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Gratitude at holiday time is good; so is the sun on your face. People are antennas; send out frequencies to the universe and you get back. One morning a few years ago, at Christmas time, I broadcasted the need to find a parking space in Metuchen, NJ. For twenty years I never found a parking spot. I did(right in front of the optical store I needed) and am constantly grateful for the gift of thought, awareness and responsiveness. Along those lines, need to report a few things. Drug filled(poison) mice were air dropped into Guam’s(I’d love to go there one day. And Guadalcanal) dense jungle to kill the invasive brown tree snake. And now hear this(feel like I’m in Schofield barracks in Oahu on December 7th, 1941): When competition for females is fierce, it makes some species like male field mice evolve bigger testes to trounce their rivals(from National Geographic).(alas I’m too old for that bigger stuff, borrowing a line from Scrooge). Finally, the non-profit group Partners in Health is expanding its use of solar power in Haiti. This is simply brilliant; a gift that keeps on giving as long as the sun shines. You folks ought to Google them. Meanwhile, Google is working on a service using “contextual discovery” for pushing information out to people before they’ve started to look for it, based on factors such as their web browsing history or current location. Big Brother stuff. My wife just yelled, “It’s scary.” One more thought since the essence of my blogs are streams of consciousness: I suddenly wonder how many of the newly elected House of Representatives have passports.

speaking of big brother.

 One of my favorite movies is ‘From Here to Eternity’ starring Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr and of course Frank Sinatra(movie finally made him a star. Ask Mario Puzo). Black and white, somber; the movie starts out 6 months or so before Pearl Harbor at Schofield barracks. Beginning of movie; my favorite character, Robert E Lee Pruitt walks into an officer’s pool hall. The screen door closes behind him and you hear that lonely echo of wood bouncing around an empty surreal room. Pruitt had just finished telling Maggio(Sinatra) and Warden(Lancaster), “a man don’t go his own way is nothing.” Here’s my stream of thought. Last Friday I had to drive to eternity; the longest black and white drive I ever took in New Jersey. For the whole 244,111 miles, I was Robert E Lee Pruitt (Mongomery Clift) Why? I thought for a long time driving across the state, south and west. Pruitt was a rugged individualist. Didn’t want to box for his army company; personal reasons. He never backed down. I’m just like Pruitt (so I’m thinking while driving last week) Believe in righteous things and you stand up for them.  I got fired once from a job; sticking up for a young girl who was harassed by the store manager because she was in an inter-racial relationship. I was fired from yet another job because I was told by the boss(and steadfastly refused) to cheat Medicaid by submitting fraudulent claims on prescriptions (1981. Store and old boss ‘Long Gone.’ A great baseball movie, by the way) Long lonely car trips driving to eternity make me think streams.

Last Friday was cloudy, gray and cold; almost like the movie “Last Picture Show.”  New Jersey’s mid section was endless. I was fulfilling a commitment to a friend because loyalty is a wonderful concept. Sometimes I think it’s gone the way of my favorite transportation modem, the Conestoga wagon. I was rugged driving across the state. I thought I was in Texas; farms, forests, and flat surfaces everywhere. I was scared driving to eternity; my first time exposed. I wavered about this day, suddenly feeling not rugged anymore. Maybe I speed up and get a ticket, turn around and go home with an explanation and email to my friend. Now I was in Alaska looking at a moose at the side of the road; its horns shook up and down as if a salutation to me. Alaska is 5000 miles away; the mileage is adding up. Schofield barracks another 5000 miles away. I saw a little farm house; a pond with a dock that looked like the one they used in the movie ‘Key Largo’ with Bogart and Bacall(2000 miles away). What if I run out of gas? I’d have to call the Royal Canadian Mounted Police(Sergeant Preston) I was lost in thought but still in central Jersey.

 The road didn’t want to end. Garmin, in a British accent, kept telling me to turn left. Each time the road was blocked by a big fence and occasional barbed wire and ‘no trespassing’ signs. Finally a check point in a pre-fab trailer. Window rolled down and papers handed over along with a picture ID. He told me to roll down the back window too and asked which place I was going to. I said, “The camp.” He said gruffly, “This ain’t no camp.” He pointed to the left at a beige building way down the road. The point was like the ‘spirit of Christmas yet to be’ pointing to Scrooge’s gravestone. I parked and voided myself of all life form wallet things just taking a plastic bag filled with singles and fives for the vending machines and my driver’s license. I walked in the wrong door and almost into eternity. Back outside, an arrow, like the spirit’s finger, pointed to a visitor’s door which opened to a large room with a variety of vending machines along the side wall (first thing I noticed). To the right was an obscene mural of a tropical beach with palm trees. I signed in while my ID was processed. There were metal seats and small benches; men in dark green jump suits sitting, talking and eating. My friend was paged. A door opened. In three months, he lost 25 pounds and looked wonderful. Eternity will do that. We hugged. I love hugs; mankind’s greatest communicative invention. After an hour of talk, some half-whispers, I offered to buy my friend a Tasty-Cake apple pie and hot chocolate. He walked with me near the machines but couldn’t touch the money or machines. We talked for four hours. As a writer, I kept observing faces and listening to stories and descriptions. I saw no holsters. Everybody was so well behaved. I guess no one wants the buildings across the street with more barbed wire than that island off of San Francisco that Clint Eastwood escaped from in a movie. I emoted; sadness, withdrawal, resignation and helplessness. Too many whispers. Time for more hugs and goodbyes. I’ll be back. I miss him. Friendship is the best kind of ship; not like the cruise ships that have been tossed all over the oceans lately. I re-traced my steps and exited. A huge dark green jet was taking off overhead. I sensed it was going to Afghanistan. By the time I get to Phoenix and home the mileage read 244,111. Eternity was a long memorable bloggable day.

