A Wise Man Once Said...
4/26/2006
Tom Robbins attracted me by the curious 'Camel Cigarette' nature of his book cover for Still Life With Woodpecker. This was back in 1993 or so. I was smoking a pack and a half of them every day, hanging out at coffee houses, doing my quirky poetry/school/punk show/single guy lifestyle thing. Dating lots of goth/punk chicks and drinking more than a healthy dose of cheap american piss (that's beer for you unenlightened folks). Tom Robbins spoke to me (and still speaks to me) in the way that the New Testament speaks to many protestants, in the way that a humming engine speaks to a NASCAR-loving redneck, in the way that flailing oneself speaks to members of Opus Dei (well, I may have gone a bit too far with that one).
His prose was a light upon my swirly, cloudy soul. Or rather, many psychadelic lights of wisdom upon my creepy spiderweb of a mind.
Every time I go on a blog-commenting rampage, get involved in a political argument, or mull over the possibility of using my fist in a violent manner to avenge the honor of some poor sap (usually myself), this quote sneakily comes to mind.
"If you believe in peace, act peacefully; if you believe in love, acting lovingly; if you believe every which way, then act every which way, that's perfectly valid— but don't go out trying to sell your beliefs to the system. You end up contradicting what you profess to believe in, and you set a bum example. If you want to change the world, change yourself."
posted by Edward Svengali @ Wednesday, April 26, 2006,
