The Golden Age

The Golden Age
     is now

The Golden Age
     is always  now

Me writing this,
     you reading it


-Jim DuBois
April 30, 2017

Working Class Wisdom #4

A young woman,
talking to her friends
in the parking lot,
proudly, defiantly,
pointing at herself,
"Stains make a shirt
more unique!"


-Jim DuBois
Aug 9, 2016

Working Class Wisdom #5
Working Class Wisdom #3

Instead of "Passion"

a desire to record
a desire to experiment
a desire to communicate
a desire to learn
a desire to explore
a desire for chaos
a desire for order
a desire for change
a desire to pass time
a desire to preserve
a desire to be generous
a desire to be selfish
a desire to finish
a desire to get started
a desire to create
a desire to destroy
a desire to be distracted
a desire to achieve a goal
a desire for peace of mind


-Jim DuBois
April 2016

Peace and longing

Peace and longing,
one in each hand.
How can this be?


-Jim DuBois
March 6, 2012

the same world

Brilliant clarity
in the sunlight,
sinking feeling
in my heart,
how are they
in the same world?


-Jim DuBois
March 6, 2012

Why Everything Takes Too Long and No One Can Actually Know History, or Anything Else, Probably

I left Cafe Evolution
to get back on my bike
and head home,
but I noticed
that my bag of groceries
was missing,
so I looked around,
asked if anyone had seen it,
nope, oh well,
and I was in
a bad mood already,

so I ride home thinking,

"What kind of asshole
steals a loaf of bread
and a bottle of vitamins
out of a crappy looking bike?"

and trying to be reasonable:

"I guess they probably
needed it badly,"

but veering away from that
to thinking about how
I would have caused
them harm if I
caught them in the act,
then veering away
from THAT
to thinking
that maybe somehow
I deserved to have
it stolen from me
because my white people
took land from the Indians,
and then fantasizing about
posting about the theft on FB
to get some sympathy
but thinking
that's probably
too self indulgent and lame
and then fantasizing
about what I will say
to the host of the party
I was going to bring
the bread to,
like,

"Somebody stole it
from my bike!
I was too discouraged
and sad and broke
to go buy another one,
so I didn't bring anything.
I hope that's ok,"

but thinking that's
probably lame too,
but maybe not,
if said relaxedly.

Alright, well,
I get home
and check FB
and they had found the bag
under a car at the cafe!

So I biked back
to get it
and I'm thinking again
the whole way,
like,

"How did it get under there?
Maybe some asshole
was hiding it to get later."

or maybe someone
was being "kind"
by taking my bread
out of the sun,
which sounds
absurd now,
but was convincing then,
who knows why.

Then it clicked in my brain...

the bike basket had been
tilted oddly to one side...

the bike must have fallen over,
the bag fell out,
rolled under the car,
and someone
righted the bike after...

but of course
I started imagining
that maybe they
were pissed off
about not having
enough room
on the bike rack,
so they probably
roughly shoved my bike
around on purpose.

"What kind of
fucking asshole
does that???"

Then I guess I calmed down,
because I got my stuff back,
and I decided
to try and record
all the details

(and of course
I left out tons,
forgot so much, etc)

of this one incident,
one afternoon,
one man
and his thoughts,
his misinterpretations
and imaginings
about something so trivial,
in order to show
why everything takes too long
and no one can actually
know history,
or anything else,
probably.


-Jim DuBois
September 4, 2015

Working Class Wisdom #3

This old guy,
a building contractor,
loved to tell me
about life
and one thing he said
stuck with me:

"Pursuit is the evidence
of desire."


-Jim DuBois
March 23, 2015

Working Class Wisdom #4
Working Class Wisdom #2

Working Class Wisdom #2

At a tag sale
on the way to the Berkshires,
I hear a guy say,

"It's a good day
if you're not in a hole
with them throwing dirt
on you."


-Jim DuBois
March 23, 2015

Working Class Wisdom #3
Working Class Wisdom

Working Class Wisdom

A man walking down the street,
his daughter trailing behind,
and I overhear him say,

"Because being nice
doesn't always get things done."


-Jim DuBois
March 23, 2015

Working Class Wisdom #2

What is actual motivation?

How much
of "giving a shit"
is fueled
by fear, desperation and urgency,
and how much
by actual
simple motivation?

What is actual motivation?

(Yes, it's one of
those kind of
spring afternoons)


-Jim DuBois
March 11, 2015

Notes from 2015

1. Things take time.
2. Progress is incremental.
3. Love adds meaning to life.
4. Perseverance is important to achieving things.
5. Life ends up being what it is instead of what you wished it was; but if you accept that you can work with it and move forward.

-Jim DuBois
Inspired by the previous entry.

Notes from Years ago

1. Slow down, find Natural rhythms
2. See world in biggest picture possible.
   Expand your boundaries, increase your visions
3. See Now (present moment) as
   complex sum of all there is;
   helps you understand that
   every moment is always
   new and different
4. See your place in the universe

Sacred Places

I listened
to this Lakota guy
in Amhersst
one time,
and he said,

"Spirituality is not something mystical.
The fact that the world exists is spiritual.
You want to do something spiritual?
Go plant a tree."

And that stuck with me
when I went
to the dentist
a while later.

There they were taking care of
the actual existing world
and helping people
live better lives
by taking care of their teeth
and it was suddenly
the most spiritual place
I could imagine.

Later times,
at the doctor
and the hospital,
I saw them
in a similar light,
as sacred places,
where humans helped
other humans
with the most spiritual
thing of all:
their actual physical being.


-Jim DuBois
Oct 29, 2014

Unexpected consequences from talking to you on the phone yesterday afternoon

At that particular time of day
I could see the dust
that had built up
below the radiator
I'd missed it for years, I guess

So the next day
I broke out
the big sponge
I'd been saving
for no particular reason
and I cleaned up
all that dust

and then I realized
that cleaning my toilet,
which I'd been meaning to do
for a while,
would go much faster and easier
with the big sponge

so I cleaned the toilet too
and afterwards realized
that this whole
chain of events
was a perfect thing
to write about

and that sometimes
we don't see the chains
so clearly,
but they are always there.


-Jim DuBois
Sep 22, 2014
(composed in blog)

I think it's the same

I think it's the same,
I think it's the same,
I think it's the same,
I think it's the same
old thing as yesterday,
but it never is.


-Jim DuBois
July 2, 2014

No more true self

No more true self,
No more inherent nature

No simple identity,
No static personality

Complex being, instead,
composed of now,
of free thoughts
and delusions,
right perceptions and wrong

Nothing more
    to achieve
        to be complete


-Jim DuBois
May 4, 2014

Life

Is Your Shadow Part of You?

Is your shadow part of you?
Is a scar part of you?
Is your hair part of you?

Is the air in your lungs part of you?
Is the water in your bowels part of you?
Is the living blood carried away by a mosquito part of you?

Are the photons emitted and absorbed by your skin part of you?
Are mitochondria part of you?
Are the bacterial colonies which inhabit your body part of you?

Is your child part of you?
Is your family part of you?

Are your memories part of you?
Are thoughts part of you?

Is the way you move part of you?
Is the sound of your voice part of you?

Are your fingernails part of you?

Is yesterday part of you?
Is what you might do part of you?


-Jim DuBois
Nov 4, 2013

Zen Blackout #3

-Jim DuBois
Oct 2013

Zen Blackout #2 - The Original Ancestors

-Jim DuBois
Oct, 2013