Sun on the Moon Makes a Mighty Nice Light....

Sometimes, I can understand why people decide to eschew the company of their fellow human beings to live in solitude.

But there's a downside, of course.....sometimes, the solitude produces life changing philosophy, if we may use Thoreau as an example. And sometimes, we get Ted Kazinski.

I would like to believe that my exile from the human race would produce something positive. But there are people in my life (I call them my friends) who suspect that you would hear my mindsnap from a thousand miles away, like that foreboding clap of thunder that beckons the coming storm.

I should keep you up to date. I'm currently spending my time, between eight and nine hours a day, sitting in small rooms with lots of people, learning a new operating procedure that is thinly disguised as philosophy. It's a mixture of your basic Interpersonal Communication, Improvisational Theatre, and Confusing Nonsense. I'm expected to synthesize this information, produce a teaching plan, and go and enlighten the masses.

I took on this responsibility gladly; for I have long believed that my organization was really starving for some soul. And I was assured that this was going to be revolutionary....a step forward unparalleled.....

To understand my disappointment, you have to understand me. And, that might not be so easy, because I've been told that I'm a complex individual. I've also been called just plain simple, but that was my father's nickname for me, so I'm applying the grain of salt.

Yesterday, some stranger I've been in proximity to for just a few hours in the past 46 years referred to me as a genius. The woman next to him, nodded her head, and suggested in a very nice way that there is a fine line between genius and madness.

I took both as a compliment. It's not the first time somebody has tried to label me. There was that time in the Campbell Soup factory....but that's a story that's currently under investigation, and I shouldn't be talking about it.

Am I a genius? And what is genius, anyway?

Apparently, anybody who sees something other than the way that you see it, and can adequately describe the system in which they see it, would be viewed as different; and if you view different as somehow superior, than you would probably use the term "genius." I've also been called, on more than one occasion this week, as a "deep thinker." And it's been said with a thinly veiled contempt, as if it's not kosher to be thinking that deep. Most of the time, people just look at me like I'm mad.

Once again, I rely upon the two notebooks that I refer to as "the paper thingy I write stuff down on." I figured that's what a genius would call it.

Here's what I write down:

There is a subtle difference between "fighting evil" and "defending good."

When the heart speaks, the mind finds it indecent to object.

I realize we can find wonder in the ordinary; Warren Zevon suggested that we "enjoy every sandwich." But I think we need to save our really good praise for the extraordinary.

It helps you to do your job when it doesn't matter to you what other people think of you.

Sometimes, it's good to know the road. Other times, it's good to see the map.

I'm pretty sure that this will drive me mad before I actually acquiesce.

Meaning lies in the ears that hear.

The use of cliche diminishes originality.

There is no benefit to scaring people to death.

If you suggest that I'm crazy, then my question has got to be, "Why are you paying so much attention to me?"

If we evolved from Monkeys....why are there still Monkeys?

An approach that doesn't look like an approach is the proper approach.

These words don't exist: Uncomfortability. Architected.

You can get more with a kind word and a gun than you can with just a kind word.

They pay me a lot of money to think of shit like that.

The world has left the Marriott and is probably gallivanting through the taverns of the Nation's capital. I'm glad of it; it's quiet, and I prefer my cave.

Good night, Cleveland!