Archie Kobain

You know, I’ve really not liked my last several posts.  I hate simply writing about things that happened, like I’m a reporter.  This happened, then this happened, and then we did this…  Blah!    Sure, I try to make it more entertaining than that but I really love when I get to think, and then write, by just letting my thoughts go where they may.  I’ll try to do better.  I’ll try to find a little more mental bandwidth.  Nevertheless, I think you get what you pay for.  We’ll see what happens…

Well, it’s that time of year.  Today is, after all, a big day.  It’s December 23rd.  Just yesterday it was December 22nd, which happend to be Winter Solstice.  Now, all of the sudden, it’s today…  Festivus.  It’s a day to celebrate the holiday season without participating in its pressures and commercialism.  So get out your unadorned aluminum Festivus pole and get ready for the Airing of Grievances.  This takes place right after your Festivus dinner and it’s where you get to lash out at others and tell them how they have disappointed over the past year.  Who can wait?

Then, of course, comes…  Feats of Strength.  I love Festivus.

After that it’s all downhill – although, the word “downhill” gets me in the mood for ski season…  I’m not sure that I’m ready for Christmas or for the end of 2011.  …and I say that while greatly looking forward to 2012.  It’s like a train wreck.  It’s  like a severely overwieght woman in a two-piece bathing suit strolling down Central Park.  It’s like Taylor Swift and Tonya Harding being the two finalists in the Crisco Vegetable Oil Wrestling competition.  If any of these things were to occur, it would be ugly but you wouldn’t be able to look away. 

Of course, you’ll be glad when it’s over. 

And maybe that’s where I am with the holidays this year.  I was really looking forward to them.  But then they got here and, while I am still expecting to enjoy them to the fullest, a part of me can’t wait for it to be January.

I think this started when I was in New York City.  You see, I have a new theory about New York City and big cities, in general.  I tend to thrive on the energy of the people in big cities.  I think there is a collective consciousness that makes everyone there more energetic, almost collectively smarter, deeper.

Don’t get me wrong, I love rural America and I recognize that many great things happen there.  Many great inventions have come from rural America, many great atheletes, blah, blah, blah!  But you know what I mean…  Have you ever stopped and wondered why NYC grew to be what it is today?  There are zillions of people there, why would anyone else want to move there?  How did it get so crazy to start with?

I believe that a big part of it is that people feed off of this collective consciousness.  Great companies want to be near other great companies, because their executives want to be near the other executives.  Not just for show or because there might be some clout in being there, but to feed from and contribute to this collective consciousness of energy that exists there.  And, I think…  That’s a big part of what I love about big cities.

So, again, there I was at the biggest tree lighting event in the country.  I was surrounded by locals & tourist, good guys and bad guys, rich folks and poor folks, lovers, sinners, drinkers and jokers and midnight tokers, and not too distantly, I heard a group performing Home for The Holidays.

The collective consciousness of the city then put thoughts into my head of what it means to be “home” for the holidays… 

First I thought about the spacemen and time travelers, they belong in another place and time but they are here among us and doing the best they can to cope with the challenges of our time, knowing that they don’t actually belong here and that by virute of their current existense, they could be disrupting the fabric of time. 

I remember, in my mind
They say I’m daydreamin’
Is it all that it seems
or am I all the things I’m looking for?

 I thought about the many men and women (Americans or otherwise) who have been away from their families for way too long, off fighting in wars or other military actions, that could be equally argued as either very stupid or extremely important, but potentially fatal in either case.

I thought about my friend’s father, who has been missing, in Iran, since March 9th, 2007.  I can only imagine the great comfort and glimmers of hope that must have come over the family a few months ago, when they received a Proof of Life video showing Bob Levinson, still alive and reasonably well, after being held captive for over three and a half years.  Here’s a VOA news clip on Bob…

If interested, you can also visit the family’s website at…

http://www.helpboblevinson.com/

Naturally, this is a delicate subject and due to its delicate nature, I do not claim to know everything that there is to know about the situation.  To the best of my knowledge, however, no one really knows (exactly) who is holding Bob or what (exactly) they would like in exchange for his return.  But I do get the overwhelming feeling that the U.S. Goverment has not put its best effort forward in trying to retrieve this U.S. citizen, who gave 30+ years of his life to serving our great country.  We need to get Bob Home for the Holidays, sooner – hopefully, as opposed to later. 

Finally, I got thinking about everyone else who might be somewhere other than where they are supposed to be for the holidays…  Somewhere other than home.  Home might seem like a long way away.  Maybe it’s a long way away in miles, maybe it’s a long ways away in your heart or perhaps you are mentally distant from home.

The cool thing about home is that  you’re always welcome there.  Otherwise, it wouldn’t really be home.  You never have to move back home…but you should visit every now and then.  If you ever miss home, you can bet that home misses you.  Conversely, if you don’t miss home… perhaps it wasn’t home at all?

This is diffferent from…

 Holmes sells Homes to the Homies. 

Trust me.  That’s a completely different story.
Nevertheless, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas.

And remember…

If you can’t be with the one you love,
love the one you’re with.

I know.  Now I’m just grasping for an ending.
I should just sign off.

– Arch