HST 2016 Update #4 - Chibchacum

Well good morning!

It is raining here.

What th--?

You must be confused, Chibchacum. This is LA, remember? Please take your anger issues back to New York.

Chibchacum was a narcissistic Rain God. Made people down on earth yell and hate each other. ('Everybody was fighting, believing that they were better than others and lying.') Got pissed at his girlfriend and turned her into a barn owl. Hurled a giant flood down on his opposition. Got the people so riled up he caused a civil war.

So yeah, raining here in LA. But it's a warm, gentle rain. It's actually quite beautiful, to be honest, here in my high room; sliding doors all the way open; misty gusts of air smelling of ozone; white-noise hum of building generators, the swish of wet tires, the patter of soft rain on the balconies, the far, far away cry of gulls.

So yesterday's beach party! It was a little small.

As in, Carlito.

No, just kidding, not just Carlito. Other people were there too. Five of them.

Just kidding. Not just five. Eight.

Okay ten. Counting me and Laurie Shafer who Uber'd the two miles to the beach (total cost $3.43)

Those silver whitecaps! The cold sea-spray on my face; the salty, fish-smell of the wind; the penguins roosting in rows along the roof tops; the clacking of pinwheels spinning on their sticks; the distant silhouette of a lone sailboat gliding across the horizon; and the sky! the frenetic dance of clouds in the stinging wind! So much drama, so much sky!

There is no place like the beach.

Just before dark a huge pile of some 60 rowdy dancers fell out of a van onto Redondo Pier, ready to eat and go club-hopping on the boardwalk. Major karaoke happened. Also beer pong. The noisy crowd that exploded back into the ballroom around 11 last night had clearly been having some fun.

I often wonder what other people guess about us when they see us in groups, horsing around, telling secrets, hugging and leaning on each other like family ....

I bet they guess we are family. Or maybe a wedding party.

I bet they never guess that some of us have known each other for three days, some of us since before we were fetuses, some of us are total strangers, some of us separated in age by 40 years. Even 60.

I bet they never guess that we dance with each other! That every single one of us dances with every single other one of us.

How weirdly wonderful we are! We don't realize how weirdly wonderful because we don't see ourselves from their point of view. We forget that most people in the world don't love, lean on, cry with, laugh with, or dance with, many people at all in this life.

We must indeed seem like a strangely happy, alive group of people.

Hey! Here comes the sun! My goodness it is BEAUTIFUL out!

Workshops all day today, Beer-Tasting party at sunset, Strictlys tonight!

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