I HAVE LIVED A MILLION LIVES

I will not forget the line of Modigliani, or the presence of Mozart or Bach. I still hear the wail of Alan Ginsberg...These things are so important to me. Sweet candy for my eyes...Soothing melodies for my ears...strong words for my mind. Bukowski got into my head, and hasn't left me. He seems like a brother. Maybe we are related. Maybe we are distant cousins. I feel Tom Waits, Van Morrison, Robert Pirsig, Joseph Campbell, Ed Paschke, Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, Hunter S. Thompson, and oh, so many more.

Here's to all my mentors! I raise my glass high! Hail to thee! To R. Buckminster Fuller, my greatest teacher...to Donald Racky, who taught me the majesty of the Great Books, and gave me an appreciation for Poetry at the age of seventeen. Here's to Jimmy's Lounge near the University of Chicago, and to Madison and Halsted Streets, where I heard the Blues for the first time. Here's to Pinetop Perkins, Johnny Winter, Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters.

I didn't believe it when they said to me: "You'll never regret your Liberal Arts Degree." I thought that my college years were four years of wasted time...Time I could have used more properly in the pursuit of money. Then, slowly I realized that all true wealth comes from one's mind. All the riches of the world come from creating or appreciating knowledge. Education leads an individual to his humanity. Wealth comes and goes. Youth disintegrates into old age. The fires of passion become dying embers. The body ultimately denies every individual. But the mind...yes, the mind has the ability to grow stronger in its wisdom. Lessons learned become more meaningful. Art is more vivid. Music is listened to with keener ears. Books are read with greater understanding, enthusiasm, and attention. The written word flows from the pen, effortlessly.

One's capacity for love, broadens. I am grateful for all of these gifts. So burn on, all great performers in the world of intellect! Let me burn bright, until my light flickers and finally goes out. Then onward into the cosmos may my soul-power, be reconfigured in universal consciousness. I will have no regrets...for I have lived a million lives.