the math, 1/8 plus 7/8ths, it's a perfect fit!

 My personal excitement ramped up as I showered, shaved and manicured myself from every angle, and finishing myself off with a touch of cologne. I carefully removed the pins from the gorgeous finely tailored shirt, and felt the new level of elevation it brought as I buttoned it up.

I made my way to her door, and knocked......the sounds coming off the wood door were mirroring the sounds coming out of my heart. She opened the door, her eyes twinkled with approval, and her smile...."Marc!   wow.....Nice shirt" ..and then she winked.  A smile and a wink.....I was done.

It was the first week in April, we went into New York City to see the movie "April Fools" starring Jack Lemmon and Catherine Denenuve. It was about two people who had everything except a fullfiling relationship, despite the fact that they were both married. The movie details their meeting and how they spent an evening "on the town" and quickly fell in love.

After the movie, we walked down the avenue of the romantically light town. I took her into a fine dining establishment , which because of the late hour, was nearly empty. The waiters catered to us, I'm not certain if they were getting a kick out spoiling two young adolescent diners or if my Madison Avenue shirt and shoes was telling them a big tipper was in the house!

The waiter came to our table and prepared from scratch, a Ceasar Salad (he even tossed in a raw egg...somehow we did worry about salmonella back then!). A piano player played an endless chorous of love songs, and we spent what seemed to be an entire  night staring into each others and echoing smiles and laughter.

Every year at this time, my mind plays host to this warm and wonderful event from many years ago...

...I am tickled this night from long ago remains vivid. I have been rightly accused of having an imagination that runs wild, like some outlaw. ....And now I see this outlaw running faster, afterall, it trapped in a body that is surrounded by time...time that is passing.It knows that one day, these precious memories will lose some of their glimmer. Time is like a sheriff, the days are it's bounty hunters..I feel them coming after me....the law says....we must move on. So before this wild imagination gets captured, or gunned down in a shoot out...I will stash my loot of precious memories right here.

No matter how "far from my youth" I may wander....I'll know just where to find it!

 

CASTRADOS! (PAUL & HEATHER McCARTNEY)

Just as I am deeply moved by the romantic melodies of Paul McCartney, my spirit vibrates with the works of Chopin, Mendolssohn and Mozart. Classical music takes me back..... AH!! but the times were no simpler for singers back then too!

I am reminded that in the early 18th Century, the Royalty were so overwhelmed by the opera arias (soloists that could reach a very very high note) that they would actually pay large sums of money to families that would have a young singer (always male)castrated !This would allow the young singers' voice to reach the highest plateau of perfection. These "Castrados" could sing Arias like no others and were placed in the finest living quarters and given the best education in the world. (It was like having a walkman). With their testicles removed, these boys could devote their young lives to singing. They were to have no other passions, nor interferences with their music.

   Here we are 300 years later. While we have become more civil with cultivating our music, I look around and see how couples become so involved with the fullfillment of their own needs that they "cutoff" the dreams and hopes of their mates. In pursuit of obtaining the "high notes" one of the  mates will often find the bounty of his or her expectations left at the alter. Unfortunately, what we ulitmately castrate is the potential of obtaining the simple pleasures that togetherness affords.

The title of Paul McCartneys new song was unknowingly given to him by Heather when he asked that she sign a prenupital agreement. "I'll sign your prenup, but when I leave, I'll have your balls" she gigled in his ear.

You'll find his new release intriguing..sung on a very very HIGH note!

All You Need is Love.

The Stileto Syndrome: The Rise & Fall of Port Wine Cheese

    I can recall the first time I tasted Port Wine Cheese. I was with a date and we were in a cafe that served cheese, wines and coffee in a very casual living room type atmosphere.

   I was 21 at the time, and back then, the markets had a limited variety of cheeses.  Port Wine and Cheddar, sounded so, decadent. We ordered it,and  it was served with fresh fruits and an assortment of crackers, and of course our wine selection. Within moments of my first taste of this new variety of cheese, my entire state of consciuosness was elevated! I suddenly felt a little more mature, a little more "wordly and sophiscated".  Beneath the Tiffany Lamp and the soft piano music playing lightly in the backround, I directed our conversation towards politics and other wordly matters. All this, from the taste of cheese.

