Gimpy

So, little did I know how much a beating up on the 2nd years in flag football would take its toll on my now 28 year old aging body...

Quarter way through the game, I got my flag pulled/tackled to the ground by two 2nd years, tearing my shorts, a knee slamming into my thigh. Leg throbbing, I slowly got to my feet, hobbled away, tried to shake it off and returned a few possessions later. We went on to slaughter the youngins by 19 points :P

More than a week later I'm still gloating over the win while simultaneously disturbingly humbled by my throbbing, still swollen thigh. I wake up middle of the night with a monumental ache and think, "seriously? no really, seriously? a charley horse hurts this bad?"

I looked online and felt a sense of community and place to grieve the charley horse pain, to post the absurdity of the pain and needed time of recovery. I seriously felt a sense of relief that I was not alone in this experience...this site brought the most satisfaction. I am not alone...

In It

A soldier fighting on the battlefield tells a much better story than one who hears about the details on the news.

Work was hellish last week. It felt like the battlefield. It felt like blood and sweat, muscles aching, raising my loaded gun at the apparent enemy, wielding my weapons that can do serious damage. My desire scaring me. I wanted to jack some patients right in the face. Engaging at a psych hospital is dangerous. I am dangerous. Yet even more dangerous is the belief that I am not.

That to say, it is good to fight. Goodness. Goodness is bloody, angry, grieving, joyful. Goodness is instead of looking on from miles away, getting close enough to bleed. And no one can tell better stories than one who has the wounds to prove it.

I want to tell better stories. I want them to be less anesthetized. I want them to be more personal and more dangerous. Only then will they be stories of real life. Only then will they play a part in the grandest story of all.

"When you tell the story, the way you were in it, when I can smell your breath in the details, you tell a damn good story."

Music Week

It was Joe Purdy on Monday night at Nectar's. He didn't have his band with him, so it was an acoustic, melancholy performance, similar to the video below. Such transparency in his music, this song probably at the top of that list. He's a great story teller. This is his story of loneliness, which in his telling seems to bring intimacy. Funny how that works...




...followed by a list of performers on Saturday at Bumbershoot. The main performers I caught were Thao, The Walkmen, The Round (with Damien Jurado and others), Band of Horses, and then Beck. I highlight Thao below. Amazing performer, she gets lost in her music on stage. And her new CD is fantastic.