 Switching gears. Back to the Jersey shore. No place like it. The shore in the abandon of the winter is pure solitude and thought. Find a restaurant in Red Bank, Rumson or the Highlands, have some pasta, merlot or cabernet from a brown bag, drive to Sandy Hook, pull up to a beach and walk in the sand preferably barefoot; absorb energy and spirit from Native Americans who lived here a long time ago. That’s really living and a kind of eternity as well. Don’t do it alone. You need the holding hand stuff on the beach. Jersey shore beaches are perfect for winter hand holding and seagull chats. Now to serious thoughts about my/our Jersey shore. Liberty Natural Gas has applied for a federal permit to build an ocean pipeline and connect it to a proposed gas storage facility 16 miles off the coast of Asbury Park which of course is near Bruce Springsteen’s old haunt, ‘The Stone Pony.’  Those that care need to learn more and protest while you can. We don’t need any more industrialization of our oceans. I wrote an interesting editorial for an organization trying to stop the building of a coal firing plant in Linden with ramifications for our ocean off the Jersey Shore. Here’s the link for editorial.

 http://stoppurgencoalplant.org/http:/stoppurgencoalplant.org/why-linden-why-not-rumsen-a-frankenstein-moment

 Holiday time. It’s 4:44 am as I write this; awash in sentimentality and gratitude for the gift of words, thought and readers. Thinking also about Reckless Ostrich on my shoulder with the sunshine. Now all good things. Always. In all ways. Happy 2011. Maybe I won’t watch the ball come down this year. I say that every year since Guy Lombardo stopped playing “Auld Lang Syne.” Does anybody know what that song means?

 I do get commercial occasionally. Commercial is good. So is sunshine. Check out the novel website. A great gift idea, stocking stuffer and all year around gift to give a wrapped autographed novel, ‘Vichy Water.’

 http://vichywater.net

 Book Trailer on You Tube. 65 seconds long:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj2ko9gcC_M

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I’ve got a lot to say today. Perhaps an introduction; get ideas flowing. Love the holidays. Been watching ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ with Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed for 30 years(of course at holiday time). It is a wonderful life filled with absurdities, barriers, brick walls and pastel roads; yellow ones too. Need to explore the theme: me thinks I’m George Bailey at times. Last weekend I went to my niece’s wedding; a fairytale event. Been thinking about the institution of modern marriage now and during the time of Christopher Columbus. Finally, I’ve also been blogging about the Jersey Shore over last few months. There are reasons: I live and love by it. I meditate on its jetty nearby. And I lived near the shore 300 years ago or so. A dear new old friend from Seattle(we lived across the street from each other on Goodwin Avenue in Newark 50 years ago) and a damn good psychic believes I was a Native-American around these Jersey parts in a previous life run. And so do I; been haunted by curious feelings for a long time. Introduction over.

 A few weeks ago, I drove to my jetty at Belmar by the Shark River; it was still warm; sixty degrees. Parked my old SUV with duct tape holding up a rear bumper(did you know $1.99 duct tape at a depot store accomplishes the same as $1111.99 bumper work at a body shop? and never mind) and noticed the bridge over the Shark River. “Goodness gracious, sakes alive”(John Wooden, coach extraordinaire, used to say this as a ‘bad’ expressive expletive and so am I now). I noticed that the bridge over the troubled water of my favorite river in the world looks just like the bridge in Bedford Falls where George Bailey stood and pondered his demise. Then he jumped into the cold icy waters and Clarence, his guardian angel appeared and rescued him. I walked on the bridge before it lifted for a passing fishing boat(Sedona II) and looked down. I am George Bailey. Aren’t we all?  I wasn’t contemplating demise or jumping right then; I was there to stare at the horizon. George had Mr. Potter( a mean rich unfeeling man) to contend with. I’ve got a few Potters; some awful close. George was devoted to the Bailey Brothers Building and Loan. I was devoted to a company which made me want to jump into cold water. I’ve had people close to me with that same cold water coursing through their veins. When George was at wits end, his angel came to help and illuminate. Five years ago I was taken into the world of angelic intervention (all documented and witnessed) when I was feeling lost. Spirit is real, powerful and exists. At this holiday time I realize just how powerful it is.

