When I was young I spent most of my nights carousing through the cities. It is said of New York, that it never sleeps, and so it was with Los Angeles.
All nighters in night clubs and restaurants, and then, sleeping away the day.
Over the years my physical self, and the spiritual self, have moved, literally, millions of miles. I have moved my home thousands of miles and have driven nearly 3 million miles.
The normal work a day world forces me to into it’s reality while my most interesting, and greatest adventures, are in the night time world. I just got off the phone with my dispatcher, who sounded like a neglected girl friend, “You never call me anymore,” he said, “Sorry man, I have all this reading, writing, and guitar playing to do, ya know,” I replied.
While I sit in North Carolina, enjoying a sunny, but cold, day, it was only two nights ago that I drove, through a mountain pass, on long stretches of black ice. There have been many long nights of fog, blizzards, tornados, and hurricanes.
I have, in the middle of the night, stood on a Florida beach, looking out over the, dark, Atlantic Ocean. On another night, near the same beach, I have watched a night launch of the Space Shuttle. I felt the roar of it’s powerful engines, and stood in the glow, of it’s column of fire, and then, watched as it faded, and became the twinkle of a star.
In the middle of the night I have played cat and mouse, with a drunk, on a Chicago freeway. I have seen a pimp beating one of his girls on a New Orleans’ street. I’ve dodged police, prostitutes, drug dealers, and thieves, most everywhere.
In the middle of the night I have swam in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, and bathed in a cold mountain stream.I’ve stood atop a desert mountain and stared at the awesomeness, of the heavenly cloud, that is the Milky Way. I’ve slept, like a baby, under those same stars, breathing deep, the clean mountain air.
In the middle of the night I have traveled on the spirit plain. I visited places, far away, saw into the future, and into the past. There, I struggled with Demons, and conversed with the Angels.
In the middle of the night I have learned the importance of knowing my place, in time, and in space.
