There’s a certain gambler’s beauty in anticipation, in the art of practicing patience. There’s a level of excitement that builds, wondering if the awaited event will ever come, when it will come, if it will be as good as you hope, as good as you expect, as good as you need it to be.

You don’t understand the addiction to gambling unless you have experienced the gambler’s win.

And in this moment, I’ll say this and only this: well worth the wait.

Such a small thing, and yet so amazingly gratifying. When the world can disappear in the moment, absorbed into a second that stretches into eternity… that’s when you start to realize that whether life has purpose or meaning or a larger point — well, it doesn’t really matter. That one moment, the clench of your gut, the wonder and expectations bleeding away in a glorious rush: this is what matters, if only for a little while.

And so you do your best to capture that, and store it away.

“Forget for this moment the smog and the cars and the restaurant and the skating and remember only this: a kiss may not be the truth, but it is what we wish were true.”

I will never grow tired of this quote.

Be there. Or don’t.

We love you anyway.

THe Exhibit(s): voted “Worst Band in Birmingham” (by it’s own members, no less)

…and yet, so right…

Newhouse A1: “Gitmo is the gulag equivalent of a Ben Affleck movie: no one’s seen it, but everyone has an opinion about it. Given all the rhetoric that’s been spilled about this sorta-kinda-not-really Death Camp, it’s time we re-examine the facts, and remind ourselves what’s really at stake. Herewith a summation.”

I’ve posted about PostSecret before, I know… and if you haven’t gotten over there, you’re missing what might be one of the most moving artistic ideas out there. It’s very hit-and-miss - I haven’t found any of the cards on there that just suck or anything, but damn it, this one made my stomach clench when I read it. Great combo of words and visuals…

A Brief History of the Apocalypse: “Ronald Reagan, in a 1980 interview with Jim Bakker, said, “We may be the generation that sees Armageddon.” Before that, in 1971, Reagan commented to James Mills regarding events in Libya, “For the first time ever, everything is in place for the Battle of Armageddon and the Second Coming of Christ.” Obviously, Reagan thought that the end would come SOON! And to think that a man with apocalyptic delusions like this had his finger on the nuclear button for 8 years. (Grosso p.8)”

Otherwise, a really informative look at the history of the beginnings of the end…

Celsius1414: Zen Pockets: “There is a reason monks renounce worldly possessions: they are distractions from important work.

There is a reason people in therapy talk pejoratively about carrying around ‘baggage’ from relationship to relationship. Baggage is Bad.

Carting around pounds or kilograms of unnecessary stuff is so, well, unnecessary. It hurts your concentration, and physically hurts, too. Take that extra minute and filter your cargo.”

http://www.putfile.com/media.php?n=galaxy

Don’t go here and watch this.

Seriously.

What if Burroughs had written Johnny, the Homicidal Maniac?

Ohmygod.

Sometimes, things go exactly as you would expect, and that’s good.

Sometimes, things go so totally and indescribably aginst the grain. That’s often not good.

And sometimes, things just go, and it’s certainly not bad. But perhaps it’s confusing, because this is unlike anything you’ve ever experienced.

But new is good…

At the very least, I am happy the past three nights. Calm, content, no drama, so it might not be obvious on my face… but inside, very, very happy. Comfortable.

Like I said, different.

In other news, I have seen the face of Dear Abby’s evil twin — let’s call her Dread Abby — and she is my new goddess.

Just because.

And no, I’m not sharing.

Sundays they camped and read and prayed (and then told fart jokes): “Jon was helping me bathe Leta and he remarked that the last thing those kids would be doing would be singing as they walked and walked and walked. We used to be kids, and now that we have one we know that they�d do nothing but whine and bitch and moan as they walked and walked and walked. As we washed Leta�s hair we thought that more appropriate verses to the song would have been verses like:

�Pioneer fathers took extra wives, more wives, more wives, more wives, more wives.�

or

�Cholera spread through the camp and they died, and died, and died, and died, and died.�”

You guys can think that you’re a good and entertaining blogger until you’re blue in the face, but you’re wrong. Plain wrong. Until you’ve got what Heather here has, you’re just wasting time.

Just like me, I’ll note.