 I’ve started writing a second novel to pay homage to spirit. Back to George Bailey. He sacrificed himself to let his brother Harry go to college. I transferred to Rutgers back in 1965 for the same reason.  George cared a lot about people and right things to do. He had Mary Hatch to go through life with. I’ve got my ‘Mary’ whom I met almost doing a ‘Charleston’ dance on West 86th Street. I wonder if they remade the movie today, who’d play George Bailey? I bet a modern screenwriter would make George environmentally aware. I am. George is now like me. Role reversal. 

 George would be worried about cell phones. He’d be protesting cell towers in Bedford Falls(I lived on Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn when I first got married). I saw the loveliest cell phone tower just yesterday in East Brunswick. It was covered with fake Evergreen branches to make it look like a tree. If a child uses a cell phone it can alter behavior development; scary stuff. Scientists in Holland observed that cell phone usage in a city park kills the plant life. Mobile devices may cause cancer. I think we need George’s spirited fight now. As far as Federal standards are concerned: if the radiation from your phone isn’t cooking your brain, it’s regarded as safe. 285 million Americans have cell phones. 83% of 18 to 29 year olds are wired all the time. George, help us. A recent study was done. People who chatted via cell for just 30 minutes a day for 10 years saw their risk of glioma(the type of brain cancer that killed Ted Kennedy) rise by 40%. Best to keep cell phone 6 or more inches from your body and use a corded headset. George does now. Even wireless routers emit high levels of RF(radio frequency) radiation. So do cordless phones. The phone base is like a mini cell tower. Go back to wire phones and wire hangers(to hell with Joan Crawford) Laptops radiate your pelvis(means testicular cancer and birth defects and who knows what else.) Even baby monitors. Yes, it’s a wonderful life. Technology. But rampant little caring and not enough research. Not enough George Baileys around.

 Last weekend I went to my niece’s wedding on Long Island. A fairytale began for them on the first day of ninth grade when they first met. Nine years in the making.  But still synchronicity and meant to be. A wondrous weekend of love and devotion shared by 450 guests; 160 of their friends). My niece is angelic looking and perfect. My new nephew; handsome and perfect too. A perfect couple therefore. I thought about institutional marriage sitting in a hundred year old chapel(‘colonial George Washington was here’ ambience). Marriage has been around since human’s day one but before cell phones, canned tuna and youtube. We’ve come a long way since then with no changes. But if they had canned tuna back then, would the rules of modern marriage been different today? Canned tuna does make all the difference in the world. So does thunder, lightning and not knowing what to make of it.

  I learned a little about marriage this week from an old Cro-magnon cousin. My mother always told me that we had Ethiopian and Cro relatives. Actually we all do. A friend did that saliva test. Marriage is a big deal today. Look at all the fuss with Kate and William. Funny in 1960 nearly 70% of all American adults were married. Today only about half. Back then, 66% of twenty somethings were married. Today just 26% are. My niece and nephew are 20 somethings and college grads. Today college grads are more likely to marry(60%) than those without higher education(48%). A recent survey tells that 44% of Americans under 30 believe marriage is disappearing like Asian tigers and blue fin Atlantic Tuna(called extinction).Two thirds of all divorces are initiated by women. Back then(1960) 40% of wives worked; now 60% do. I was at a Rutgers basketball game two nights ago. I wondered about the cheerleaders, canned tuna and what’s going to happen to them in a few years. Traditional marriage awaits? There is an awful lot of cohabitation going on now; people not getting married. Perhaps the economy. Hard to live alone these days. I think about a past President’s daughter who recently got married after cohabitating and a wannabe’s young recently pregnant daughter. 40% of babies born now are to unmarried moms.

 An awful lot of change going on. Too much for this blog. I’m so thrilled for my niece. Marriage is a wonderful experience and journey. Maybe it’s best for my niece not to read this blog. Then again, why not? Ostriches are not going extinct. Speaking of ostriches: looking for Reckless Ostrich with sunshine on my shoulder.  It’s the holidays. Time for cheer, new resolutions and looking at family pictures. My cell phone is ringing and I hid it and can’t find it.  Wishing, hoping; imagine peace and love and no global warming. Merry.Happy. Healthy.

 This pix is dedicated to my niece. It is entitled. “A view from a wedding.” 

"A View from a wedding" For my niece and nephew.

 Great stocking stuffer gift suggestions. The novel ‘Vichy Water’ comes wrapped and autographed and chimney delivered. Available at:  http://vichywater.net    

check gift suggestions.

 Also youtube book trailer for ‘Vichy Water’ :

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj2ko9gcC_M

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