Meaningful Mud's Monthly Mu - September 2024
"ah, if only the world were ending tomorrow. we could help each other very much."
Hey all,
And welcome to Meaningful Mud’s Monthly Mu September edition. Thank you again for stopping by here and for giving this a read or a brief skim. It is much appreciated.
Owing to an amateurish spatial miscalculation on my part and a fortunate stroke of serendipity, this past week I found myself perilously wedged between two cement trucks in the peak hour morning traffic rush; the transport gods smugly showing me, my bicycle and my grand praisings of micro-mobility the middle finger. I say serendipitous because as it turns out, the slow continuous rotations of the cement trucks was exactly the imagery I needed at this hour, on this day.
There was many a moment this past month when I earnestly questioned the meaning and relevance of certain parts that make up my day (apart from my biweekly ocean swims. Low-key shoutout to the *****). Experiencing a more intimate proximity to the precipice on which we as a people are precariously perched, all of a sudden my personal ambitions and doings, such as desperately trying to get my heels flat on the floor in down-dog, or cleaning the neglected areas of my apartment (which uncompromisingly demands a mighty stretch of my arm, a contorted torso and my cheek flat on the floor) seemed somewhat futile endeavors, or at best silly ones; all at once recontextualized by macro forces out of my control, bottomless worry and the avoidable, senseless suffering and pervasive pain that seems all around.
Yet, face down in this valley, the unhurried mixing and turning and churning of the cement trucks, all operating to keep the concrete at the right consistency, or any consistency at all, reeled me out, in the process re-illuminating our perennial human project.
Our continuous doings, learnings, dreamings, beings, seekings, strivings, givings, hopings - the raw materials of our inner worlds. The moment we become static and cease to show up, in the big stuff and in the small stuff; the minute we stop staying generously curious, aware, open and engaged, the substance of our worlds shrinks, shrivels and stiffens. Just like a static cement truck, the texture of us hardens into an inflexible solidified mass.
So friends and family, despite the shaky, unsteady, wobbly foundations of this human journey, as I see it, whilst we are here, we only have one constructive and life-giving option: to ‘fill up our heads and fill up our hearts cause that’s all we got’ (oh my oh my - if only Dave Matthews knew that in 8 publications he has already got 2 mentions!).
So...
On that note...
Wishing us all a month of showing up, being present, working on that handstand, cleaning that corner (you know which one), watering those plants and continuing to imagine a better tomorrow.
Take great care everyone.
Tyler
"Cause how many times can you wake up in this comic book and plant flowers?"
Florentino Ariza had kept his answer ready for fifty-three years, seven months, and eleven days and nights.
“Forever,” he said.
I granted myself the poetic privilege to create the fictitious dialogue above featuring two cherished beings of mine: Rodriquez, the musician, and Florentino Ariza, a character from Gabriel García Márquez’s novel, Love in the Time of Cholera.
A Meeting
By Wendell Berry
In a Dream I meet
my dead friend. He has,
I know, gone long and far,
and yet he is the same
for the dead are changeless.
They grow no older.
It is I who have changed,
grown strange to what I was.
Yet I, the changed one,
ask: "How you been?"
He grins and looks at me.
"I been eating peaches
off some mighty fine trees."
Sonic Suggestions
Be it washing dishes, lying on my bed or chopping a watermelon, this little performance has accompanied me more times than I can count.
I hope you enjoy the tunes.
“Where does it all lead? What will become of us?… It leads to each other. We become ourselves.”
- Patti Smith
As I said last month and will again repeat this month - thank you all for reading and for your being here. It is really not taken for granted! Not in the slightest.
Please also consider forwarding this little offering to a loved one, friend or stranger and feel free to reach out should you wish to share any comments, critiques or suggestions.
Wishing you all a sumptuous September!
Wonderfully written, thanks for the shout out.