or… “why I Love Los Angeles”
I live in a city that people often claim to be shallow. And to be fair, it runs the gamut of just about every cliché you can think of. There’s an ocean of people here with false hopes, shattered dreams, mercurial moods, masterful misdirections.
But (you knew there was a ‘but’ coming, didn’t you?) the city is also rife with the power of trade and imagination.
Dig in deep and you’ll find a crazy quilt of cliques, steeped in their own lore, sifting out wisdom from the city, welcoming those who embrace their ways.
Magic flows just below the surface, coalesced willpower making miracles and brewing dreams that evoke possibility.
Sure, you have to mine for the good stuff but it’s there, hidden in my city’s vast language of symbols and mythology and hidden history.
And what a history it is!
Lizard people shaping the future of mankind from their hidden, ancient, underground cities; crippled devils walking the side roads granting wishes that could destroy generations; madmen and their followers hiding in caves waiting for a sign to unleash Armageddon upon unsuspecting entertainers;
World War II space invaders, UFOs hovering over the canyons, vampires on the Boardwalk, lights, cameras and action aplenty. That’s my home.
It’s a place where even the landscape can’t stay solid, shaking everything up every now and again.
This is a city seeking to constantly be reborn, a city founded on initiation.
Initiation can be described as nothing more or less than the attempt at renewal, an alchemical achievement, the desire to shed that what you were before and take on a new form. It’s shapeshifting for the soul. And it never ends.
Yes. Initiation never ends.
You never reach the place of full mastery, even if you’re anointed with titles and accolades. The end to the quest for ultimate knowledge will never arrive. You will never experience unchanging bliss.
Because the universe is immense and immeasurable in contrast to ourselves. It is ever changing, every moment alive, every breath ripe with possibility, changing in both time and space.
And the true master smiles at the disciples, holding the secret that isn’t a secret: that every day she is reborn and there is only the path and the journey. Initiation and exploration.
What
An Amazing World