Monday, 6/25/18
Finally down from the mountains, and back in cell phone and wi-fi range. Right now, I’m sitting in a Carl’s Junior using their free wi-fi. But I have to quit and get on the road, as it’s a 6-hour drive to Bakersfield, where I expect to spend the night on my way to Vegas by tomorrow evening. Unfortunately, the folks I was planning on staying with in Bakersfield have an event and a full house, so it looks like I’ll just have to take a motel for the night.
After leaving Tom & Joy’s last Wednesday (the 20th), I drove up to Hayward and spent a poignant last night with Meia. Thursday I drove up to Ukiah and crashed with Kiri and her family, reviewing Kiri’s latest paper for her graduate course at Pacifica. This paper addressed the current border crisis of children being taken from their parents, and especially Melania Trump’s stunningly callous statement emblazoned on the jacket she wore to meet with the immigration authorities and the press: “I really don’t care. Do U?” Kiri’s paper was on Thomas Mann’s “Dr. Faustus,” and Kiri titled it: “Melania, meet Mephistopheles.”
The same day Kiri received her Master’s Certificate in the mail, which we celebrated with champagne.
Friday morning I drove up to Annwfn, CAW’s 55-acre sacred land in the Misty Mountains of Mendocino County. Annwfn is a small part of the 6,000-acre Greenfield Ranch, one of the two oldest Hippie homesteading communities in the world, founded in 1972, where MG and I lived for 8 years (1977-‘85). This weekend was our Litha (Midsummer) celebration—and also a fabulous party at Jonna and Ryan’s home in Willits, celebrating the 25th anniversary of Brad and Terrie Wolfe-Lee. The highlight was a grand re-handfasting ceremony, in which I officiated to proudly re-pronounce them “husband and wife.” Maybe 75 people were there—much of the wonderful community Morning Glory and I came to know and love during our four decades in Mendocino and Sonoma Counties, where I hope to return someday in a new home…
Our CAW Litha celebration was small, but sweet and heartful. Fish conducted the ritual on Sunday, and afterwards we went up to the Ranch pond for a relaxing afternoon of skinny-dipping. However, I have been off-grid with no Internet or cell service since Friday morning…
And now I’m back on the road again…the Great Walkabout continues!