Birds Of A Feather

Though birds of a feather flock together, the flocking is pretty challenging for us birds with movement feathers, because by nature we are all over the place. I am very fortunate to have relationships with people I care about who approach their own lives with the same resistance to being sedentary as I do. Frankly, I do not know what I would do without them since much of the time I feel so different from other people because they don't seem to understand my "be everywhere" approach to living and how it works. And so I love getting off a long phone conversation with Boima, an amazing DJ, musician, youth worker and the Most Movingest Person I know, wherein we catch up on all our movement, share where we are going or trying to go next, and I hang up feeling close to him and reassured in myself because we are the same. Or, when I was in New York last week hanging out with Kashish, an awesome photographer, writer, environmentalist and Successful Multi-Continental Inhabitant, we caught up during a long, drizzly nighttime walk in midtown east. He talked about his recent road-tripping down to SXSW, and how smitten he was by New Orleans, so much so that he wants to move there (which sounds a lot like me and Mae Sot.) "But you wouldn't move there permanently, would you?" I asked. "Oh no." Kashish replied, shaking his head, because that's not how we think. The next move just leads to the next move, which is usually somewhere else. When a life-view is such that location isn't an issue, it is so inspirational and makes me feel like anything is possible, and like me Kashish has his homes in Kathmandu and NYC where he can and will return, but between those times it's anything goes.

Speaking of road trips, I decided two days ago to drive cross-country with Rachel from DC to LA, and we leave in a few days. I've always wanted make this journey but have not yet, and am so excited!! It also dovetails nicely with my preexisting plans to get out to the Bay sometime in April, so let's hear it for spontinaeity and a new adventure! On the way we will stay with at least one old friend I haven't seen in a while, Nicolas, a dope performer, educator, father  and all around Kick-Ass Raza that gets around this country of ours so much that I didn't even  know he was back in San Antonio. And since I haven't been out to the Bay in over a year, this next journey calls to mind what is probably the most reassuring thing about my relationships with these other birds and how we live our lives, which is that with all of us being on the go, we will always see each other again. It's only a matter of when, and where.