The All Spark

There are times when you rack your brain to figure out what's the next step you should take in this video game called life. When you're stuck in a corridor not knowing what door to open and run through, sword in hand. It's mentally exhausting calculating which magic door to pick, avoiding the one that may have monsters behind it. Then there are times when that little space monkey in the sky pulling all the strings finally sends you some signs and you finally pay attention to them.

In a spark, it all suddenly becomes crystalline-clear as a prism reflecting the bright sun. You no longer fret or no longer care about making the wrong choice because you know the only way is forward at whatever cost, no matter how uncomfortable it may make your life. After all, we aren't here to be comfortable in our little hobbit shires, we were meant to be shaken about and challenged. 

Some people come into your life for a season or a reason, the duration is irrelevant, for they change you either way. And so it was that on that Halloween night on a crowded dance floor where the roman politician and the half-naked eskimo first kissed and felt the all-spark, waking them up to see that there is another one out there just like themselves and on the same mission. Two parallel universes aligned for a moment, restoring the sense of what it feels like to have a belly full of bliss.

And so I choose to emerge from my comfortable little box and break all the locks, effortlessly picking a door...not looking down before jumping on my way out. I realize it doesn't have to be so tragic or scary. No matter if I ever see that roman politician again, I know now he does exist. He's stirred me out of my ant hill, I have that all spark and can't go back to sleep or ignore it ever lit me up in that lucky-blurry moment when I least expected it, as if by magic.

Cheers To A New Year

Standing in the main lobby of South Beach's Lincoln Road movie theater, watching the dense crowd of people exiting a movie and coming towards me like a herd of colorful cattle. I stand in the middle to get the best seat at this parade. As colorful as Miami is, I never seem to get bored with its diversity. Its the quintessential city to people-watch.

I look to my left and observe an abundantly plump woman plopped on a bench with her arms lifelessly hanging in front of her. I imagine her naked and envision a Big Mac with arms. I get whiffs of conversations as they walk by and swirl around me. They're either complaining about the movie or praising it, discussing the stresses of relationships or of surviving in this difficult economy.

I pause to think about the second terrible year all these people and I have just suffered through and I snap out of it, cracking a grin at the sight of a frizzy, red-haired, chic old lady with black tights and an oversized, bedazzled sweater sashays by, looking like a Liza Minelli wanna-be. Two Latinas conga-by either side of me, oozing sexiness in skintight miniskirts, tall leather black boots, curves like a manatee and perfume like a ripe mango spritzed with jasmine. A couple of skinny, yamaka-wearing, pimple-faced, Jewish boys walk by whispering to each other. A Jaguar-stud with his metrosexual look and Ferragamo loafers checks out the giraffe-tall models walking in front of him while his beautiful wife is on his arm, not noticing a thing. A couple of cute, slender gay boys on their first date, being coyly flirtatious with each other while ordering popcorn and bottled water (Coke is so 2005). I wish for a moment I was on a date then quickly realize I'm perfectly content with my bachelor status. I turn and notice a little boy feistily pulling his hand out and away from his mother's grasp, frustrated, he looks out the window wishing time would pass faster so he could be a grown up already.

The one unifying aspect of 2010 is that everyone in every nation on the planet all know too well how challenging these last couple of years have been. At least now, we can be confident in knowing that we survived this one.



The end of the year is the time to brush off the nastiness and recharge to stand tall again with a renewed effort to make old or new dreams a reality. It's up to us how we will look at the things that will happen to us in the year ahead. Do we look at them as tragic disasters or as opportunities to finally rid this planet of its old, cantankerous and unsustainable systems? While we can't change the bad things that happen, we can change the way we look at them. I promise myself to move forward into the new year with more consideration and mindfulness at every step. I silently pray that this year's challenges nudge us all closer to connecting to our own peace of mind so that we may share that peace with whoever we encounter along our journeys and may that peace spread as virally as a new video on YouTube.

My friend finally frees himself from the long line and scores our munchies from the snackbar. We walk into Tron 3D and towards a new year with oodles of chances for something good or at least something better than last year to happen to us.