I was gonna chicken out. I watched the video and thought, “No, this one won’t go over very well.”
And then the phone rang. It was my pal, Matthew. I told him about the video and what I just told you here in this posting. This morphed into a conversation about feeling a Presence of a Higher Power or God in a place, and had he ever experienced that. He said he had. Where? “Usually around life and death.” You mean, like, at funerals? “No, more like after the death.”
And then he said, “You should put the video up. Get it out there.” I knew he was right. I mean, isn’t that the point to doing these bits on Substack? To be brave, to take risks, to…Be Real? Of course it is.
And then I started searching for other videos to share. Videos that are more “fun” or goofy. I found a great old “Lateral Movement” video, uncut, as is. Maybe another time.
Because today, I’m choosing to put this video up, and let the chips fall where they may. My turning on the camera that day was a very real, palpable moment. I could feel something deep there. This was an old fishing village on the Big Island of Hawaii, now identified as Lapakahi State Historical Park. People lived here. People died here. People who thought about stuff just like you and I do. Who laughed and farted and ate too much and found other ways to alter their moods (I’m betting that’s true.) Plus the sheer beauty of the site was arresting. And I immediately knew this feeling, this sense I had about there being a Presence there, was just like similar ones I’d had at Big Bend National Park in Texas, at an Indian Reservation in South Dakota, at The Acropolis in Athens, Greece.
As you can see, I didn’t have a lot to say at that moment. What I did say was honest, was what I truly felt. I was here. Followed by statements very much tied to the running theme of this Substack, One Continuous Take.
It’s paradoxical, anomalous. I wanted to say I was here. I’m still convinced that’s important. And it is, within the context of living in this earthly, material existence. And…at the very same time, I have an understanding that, on another level, there is no here, no there, no now. There isn’t even an I. As the title of the hit film by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert puts it: Everything Everywhere All At Once.
Does any of this trigger a memory of a similar experience you may have had? I’d love to hear about it, and what it meant to you. Let’s talk.
And meanwhile, if all this was just a bit too outré for you, here’s the other video I was considering. Remember how I said Maybe another time?
How about now?
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