is so funny how blu blu isn’t about technology.

like me is not about technology. yet i am not blu blu.

and so rightly so.

but blu blu is so damn cool. and me, well, im just me. not damn. not cool. just me.

and this is blu blu.

and now, me voy a austin. with my newly christened “austin terrier” — “el bukzy”

y claro tambien con mi novia lina…and her cat frida…

but on other not so unrelated notes…

i think about many of the kids we “teach” and wonder how many will turn out to be some kind of a blu blu, if they’re lucky. and how many won’t. due to, of course, the system they were succumbed to for so many years.

tonight mayra is graduating from high school.

mayra was my student in fifth grade. a sign i’m getting somewhat old.

i hope mayra gets through the system and does good. does real good.

but i also hope that she ends up having a little bit of blu blu left in her after the process.

i guess that’s what make a good student. going through the system and doing real good, if you can, and then having some blu blu in you left after going through the process.

that’s not easy to do. and i guess, that’s the point.

a while back i created a simple website with my friend peter about the writer jean sulivan. i happened to look back on it the other day and found this piece i wrote in what seems too long ago. yet so appropriate for this moment.

abrupt ends and brief spaces

if sulivan would have been american, i presume he’d be a southerner. a bluesman, of sorts.

he visited america once, i think. but like his trip to india, however, it seemed to have had an abrupt end. it seemed also to have only been for a brief space of time. i may be wrong.

abrupt ends and brief spaces. like his words and sentences. like the life lived.i don’t know sulivan’s words well. i won’t ever presume to. but i know his words hurt and i know his words heal.

as i left the parking lot of work today, i lit a cigarrette and i listened to townes van zandt. the song reminded me of the same kind of abrupt ends and brief spaces sulivan wrote of so well.

We all got holes to fill
Them holes are all that’s real
Some fall on you like a storm
Sometimes you dig your own

But choice is yours to make
And time is yours to take
Some dive into the sea
Some toil upon the stone

To live is to fly
both low and high,

So shake the dust off of your wings
And the sleep out of your eyes
So shake the dust off of your wings
And the tears out of your eyes

and now as i leave houston i thought again of this song from the rear view mirror album. unlike 2005 this time’s for good and despite my love of houston it doesn’t feel too bad at all. not sure what i’ll find in austin if anything. not sure im looking for much these days anyway. just some good spaces to try to sit and breathe somewhat mindfully.

It’s goodbye to all my friends
It’s time to leave again
Here’s to all the poetry
And the pickin’ down the line

I’ll miss the system here
The bottom’s low and the trebble’s clear
But it don’t pay to think too much
On things you leave behind

Well, I may be gone, awe, I won’t be long
I’ll be bringing back the melody
And the rhythm that I find

We all got holes to fill
And them holes are all that’s real
Some fall on you like a storm
Sometimes you dig your own

The choice is yours to make
Time is yours to take
Some dive into the sea
Some toil upon the stone

Well, to live’s to fly awe low and high
So shake the dust off of your wings
And the sleep out of your eye
Awe, shake the dust off of your wings
And the tears out of your eye

it’s been a long time since i’ve picked up a copy of the sun. i didn’t renew the subscription a while back. not sure why. as i packed for my new life in austin, i perused some of my old copies. the first one now almost a decade old.

today, i stumbled upon the website, read a few pieces and then finished with safransky’s notebook. two quotes stood out.

“there is a crack in everything. that’s how the light gets in.” -leonard cohen

appropriate. as i ponder if it’s not such a bad time to ask, “where is god?’ in my life these days. or perhaps, “who is god?” in my life these days.

days that have too quickly turned to weeks and too quickly turned to months and too quickly turned to years and now too quickly turned to decades. but definitely beautiful decades.

i’m aware of the cracks but “where is the light?” in my life these days.

and then this one by sy safransky himself…

“the universe will let me know when i’ve worn out my welcome. until then, why don’t i make myself at home.”

how do i begin, after three decades, to make myself at home. to slow down. to let go. to stop trying to save the world and start saving my own soul. by the simple act of slowing down…but to do it slowly. how not to push, exert, demand, but just let go and make myself at home.

i see the cracks and they’re plenty. i just want to start slowing down enough to start seeing a bit of light. a bit of god. not a lot. just a bit. a bit would be plenty.

…not sure we’ll make it in time, but we’ll sure try…a nice little welcome to the city of austin, my new home…

this was taken with my iphone. a shot outside our current abode on fairbanks in lindale park in houston. these new flowers have been blooming like crazy lately. beatiful.

i sent it to my blog while sitting at sro enjoying some crawfish and waiting for the rockets to beat the lakers for #22!

galveston was good yesterday. but i think bukz prefers his buddies at the dog park. a short trip to austin and then to the rgv to spend easter with jada.

spring (break) 08.



Spring 08

Originally uploaded by una luna

AUSTIN07 from luna lopez on Vimeo.