Topher usually picks up our son right before improv a go go, but with Topher working Memorial day and me and my Brilliance with BBQ plans, we rearranged stuff a bit. So my Brilliance and I met Topher at his place, bringing steaks and salad. Topher grilled, I tossed, and we had a regular old family dinner.
Then I went to Improv A Go Go. We talk about improv being the art of getting lost in the moment… You enter a different mental state, where you are hyper aware but singularly focused on the moment.. where you exist in a place without time… you have all the time in the world, but it means nothing because of the moment you are in. And you practice building scenes and heightening and performing until you don’t think about what you’re doing. You simply do it all out of reflex from this aware and focused mental state.
Instead of going to the Mill or Grumpy’s, I went back to Topher’s neighborhood and attended a bonfire hosted by one of my son’s friend’s parent. The man of the house was a fellow who reminded me of my stage fight instructor… A toughness, a caring intensely without caring kind of thing. The kind of attitude a person gets when they’ve seen too much, something scaring and overwhelming, and have learned to take joy in simpler things, cause that’s all they’ve got.
This is the beauty I find in most white trash/ghetto/impoverished communities. Who needs a $150 meal and a night at the opera when I have a 6 pack and a bonfire, and can appreciate that?
I was half way though my mojito wine cooler thing, when the Man of the House started talking about Korea. Choppers flown into rice paddies and his best man shot in front of him (he showed me a scar where the same bullet hit him in the arm). I have seen my share of horrors, things that make your average American squirm, but never to the degree of THIS.
At one point, the Man of the House told the story of how his wife tried to wake him up by the shoulder, and how she got flattened before he was even awake. Practice. Muscle memory. That hyper awareness and singular focus. Act and react.
Memorial day is a day to remember. To remember that our minds can do things, handle things that we aren’t even aware of… through training and practice and muscle memory we can enter a state of awareness that will get us through horrible things. To remember that we all have this ability, and to honor, HONOR those who have used these skills under extreme circumstances for the benefit of others. It doesn’t matter if you believe in a war or not, a battle of not… those people, human beings, are exercising and training their brains in a way you could never even dare, in ways that will affect them the rest of their lives.
I chose to train my brain in comedy and laughter. I took the easy route.
Dear Readers,
What have you trained your brain in? What are your thoughts this Memorial Day? Do you have a war story?
Also, please take a moment to meditate on those who have passed on for the benefit of something bigger than themselves.
