Life at high volume

It's been awhile since I've written anything (my Stanford commencement post was written two or three months ago).

I've had an awesome ten days. SF, back to Vegas, Portland, back to Vegas. There have been some intense emotional moments along the way, and a lot of fun. It's been a time of re-connections and powerful new connections. Life feels good right now... and largely because I am interacting with so many great people.

And at times it's still scary, because I find myself on a path that I stepped onto somewhat hastily back in 2006. I'm still figuring it out, but a future I really like is taking form. How to clear the hurdles along the way isn't yet entirely clear.

I feel like I'm in one of those moments when the bubbles are bursting all about me... life is effervescent. But I'm also a bit vulnerable, because it's been a rough year at times, and the whole arc from December to now is a reminder of how low I can go and how wonderful life is when it's good.

I am alive. Really alive for the first time in a long time. And while I'm still groping to find my way, right now I wouldn't trade it for anything. (Which is a lie. :-)

MY FRIEND PHIL suggested I watch Central Station a few months back. I finally did tonight. He was right.

AND ONE OF THE BEST ARTICLES I've read in awhile is "The Abyss" by Oliver Sacks. It's about amnesia and music and the experience of being human.

FINALLY, from Facebook, my "15 Books in 15 Minutes":

Don’t take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you’ve read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes. Copy the instructions into your own note, and be sure to tag the person who tagged you.

Dancer from the Dance - Andrew Holleran
The Hours - Michael Cunningham
The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan Kundera
East of Eden - John Steinbeck
Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
Chapterhouse Dune - Frank Herbert
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
Tale of the Body Thief - Anne Rice
The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien
Querelle - Jean Genet
The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupery
The Boys on the Rock - John Fox
From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler - E.L. Konigsburg
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats from NIMH - Robert C. O'Brien
All Creatures Great and Small - James Herriot