Planet Earth has a rich inner life

Monday 23 September

I’m parking my van. It’s around 8:30 a.m. Sunny out. No wind. Looking to hit 70 by noon. 90 inland. This may be the last heat wave of the year. A short blast before the cold sets in. And the cold is coming. Cold and mists and incessant Rain. No big deal. I got a roof over my head. Even when I’m no longer living aboard Scruffy…

even when I’m living in my Toyota Minivan…

even then I’ll have a roof over my head.

Ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!….

Anyway, where was I?

So I’m parking my van. Minding my own damn business. I pull around onto the dead end street beside the office building. This is my daytime parking spot. There’s always plenty of spots back here. People leave their extra cars on this street. Signs say no parking between 2 and 6 a.m.. Get here early you can leave your car here all day or until 2a.m. the following morning. It’s a safe spot to park a vehicle and leave it for at least a day.

Unless you’re Galaxy, a young lady tried to live back here.

She was camped on the street for a month last winter. Maybe a couple months. I’d see her big old honk’n RV parked in the same spot every morning. Broke down. I noticed a pair of cats lounging on the front dash board. I was curious how she could defy the authorities and just live back here in spite of the parking restrictions. One day I approached her, introduced myself. Told her I was surprised the meter maids left her alone back here.

“Woah, they sure don’t leave me alone. They keep giving me tickets. I got five tickets. That’s five hundred bucks. It’s really not cool they keep giving me tickets. They said there’s a sign that says no parking. I don’t see a no parking sign. I think they just want to harass me personally, you know. Cuz I live in this RV. It was a gift you know.”

“Wow. That was nice of somebody.”

“Yeah…my Ex boyfriend’s mother gave it to me. it’s perfect for my cats.”

“I see the cats! They look comfortable on the dashboard. Just you and the cats, eh?”

“Yeah…but I got no where to park. The cops keep giving me tickets. They just want me to leave. There’s no signs here that say anything. They just want me to leave.”

I point to the no parking sign standing beside her passenger door. Three more identical signs line the street. She looks at the sign. Shakes her head. “That’s only four hours,” she says. “The rest of the day you can park here.”

Galaxy

Galaxy’s Broke Down RV

Like I say, this was last Winter I’m talking about.

Galaxy is off somewhere now. Who knows where? I only met her that one time. Her current boyfriend or A boyfriend showed up one day and helped her move her RV to a more liberal parking space somewhere beyond Sausalito’s city limits. Good old Galaxy. A pleasant young woman with two cats and her whole life in front of her. Hopefully she’ll get her act together with her RV and sort out her boyfriends. Maybe pick one of them and ditch the others. Or go to college and start a career. That or just continue on grooving the minimalist lifestyle. I kind of relate to her cuz after all I live on a boat plus I grew up in Santa Cruz and anybody from there is at least a little bit wigged out on the cosmic vibes, if you know what I mean.

Back to my original point!

So I’m parking my van, right? Pulling into a space behind the car in front of me. Not getting too close cuz I wanna give the driver plenty of space to pull out. I park, turn off the key. I’m just about to exit my van when I notice this bumper sticker on this car parked in front of me.

That’s what it sez. It sez:

ASK ME ABOUT MY RICH INNER LIFE

Later at the office I’m still thinking about this bumper sticker. What exactly does it mean? The more I’m thinking about it, the more I’m wondering. What the fuck is a Rich Inner Life? Finally, I google ASK ME ABOUT MY RICH INNER LIFE. I get a company in Oregon. Buyolympia. This outfit prints and ships a line of bumper stickers. One of which is, ASK ME ABOUT MY RICH INNER LIFE.

That’s all it is.

It’s no organization. No cult. No religion. No self-help bullshit like EST. It’s not Scientology. It’s nothing. NOTHING BUT A BUMPER STICKER.

That’s what A Rich Inner Life means.

It means a bumper sticker company.

Kind of pisses me off…

But what about having a Rich Inner Life?

Let’s see what A.I. sez:

Your inner life is the realm of your private thoughts and values. Your emotions, fantasies, spirituality, capacity to love, desires, and sense of purpose. In other words, your inner life is who you are on the inside.

Having a rich inner life means being in touch with your true self and having a private space for reflection and imagination. It’s a place where you can nurture your sense of well-being and creative spirit. 

This is a graft A.I. presented to me. Like what the fuck am I supposed to do with this? My Body Self? My Astral Judge self? My Mental Judge self?

How about my Whack my Pee Pee self?

Shit.

Here’s a picture A.I. shared with my lame ass. This apparently is a person embroiled in various churning personal rich inner life eruptions…very internal. Very eruptive but also very calm and contained. There’s a lot of smoke.

Why the fuck do I reference A.I.?

I’d like to share with you my Rich Inner Life?

Some other time.

Because frankly there’s nothing Rich about my inner life.

Just a lot of mind ailments. And confusion. And pity. Although the older I get the less of it is self-pity. And what else? What else is there but an intersection of Dreams and Desires…and frail Hopes. But hope is always frail. Memories? Memories that rear up like sheets of newspaper on a windy street. Empathy. Plenty of empathy when I care to feel it. Only the deal gets harder…harder to conjure these days. When everything seems to be getting worse in the Outer Life! Or maybe it’s just that I can’t seem to get this one person out of my head!

I just want to live long enough to see this guy go away forever. That one thing might very well contribute to my Rich Inner Life!

Until then, here’s a man who certainly had a rich inner life and was happy to share it with the rest of us.