Labyrinth

The labyrinth at Serra Retreat, a Franciscan Retreat in the hills above Malibu. I spent the afternoon there with an old friend.

I'm one of the many who confused a labyrinth with a maze, maybe because of the old story of the Minotaur (examination of that story, it is said, results in the conclusion that the Minotaur was indeed trapped in a maze).

Apparently labyrinths have been around forever, and appear in places that had no connection to each other (and thus couldn't have transferred the work) - at the same time as the classical Greek labyrinth there were nearly identical Native American labyrinths, and the same pattern appears in 2500 BC India...

According to wikipedia (the great source of lowest-common-denominator public knowledge) The medieval "labyrinth symbolized a hard path to God with a clearly defined center (God) and one entrance (birth)...Labyrinths can be thought of as symbolic forms of pilgrimage; people can walk the path, ascending toward salvation or enlightenment. Many people could not afford to travel to holy sites and lands, so labyrinths and prayer substituted for such travel."

Sculptor Robin Murez recently built a cute little labyrinth in the Venice 'hood. Churchgoers there do not see it as a hard path to God. They see it as some pagan thing that will cause people to walk around in circles instead of come inside and pray, says an article in the LA Times

Malibu

Early March at Zuma Beach.


I was still using borrowed boards. Tony Alva loaned me this.


Tere with his mini-Simmons. This board always gets a lot of comments.

Zuma March 21 2009

This week's beach update splits between two weekends. The idea here is to try to convey what this experience is like for me...which is not about a bunch of macho young man's stuff in which one tames a wave and conquers nature and engages in Xtreme anything...it's more about the fact that you cannot conquer nature, you cannot will the ocean to do anything, it's not listening to you and really doesn't even know you're there. it's about some sort of sense of one-ness with the whole thing. It's sort of easy to get that feeling of serene awe when you are sitting on a board in the ocean with the dolphins swimming not so far beyond you, storm clouds building over the mountains...

It's like the Buddhist mindfulness/Vipasanna meditation, which is a meditation not of blissed out, what's-up-with-my-naval escapism, but of focus, concentration on specific aspects of the immediate here-and-now.


My board, Zuma, March 14, 2009


Tere, Zuma, March 21, 2009

Zuma Beach, March 15, 8am

Zuma Beach, March 15, at about 8am


My board - a 6'10" funboard, made by a UK company named after the Welsh shaper, Zuma Beach, March 15, at about 8am

Zuma, March 2009

Zuma Beach, March 1, 8am

Sunday morning, 8am, Zuma Beach. Perhaps it was the time of day, perhaps the time of year...but I don't remember it ever looking more beautiful. Water flat and glassy past the break; coming down the canyon the ocean looked like a lake.


Zuma FOOD sign


Huntington Beach, Feb 2009

This Year's Theme

Every year has a theme, it seems. Last year's was obvious: the election, and with it, inner city blues. This year the theme is likely gonna be the beach.

The rains have finally let up, or at least took a break. Went down to Huntington Beach Saturday am to surf. This is a shot from two years ago, up at Zuma:

Mimi

Summer seems to be ending...the water's still gonna be warm for a week, maybe two.

The election is a month away.

Now that the McCain campaign is imploding and the prospect of his election seems a little more distant, things aren't so frightening and Sarah Palin's good for a few laughs. I hope she gets appointed to some minor position so we can still hear her fumble around in that weird Fargo accent.

I haven't much to say and I am kinda happy about that. Existential angst seems awfully pointless when banks are failing (mine did) and 90 year old ladies in the Midwest are attempting suicide to avoid being evicted in foreclosure.

Darn right.

I'm kinda over my apartment. I've lived here 6 years. The building has become overrun by folks who are a bit more desperate than I'd like to have surrounding me, especially as I am feeling considerably less desperate than I have the past 40 some odd years...and I'm good with that.

I'm done with the tenement thing. Tenement has lost its luster.

Last Saturday we had movie-set fog, the stuff that swirls around your ankles as it moves down the street. Every other day had been hot and sunny. Zuma beach was the first place heading up PCH that offered any hazy sun. Here are some shots from there and a coupla others tossed in for good measure.

You betcha.