The Bowie Slides- Dream 7/31/16

Ok, so I will try not to let this blog become a dream journal, because I already have one.  But on some days, circumstances only allow me to write my dream.  So here it is…

            I was on vacation and travelled west into Appalachia.  I believe it was West Virginia and I stopped at the Bowie slides.  This was a great playground like structure, much like those at Six Flags where kids can climb high into the air on rope bridges and whatnot.  The structure was constructed like a platform that is used for water slides.  Part of the Bowie Slides was attached to a mountain cliff face, and was quite the hike to reach.  By the time I summited it, my legs were weak and fatigued.  At the top, I could see down into a valley with a river flowing through it.  Then, I sat down onto the top of the first slide and went.  Bowie slides was called so because there wasn’t one continuous slide that went the whole way, but it ended on the next level and you’d have to get on the next slide.  The other reason it was named Bowie Slides is because every slide you went down you heard a different David Bowie song.  The most fun slide I remember (the only one I remember) played Modern Love, or may it was Golden Years.  Both are good songs, nonetheless. 

            After sliding, I went into the locker house to find that the bathroom was absent of private stalls but was set up more like a roman bath house, with a long row wooden toilette seats right next to each other.  Luckily, no one was there but me.

            Next I met up with a friend (we’ll call him Jayson) and went for a swim in the lake that the river flowed into.  As we swam we discussed the topics of liberty and law.  When we came upon a rope floating across the lake, Jayson noted that it marked the boundaries of the swimming area and advised me not to cross it.  Knowing full well that there was no danger beyond it. I began to swim across and turned into a stingray.  I rejoiced in the freedom of swimming as a member of the superorder Batoidea.  I leapt out of the water, into the air and did a backflip.  I landed back with a splash, tossing a spray of h²o from the free waters over the boundary to Jayson.

            Thus concludes my dream.  Typically, in my dream journal, I will tailor the events into some sort of plot that will feed into the narrative of all my other dreams.  Here I just wanted to portray the dream in its natural state, rather than it be part of a bigger storyline that you readers wouldn’t know about. 

The Love Trefoil

The Love Trefoil ***Friends Spoiler!!!***

St. Patrick used the trefoil clover, a.k.a. the shamrock, to explain the holy trinity.  Well, being of proud Irish decent, I am going to use the Trefoil as a way to explain the three aspects of a relationship that make one successful.

                

            To have a truly successful relationship, it is necessary to have a balance between the three connections of the Love Trefoil:

1.     The Physical Connection-  the fundamental biological attraction between lovers.  This connection encompasses all physical intimacy.  It includes sexual, romantic, and day to day comfortableness between partners.  Without the physical, a relationship is emotional and platonic.  It goes against the natural evolutionary reason for dating: reproduction.  The physical brings a level of comfort and closeness necessary for real trust, the key principle in a relationship.  Trust comes from being completely vulnerable with each other.  A relationship can exist without the physical but will not last forever.

2.     The Connection of Commonalities-  the fundamental and superficial wants from a relationship and from life.  This also includes simple likes and dislikes.  Fundamental: He wants kids and she doesn’t; she wants to get married he and he doesn’t; or superficial: he likes coffee and she doesn’t; she likes country music and he doesn’t, etc.  What do you have in common?  This connection is more important when it comes to the fundamental, rather than the superficial.  It is better to agree on marriage and children, than on favorite movies or beverage preference.  If you can find someone you have both types of commonality with, then that is ideal but not completely necessary.  The connection of commonalities, especially the fundamental, is the most overlooked of the three connections.  A relationship can go a long way before it dies out under this discrepancy.  Once the physical is common place, and no longer exciting, there are no common goals or interests to fall back on.

3.     The Genuine Connection-  this is the mechanism that makes two people click.  A relationship has potential, if nothing else it has the genuine connection.  This is the effortless coexistence, and flourishing of two people in each other’s presence.  Although powerful, this cannot sustain a bond forever and will require the escalation into the physical connection and/or finding a commonality.  Of the three, this one is key, in conjunction with the other two, to have a truly successful relationship.  A lack of the genuine connection will kill a relationship faster than anything else.

As predicted by our favorite, Phoebe in Friends, Ross and Rachel were each other’s lobsters.  And to find your special lobster, you should keep the Love Trefoil in mind.  The more you are connected in these three ways, the more likely it is you’ll be able to walk claw-in-claw along the seabed to a ripe old age.

“Genuine connections can be created, but never broken!” – Moi

A Brief Case Against Debt

A Brief Case Against Debt

There is a certain dignity in being poor or truly broke.  When a man is not indebted, he is not beholden to any other person or institution.  He is truly free.  Any way the wind blows, he may do what he chooses to make himself prosperous again.  When indebted he may only work to keep his masters at bay.

This same idea applies to taxation as well.