The Questions!?
Yesterday, my girl’s grandma turned a year short of three quarters of a century – for those that don’t know that’s 74 years old. To most, another ring in the tree trunk of life isn’t much of an accomplishment – a mere part of life if you will. Having lost my grandmother less than two years ago, whom I’ve considered the most influential and inspirational person in my life to date, I view the ticking of time and marking of calendars as not only a day to celebrate, but to rejoice in that fact that one’s not dead, insane, or alone.
Obvious guy once said, “Every mind’s a world.” No fucking shit dude… what he forget to add was, ….full of knowledge, experience, and more importantly advice. That’s one of the many reasons I love and appreciate my father soo much. That dude will give you advice until you’re blue in the face or until you remove any and all piercings, buy a Yanni CD, or solemnly swear to never pay a bill you can’t understand. My dad’s the only person I know that will spend $500 on a night out, but refuse to pay a $5 bill if he felt cheated. I hate the logic, but absolutely love the conviction.
So as I ask this wise woman, “What has been the most memorable experience in your life?” I wonder, will I make it this far, will I be fortunate enough to get to this plateau in one piece, as a fully functioning individual, mind you with minor quirks and such but still leading a life worth living. Shit, I wish, but who knows. Therefore, all I can do is ask; ask the $64,000 question with a straight face… “What’s the key to happiness?” (Although this time I didn’t). For those with older, wiser folks in your life – be it, 1 year, 10 years, or 100 years… ask Amy Goodman/Barbara Walters/Pauly Shore type questions. Ask what life was like through their eyes. I was fortune enough to know that my grandmother was not going to be around much longer, plus the audacity, bravery, and curiosity to ask her what others in my family never did. So hit up your aunt… “What was it like to grow up in the sixties? Tia, did you ever smoke the Chronic? Mijo, don’t tell your grandma, but hell yea I did!”
Abuelita, como era mi abuelito? ... and so on.
Some of my most valuable lessons have been lived by others… by Kathy Polo, Bob Dylan, Lucio Rodriguez Sr., Lalo Medina, Michael James, Herminia Gomez…
Everybody has a story; you just have to dig it out… peel through the layers and find answers to questions you never thought to ask or even wanted to. Growth is important even if one is not proactive in the process. So I pass this piece of advice to readers of this blog, friends and foes alike. Use your resources damnit! I’m sure my sisters hate it, but my gibbering and jabbering amounts to some useful info, whether they take it or not. The other day, I told my youngest sister, “Mayra, I’ve been the guinea pig all my life, Claudia (the middle child) has been the filter, so your ass better be the perfect result - don’t fuck it up.” Words of wisdom – at least I would hope so.
So to answer my question after a long pause and some reflection, my girl’s grandma says in her East L.A. accent, “Mijo, that’s too embarrassing, I can’t answer that question. I’m embarrassed.” I thought to myself… Perfect.
- Lucio
Obvious guy once said, “Every mind’s a world.” No fucking shit dude… what he forget to add was, ….full of knowledge, experience, and more importantly advice. That’s one of the many reasons I love and appreciate my father soo much. That dude will give you advice until you’re blue in the face or until you remove any and all piercings, buy a Yanni CD, or solemnly swear to never pay a bill you can’t understand. My dad’s the only person I know that will spend $500 on a night out, but refuse to pay a $5 bill if he felt cheated. I hate the logic, but absolutely love the conviction.
So as I ask this wise woman, “What has been the most memorable experience in your life?” I wonder, will I make it this far, will I be fortunate enough to get to this plateau in one piece, as a fully functioning individual, mind you with minor quirks and such but still leading a life worth living. Shit, I wish, but who knows. Therefore, all I can do is ask; ask the $64,000 question with a straight face… “What’s the key to happiness?” (Although this time I didn’t). For those with older, wiser folks in your life – be it, 1 year, 10 years, or 100 years… ask Amy Goodman/Barbara Walters/Pauly Shore type questions. Ask what life was like through their eyes. I was fortune enough to know that my grandmother was not going to be around much longer, plus the audacity, bravery, and curiosity to ask her what others in my family never did. So hit up your aunt… “What was it like to grow up in the sixties? Tia, did you ever smoke the Chronic? Mijo, don’t tell your grandma, but hell yea I did!”