  Years have passed since. The markets are overflowing with cheeses and yes, Port Wine is now found everywhere. I just saw some being offered in 7-11 store, although it is packaged like a cream cheese spread (yuk).  I have encountered this cheese more times than I care to count. I am no longer drawn to it in the way I once was. I no longer feel sophisticated beyond my years when I taste it.

Hold that thought.....

 

   I once worked in an office that had a very tempermental lady working it. One day she would greet you with the smiles, the next day, she'd ignore you like you weren't there.Her ups and downs were faster than two Hippos on a see-saw!

   Her redemption,......on certain days of the week, she would wear stiletos. Her overall appearence....was simply, average. Not very pretty,average body type, not curvey, or busty, not tall, not short....just average.  For some reason, when she would walk through the office with those pointed heels....she seemed to have gained an edge in all categories.When she strutted through the office in those heels,   how quickly I could forgive her cold shoulder and  her biting remarks that she made just the day before.

   So as I stare into my fridge, and notice that piece of Port Wine Cheese (from who knows when) and do not have the desire for it. I salute you ladies, with your magic slipper, how easily, one style of shoe can have a mood altering impact.

  ....Now I know why Prince charming was going so crazy to findCindarella, it was the stileto!

 

HIGH TEST

    I really enjoy being at the market early in the morning. The scents of freshly baked breads mix with floral arrangements, yield such a welcoming feeling to the store. Everything is glistening and new!

  On this morning, the calm was was rippled by a woman briskly walking right past me. She was an elderly store employee, I admired the high energy in her walk. I just could not imagine what her hurry was. I reached the end of the aisle and there she was, holding a tray of small plastic cups filled with a beverage. She's in the twilight of her years and does not quite measure up to 5 ft in height. "Wanna try a new drink?" she asks , flashing a big smile with bright red lipstick painted on her lips. "It's a new energy drink, that is made from Green Tea and has a peachy flavor to it. It has vitamins and lots of good things in it to give you a boost. There are no harmful herbs  or caffiene in it".       I smile and say "sure" ad sip the new offering. It was a delightful blend of green tea and peach flavoring. the two distinctly different flavors played off of each other. The beverage was light and refreshing. I lifted the can off the table and examined the label of its ingredients which the woman had boasted about.

  There on the front of the can, the words were quite clear "contains caffiene".  "oops" I smiled to the woman, "it seems like this miracle drink does have caffiene in it". Her immediate reply without hestitation..."I never said it didn't have caffiene". Then continuing with her sales speech, "of course it has caffiene, that is what gives you the boost....what it doesn't have is those harmful things that you find in the other sports drinks...You know, the things that kill the athletes on the ballfield."  My eybrows went up, crinkling my forehead..."Killing athletes?" I said bewildered, "what athlete died from a sports drink?"   She looked me in the eyes and said.."Lew Burdette....the pitcher for the Milwalkee Braves"   My eybrows flew up another notch, "Lew Burdette?, yes, I remember him, but he died last week at 81 years of age, he didn't die from drinking a sports drink".   Once again she smiled with her big red lips, "I didn't say he died from drinking a sports drink, I just said, he was an athlete who died".

   I lingered at the table for a moment not certain if I was losing my mind, ormy hearing. "Here" she said holding up another cup, "have another sample, you look like you could use it". As I swallowed the one gulp in that cup, she took a cup for herself and sent it down the hatch as if she was racing me. Simultaneously, we tossed our empty cups in the small wastebasket by her stand. I noticed that the wastebasket had quite a few empty cups in it. I looked around and realized, I was the only customer in the store. "This drink comes in 3 flavors and you know what is really good about it? You can drink it straight from the can or pour it over ice in a glass, either way, it's very refreshing!" She boasted with a big smile.

  I reached over to the display and loaded two six packs into my cart. "Wow" she said, "two six packs, you must really like this stuff".   I smiled back and said..."I am not sure how much I like it, but I know it would take 3 bottles or Merlot to get me as happy as you are!"

  The stuff is quite good. I am on my 3rd can.

Oh, by the way,  I am communicating this message telepathically ...I am not even near the computer...at this moment, I am doing the Samba on the  treadmill while listening to the  Gypsy spirited  heated rythms of Sade!

How will I know when the music is over!