He said: "There wasn't any plan as such. I mean, the plan was to just go because we could. We were young and this was America, by golly, and we had the time, and we had the inclination and we'd all read the same books and poems and pretty much had the same experiences and liked the same things. But, mostly it was because we were young and we weren't ready to give up our freedom quite yet and settle down and all that stuff that the older generation had done when they were our age. We wanted to have a little fun first, before we died. We wanted to see this place called "America" and see who was living there and to see if they were maybe like us and wanted the things we wanted, which was mostly to be free and to do what we wanted to do and go where we wanted to go and then come back and do it all again, but in a different way and with different folks. There wasn't any plan. We just got up one morning and started the truck and just went, you know. We just went out and lived our lives."

Stumble It!

She said: "We had a neighbor, Vivian, who was maybe 90 years old, and was vigorous. She still used a wringer washing machine in her basement because the house was built around it and it couldn't be taken out, or another brought in. She ate mostly meat patties that she prepared herself, and boiled potatoes. She'd walk to the grocery store and bring a 5 pound bag of potatoes home with her in a wheely cart. She was an artist so her home was filled with her artwork. In the Fall every year she would walk into the woods across from her house and select the most vivid leaves, which she would then bring home. She's spend hours picking out the most beautiful leaves. One year, shortly before she died, I asked her: 'Vivian. What do you do with those lovely leaves I see you pluck from the trees at the beginning of November each year?' And she told me that she sent them to her nieces and nephews, and I thought that was so sweet of her to do that. I thought about what she was doing with those leaves and it took a little while for me to do the math, but a few days later it struck me: 'Oh my God! Her nieces and nephews must be in their 60s or 70s even!' She must have been sending those Fall leaves out to these people for 50 or more years! Some of those nieces and nephews may have even 'passed on' during this time. What could they possibly think of their annual mail from Vivian? And then I thought that it didn't matter, really. It was still a very sweet thing to do and that I would love to have someone mail me beautiful Fall leaves every year.

Isn't that a great story?"

Stumble It!

They weren't here because they wanted to be here; they were here because that had to be here. They were drawn to this place from various other places and like the flocks of insects and birds that fly tremendous distances because there is no other choice for them but to do so, the ones who came responded to a sound that couldn't be heard, or a feeling that couldn't be explained. They responded to a plan that was not their own. They came for the light and for the sound and for the chance meeting on a street or in a cafe with the others that they felt they somehow knew well, but couldn't say why or explain how they all met here, not as strangers, but as friends and lovers who were meeting for the very first time.

Stumble It!

"She asked us if we were looking for anything there on the plaza, and I had to admit that, yes, we were in fact looking for something there. She nodded her head as if she was in agreement with us. She looked straight into my eyes and told me that I would not find it there in that place, that the thing that we had lost was lost in another place entirely. This was upsetting to me because we had come a long distance to get here and I was certain that this was the right place. I turned to my wife. We both stood there looking into each other, trying to form the next question. When I turned around, the woman was gone. We crossed the plaza and sat on the bench trying to find the place where we had gone wrong; where everything had somehow gone terribly wrong when we lost our way."

Stumble It!

He said: "I was brought up by the Roman Catholic nuns. That was my education when I was coming up. It was the same for everybody. This was not our religion. This was somebody else's religion. The nuns were strict, boy. They were a tough bunch and I guess that they had to be. But I fell away from the Church as I got older. I don't know so many of the stories now and couldn't tell them to you from memory. My people's religion means more to me now. We have our festivals where we come together to remember where it is we came from and how we fit together as a people. I don't know too much about the Catholic church. If you asked me about God, I wouldn't know what to say, really. My God is up there. My God is in the sky."

Stumble It!

He said: "There is no longer any Private Space in American; there is only a wrap-around Public Space that is filled with the sounds of cell phone conversations that wrap around the surround and fill it with a language and a sense that is part Henry Miller's "Plexus" and part Whitman's "Field of Grass". It is the sound that bees must hear in the hive. It is a roar and a symphony played completely out of tune."

Stumble It!

She said: "Mabel had the money! But anyone who was born into fantastic wealth like she was takes money for granted because it's just always there for them. What Mabel had that so many of the others didn't have was moxie! She had a lot of both: money and moxie, and the result was that she pretty much got to do anything that she darned well wanted to do. She took and shed a husband or so along the way; she bought land and built homes and enjoyed friends who were both artists and scoundrels and, ya know what?, if I had what she had I would've done the same God Damn things she did! Only I'd do more!"

Stumble It!