My time in Sac.

Hello all! I've convinced my computer to work for a bit, so I guess we'll see if it lasts long enough to get in a post. My last post was written on my cell phone, thus the reason for its disjointed and primitive tone.

A few days ago, I stopped in a balloon store to restock. How wonderful to be able to walk in and pick up just a few bags instead of having to buy in bulk to get the discount; worth the extra dollar per bag to me! While there, I asked about possibly getting together with some of the local twisters to have a Jam. I was given the contact info of a local twister, Gramma V, who knows everyone. I rode up to the mall she was working at and the next thing I knew, I was put to work. Over the past few days, I've twisted at two restaurants and at the mall, twice and was able to make enough money to be able to do a few things I've been needing to do.

I've not really seen anything of Sacramento other than the mall and the restaurants and the space in between but that's fine with me. The natural area around Sac is flat and is mostly farmed. The city is another city; built by people for the entertainment and upkeep of people, much like every other city. As the fellow who is hosting me here said, it is a small town that continues for a very long distance.

Gotta say, meeting with a bunch of twisters yesterday was awesome! I haven't done that in a decade or so. Great joy! Twistin Tim, Jammin' Judy, Albert, Gramma V,  Eva and couple others who hopefully won't be insulted that I can't remember their names without having their business cards in front of me. Albert showed me a really neat thing to do with a hex nut and an 11" round balloon. The nut can make the balloon scream! Gramma V went in half with me on 5 bags of balloons and gifted me a handful of odd face balloons. Sac has a wonderful twisting community!

I had the opportunity to go dancing a couple times at The Ballroom in southeastern Sac. T'was fun, though I wish I had been able to get there a little earlier. As it happened, I only had a short time to dance each time, though it did result in a too-short, late evening hot chocolate "date" with a beautiful woman. I hope to dance tonight at The Station. I've heard that there is a bunch of high-level West Coast Swing dancers here in town. Should be fun.

I find it very interesting that almost everyone I tell about my present living situation appears to envy me.  It seems to me me that so many people have bought into the "American Dream"...you know, the one that leads to this country being one of the least happy countries in the world. The one in which one's creativity gets stifled by the "almost" life. Almost happy, almost content. Making due with what one is able to glean from a lifetime of working for the weekend.

I have a few people who look on my choice of living with something like disdain or disapproval. I'm not striving to "make something of myself". People tell me many times a day how I've "made" made their day. Sitting here in this Starbucks, I've been asked to stay in town three times thus far.  To me, this means I am living a successful life. I recently read, "One's true worth is what is left when one loses everything." I will be dead soon. My deathday may be 50 years off, but that is less than the blink of an eye when we look at the life of the earth. What I own when I die will not be the measure of my life but rather the number of smiles I've triggered during my short time embodied will be the mark of my success.

If I repeat myself in this blogging experience, forgive me. I know that not everyone will read every blog entry. Thus I'm not even trying to edit for repeating stories. Years ago, someone told me of "The Tombstone Test." Basically, it is a fact that everything we believe, everything we do, all that we love or hate is summed up by the short dash between the birth and death dates on our gravestones. In a hundred or two hundred years, even that will likely be unreadable. Since this is so, if you could leave one short sentence on  your stone that will tell future generations what you stood for in life, what would your line be? For me, "He made everyone one Earth smile for one minute." A totally impossible task. But I can hold every action up to the light of that line and see whether what I'm doing will lead me toward, or away, from that goal. The Abbot of the Great Vow Monastery said that such a line is a "life vow." If my actions will lead me toward the lights of that line, then greater contentment and happiness will grow. If my actions will lead me away, discontent and unhappiness will be the fruit.

"One is wealthy in direct proportion to one's contentment with what one already has. One is in poverty in direct proportion to what one feels one lacks."

By this standard, I am a very wealthy man!! Were I to die today, I will have lived a totally successful life.