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The Guru Stops on His Path.
August 16th, 2004
By Christopher Herz
The Health Guru / eCureMe LIFE
Like most of you, your Guru has his general insecurities in life and the world
around him. This weekend, I was set to drop some spoken word at Casa De Pueblo,
a community center in Echo Park that is a hot bed for spoken word and revolutionary
art in Los Angeles.
Before a show I usually develop a set of the DAMN, THERE’S GOING TOBE TOO
MANY EYES ON ME. I took a bike ride to get my mind of off things and found myself
down by Melrose, where Saturday afternoons are filled with people fronting so hard
their backsides were coming out of their chests.
Finding it to be more like a strange land rather than a calming ride, I headed back
up towards Sunset, when an old woman across the street called out to me.
I couldn’t understand what she was asking, so I turned around and rode up to
her porch, where I found her standing with only her two bottom teeth, which moved
quickly up and down as she spoke.
"Seven Up. I need Seven Up."
Now, your Guru’s mama told him to always do what old people say, so on gut
feeling, headed to a liquor store, got her a Seven Up (actually a Sprite, but I
didn’t tell her that) and headed back to her pad.
Upon handing her the drink, I was ready to take my leave and get ready for the show.
She took a swig of the drink and said to me, "This is worth more than a hundred
dollars. God sent this to me."
Now, I know it was hot in Los Angeles this last weekend, but how then could a bottle
of Sprite / 7 - Up be thought to be from God? I was sweating and looking at
the hairs coming from the bottom of her cheek. Hey, that’s part of life.
She should be looked at as beautiful for surviving this long.
As she took another swig of her drink, I saw on her arm a tattoo of numbers.
She saw me notice and smiled for a bit, although in her eye I could see the sadness
at my recognition that she had indeed been in a Nazi concentration camp.
"He not kill me," she said, in what I knew now as a polish accent.
I looked back down the block about two blocks from where I was standing and thought
about he bustle of commerce taking place down below and how, up here, there was a
woman standing in front of me as a testament to survival but she remained unvisited.
"Don’t grow old alone," she said top me, taking another sip and
exhaling with a sense of relief from the cool drink under the heat of the unforgiving
Los Angles day time.
After speaking for a while and a promise to bring back more drinks and have some
porch talks with her in the future, I headed back up to my pad to get ready for
the night.
These things should be basic in life- Friends. Love. Family. Helping people.
Instead, we concentrate on - Being the best. Money. Pleasure. Self preservation.
How lucky I was to still have my mother on this earth and to have friends to holler
at when things get low and desperate in the city.
We, as humans, are a functioning group that has, over the course of evolution,
decided that it is better to compete with each other rather than love each other.
How can we correct this?
By listening.
Later that night, I tried to channel the woman’s stories and face into my words.
They went something like this:
Rumbles
from stuffed bellied boats
sneaking into port
Late at night
Make it hard to overhear the backroom discussions.
Outside,
the city is helpless against the heat.
Stillness without the click of a heel.
On the breakfast table
old clippings from Saturday Evening Posts
look more like litter
than a scrap book for America.
The light from the bounce off the sidewalk makes it difficult to see, but, if you
look, there are slight traces of mildew
and mold creeping from the corner.
It is the only thing strong enough in Los Angeles to hold memory.
If you move towards something, you can very likely start a chain reaction of energy
and helpfulness. Do not ignore the signs that are put in front of you. They are
showing you the direction to take in your life. Sometimes, that direction should
not be focused on you, but on someone else.
Peace.
H.G.
The Health Guru - Christopher Herz
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