Everything dies, baby, that’s a fact.
Springsteen said that, in “Atlantic City.”
(This wouldn’t be a Jersey-Boy-blog if I didn’t invoke Bruce’s name at least once a month.)
It’s true, though.
Planets die.
Stars die.
People die.
Hell, birds dropped from the sky, dead, over Labor Day Weekend, 2020.
(Worst. Year. Ever.)
It’s the cycle of life, and as has been said before, (by others,) Homo Sapiens are the lonely creatures aware of our finite existence.
Tough sledding, sometimes.
The ego gets in the way. We each believe we’re so important, because that’s baked into our brains. Having children bumps many people from the center of the Universe, but parenting isn’t for everyone.
Probably religion serves this purpose for many: making meaning out of our time here, and peace with ultimate demise.
Art can help us process our feelings towards death too.
I have a heaviness in my life right now.
Something I can’t share.
But you can trust I take the advice I dispense. Self-care has been prominent, and I’m even going to BJJ tonight, though I’m still not 100%.
We can’t slack, when it comes to mental health, especially when we have children who rely on us.
So today, not only did I plan to write, but I went to my famous book stack, to see if a slight volume might remove my mind from my troubles.
As always, the photo-book-gods provided, as I quickly found “Fallen Trees,” a ‘zine from 2022, sent in by Kevin O’Connell. He’s an artist I’d met once or twice before, and when he came through Taos last year, we met for a coffee.
Great dude.
Not a great book, but it’s perfect for today.
(And it’s a plenty fine, very nice book. Just not brilliant.)
The opening essay is terrific.
Clean, poetic, intelligent writing, setting the scene as dense, lush forests in the Pac Northwest.
(Oregon, if we’re being specific.)
Kevin writes of “the musk of decay,” so I assumed the book would make me cling to my melancholy.
As if!
Rather, what grabbed me was not the decaying, fallen trees, but the insanely lush, verdant, REALLY FUCKING GREEN surroundings.
I’ve previously shared it’s been a long, 4 month winter here in Taos.
News just dropped, TODAY, the 3 year La Niña has finally lifted. It was responsible for this year’s, cold, gray, brown mess.
Few blue skies. No snow remaining on the ground. Just lots of dead brown grass.
Depressing AF.
So looking at Kevin’s book, for a couple of minutes, reminded me that green exists.
Fresh, new, healthy, growing things exist in the world.
It’s easy to forget, when you’ve been cold for 1/3 of a year.
But Spring is coming.
Sunshine and Olly 
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