Save in case of fire

Unfortunately, my years’ worth of journals will not fit in the turtle. Before sealing them in a box marked “SAVE IN CASE OF FIRE”, I found a notebook to flip through. Here’s an entry entitled “!!!! Philip-enabled Revelation”, written on July 6, 2002.
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My difficulties with the conflict of desire versus reason:

I have so many dreams that “require” material things but really perhaps can only be attained if I get rid of those things. The issue is overcoming the obstacles of doubt, fear, and concern with what others think, which I’m not sure I can accomplish.

But I was talking to Philip, a Bahamian/Austrian/Uruguayan I met at GYLC. He was talking about teaching his sister how to jump into water from extreme heights like bridges and cliffs. He said when you’re looking at the bridge, you think, “It’s not that high.” When you’re at the top: “Holy God, it’s way too far up.” It’s all illusion, and the only truth is the measured height.

My fears are all illusions of height, and what I need to do is understand how high it is and whether it’s safe before I climb anything at all, because at the top, I need to clear everything from my mind and just jump. Get rid of all fear.

A to B episode 4: Joe

Upon meeting Joe and hanging out with him a bit, I thought of him as an ebullient southern guy who gets along well with everyone. At dinner one night, Joe mentioned that at some point during the 1960s, he bought a Triumph motorcycle and rode it to Monaco. When Joe and I got together to talk, I figured that he’d get lost in stories about breeding sheep on his Texas farm and hunting lions with his bare hands. As you’ll find when you listen to the show, our conversation revealed a uniquely sensitive dimension of Joe’s personality.

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Music in this show:
Hauschka, “One wish”

A to B episode 3: Jeremy Hartill

Jeremy came from England to travel through China; I met him while we were floating down the Yangtze River on a cruise ship. Relaxing on deck, we started talking about his plans to return to school to get a Masters in Maritime History studies. Up to that point, he had worked a lot in theater, hit up the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh quite a bit, and accumulated interesting stories like a snowball rolling downhill. I had to talk to him more about what he’d done and how he’d done it. The fruit of that conversation can be found here.

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Music in this show:
Arnold McCuller, “The whale have swallowed me”