CURRENT MISSION

"How to keep, is there any any, is there none such, nowhere known some bow or brooch or braid or brace, lace, latch or catch or key to keep back beauty, keep it, beauty, beauty, beauty, from vanishing away?"

ABOUT ME

I am surrounded by magic. I have seen sleights-of-hand, I have witnessed miraculous feats; I stand at the edge of believable. I look at my world in awe, and wonder how this can all be unfolding right in front of my eyes. I watch it all happen, and I am amazed that I don't know how it all works. But I look with both eyes peeled, and occasionally when I look back down at where I'm standing I realize that the edge of believable is a few steps further than I thought it was. I could have sworn I was at the edge before, but part of the magic about this place is that if you keep your focus and attention on the unknown, the ledge will move on you. That's the oldest trick in the book (and one of the only ones I know): keep your audience's attention where you want it. But as a sorcerer's apprentice I've learned that if you look down every once in a while and keep inching yourself forward when you can, then one day you will be a magician. And if you keep looking forward and don't give in to the temptation of turning your back on the magic in front of you to perform your own sleights-of-hand, then you just might find you're standing on solid ground. The edge will be gone, and you will be a sorcerer. That is the dream of a sorcerer's apprentice. That is my dream.

PHILOSOPHY

Doesn't matter what the press says.
Doesn't matter what the politicians or mobs say.
Doesn't matter if the whole country decides that something wrong is something right...
The requirement [is] that we stand up for what we believe,
No matter the odds or the consequences.
When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move,
Your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth,
And tell the whole world,
"No, you move."
- Captain America, Amazing Spider-Man #537

Dlaczego jestem na Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

As for my day: I spend every day becoming more and more convinced that I'm going insane. I am growing away from the life I once knew, but into a life I can't foresee at all. It's very scary, and quite exhilarating at the same time. I am changing rapidly. This feels almost like a second puberty. My voice has even been cracking often. Yet this has been going on for decades. At the same time, or every other thought between the insanity plea, has come a daily and persistent feeling that I love my life: I have the art of life down to a science — or is that the science of life down to an art? The people I know are extraordinary; I talk and brag about them like they're famous and everyone should be jealous of our association (jealousy's a bad thing.) And the places I know are fantastic in a truly etymological sense: for me they are festooned from the pages of fantasy. The conflagaration of the two is breathtaking, but almost too much for me to continue to bear alone. Hence the insanity. My head, a lighthouse, turns itself around and around to illuminate the popular outside world. Shining outwards, the spotlight falls on me, and I reveal myself in a series of faces, like King of Masks or the Dance of the Seven Veils. And watching these masks I wear is just one more instruction in life. And I am learning a lot. And it's fun, life is fun. I think of those things throughout my day, and everything else is a prelude. I read and I sing and I juggle, but they all only serve to fuel my mind in its habit. A habit that one day, I will be able to break. It passes, it passes... What a wonderful opportunity we have here, this Life.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I lived in a cave once, does that count?

Zainteresowania

Music, Books, Skiing, Travel. Currently devout to cycle touring. Diving off of tall rocks into cold, clear water. Sleeping outside. Hiking. Crossing rivers. Fires in fireplaces. Mud between my toes. The Dimension of Dreams. That moment when you wake up and, for a few seconds, can't quite remember where you are. Doing stuff. Making stuff. Figuring things out. Discovering that I was wrong. Innocence. Knowledge. Wisdom. Gnosis.

• reading
• music
• hiking
• skiing
• teaching
• growth
• learning
• exploration
• cycle touring
• gnosis
• being outside
• being barefoot
• good hugs

Muzyka, filmy i książki

Just like places: Great New Things I Have Not Seen/Heard Yet. Discovery. But if you insist on pinning me down, (in no particular order, and in no way complete)

Books: 'The Mysteries of Harris Burdick', Kurt Vonnegut, Tom Robbins, Neil Gaiman, Ernest Hemmingway, William Shakespeare, Shaun Tan, Kate DiCamillo, Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī, James Joyce was an alien (that's a statement, not a book), the Oxford English Dictionary, various encyclopediae, Joseph Campbell, Edith Hamilton's and Robert Bullfinch's Mythologies, "Book Club" with my students, Fiction, Non-Fiction, Graphic Novels, Picture Books, Poetry, Classics...Long Letters From Friends

Movies: 'Latcho Drom', 'Life in a Day', 'The Man Who Planted Trees', Kubrick, the Coen Brothers, Wes Anderson, Sofia Coppola, Indies, Foreign Language Films, Documentaries, Animated Movies, Ski Movies, Classics...Live Theatre

Music: Chic Gamine, Louis Armstrong, Tom Waits, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Wynton Marsalis, jónsi and Sigur Rós, Miles Davis, Taj Mahal, Pink Floyd, CocoRosie, the Beatles, Radiohead, DJ Drez, the Alan Lomax recordings, Mozart's "Requiem", Beethoven's Symphonies and choral works; Gustav Holst's "The Planets", Mendelssohn's "Auf Flügeln des Gesanges", my own well-meaning attempts at learning to play the harmonica, World Music, Folk Music, Jazz, Blues, Alternative, Funk, Soul, Hip Hop, Reggae, Bluegrass, Dubstep, Opera, Classic Rock, Classical...Almost Any Live Music

...Music, Movies, Books, People, Places, Things that exhibit a Humble Awe for the Miraculous and an Independence from the Confines of a Status Quo

Jedna niesamowita rzecz, którą zrobiłem(-am)

I once threw a letter from 20 feet away straight into the mail slot. I jumped and danced and proclaimed my triumph aloud with no one there to see it, and everything was perfect.

Ucz innych, ucz się sam, udostępniaj

in every man
there is something wherein i may learn of him:
and in that i am his pupil
- emerson

Czym mogę się podzielić z gospodarzami

What can I offer you?

Kraje, w których byłem(-am)

Albania, Argentina, Austria, Bahamas, Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Ecuador, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Madagascar, Malaysia, Montenegro, Morocco, New Zealand, Philippines, Portugal, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, Viet Nam

Kraje, w których mieszkałem(-am)

Australia, Mexico, United States

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