Abuelita, como era mi abuelito? ... and so on.
Some of my most valuable lessons have been lived by others… by Kathy Polo, Bob Dylan, Lucio Rodriguez Sr., Lalo Medina, Michael James, Herminia Gomez…
Everybody has a story; you just have to dig it out… peel through the layers and find answers to questions you never thought to ask or even wanted to. Growth is important even if one is not proactive in the process. So I pass this piece of advice to readers of this blog, friends and foes alike. Use your resources damnit! I’m sure my sisters hate it, but my gibbering and jabbering amounts to some useful info, whether they take it or not. The other day, I told my youngest sister, “Mayra, I’ve been the guinea pig all my life, Claudia (the middle child) has been the filter, so your ass better be the perfect result - don’t fuck it up.” Words of wisdom – at least I would hope so.
So to answer my question after a long pause and some reflection, my girl’s grandma says in her East L.A. accent, “Mijo, that’s too embarrassing, I can’t answer that question. I’m embarrassed.” I thought to myself… Perfect.
- Lucio
posted by Lucio Rodriguez at 10:26 AM
3 Comments:
That's a tight little piece...I used to ask my granny crazy questions all the time as a kid, she passed when I was a sophomore in college and I'll never forget her, either. While I agree with "preguntando su familia qualquira que quieres," it's the oldsters who got the juicy advice...
I remember looking at pictures of my grandmother and grandpop when they were younger (right about the age that we are now) and it dawned on me..."they were cool back in the day!" They went to parties, they jitterbugged and lindy hopped with the best of 'em (these days few people can manage to slow dance w/o feeling like they got two left feet)...while my folks back east weren't zooting it like they were out in L.A. and NY, they still had style and lots of stories. Great tales of love and loss. Some made you laugh, some made you cry but they were all good.
Alas, I don't have any siblings to pass anything on to but still, passing my experience on has become my raison d'etre because of my love of stories and what they can teach a person...just like opinions, everybody's got one...your dad sounds like my kind of guy -- I've said it before, if you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything and it sounds like he has a game plan. Personally, when I "move to the next town" I'd like my last check to bounce...Laters...
The true lovers of life seek to understand and know the lives of others. It's just so amazing to see the multitude of ways people experience their journey on this earth. The decisions we all make that lead to experience and wisdom, which is (with any luck) relayed to people like you and me that hunger to see the world through different eyes. In traveling to different places and taking the time to listen to people's stories, then we can truly live life to the fullest and share our stories to young inquisitives when we're old and gray.
(but first,) i love that idea of bouncing the last check after moving on. i'm gonna remember that one.)
this piece made me wonder what has been the most memorable experience in my life. and guess what, i'm embarrassed too!?! that realization cracked me up. i could tell you about much of it w/ no problem but there's one aspect, well, i'm just too embarrassed. color me a blushing shade of pink, damnit.
and the french say, such is life. such it is.
i recently had a discussion w/ a friend of mine whose father wrote a really great book last year about his grandfather who had gained his own freedom from slavery, left the south to settle in pennsylvania, joined the navy where he advanced and had a family and made a nice life living into the 1900s. my friend's father is the leading labor law authority in this country, a professor emeritus at stanford, and you can often see him quoted in virtually any news story dealing with the nhl or nba or mlb or nfl when labor law is the issue. (william gould iii. my friend is the iv.)
i told bill how i would have loved to have a dad like his, so smart, so much to learn from him. bill said he really would have enjoyed a dad like mine, always taking me to dodger and angel games, plenty of backyard poolside bbq's, hoops in the driveway.
it reminded me about the green grass over yonder and of course, i love my dad and would never think of trading him but it is true that we all have much to learn and promoting that process by engaging has to be a good thing.
so yes, i think you are saying here, engage! and i agree wholeheartedly. talk amongst ourselves. discuss. debate. it's what we're doing this very second and i love it and i think it's important. we stand on the shoulders of giants to be sure and we distill and we must distill and we have to distill by engaging w/ one another a it's still never enough in a way but go on and keep going and keeping on.
(gibberish was unintentional.)
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