Amateur Philosophy Hour

At the risk of turning Whiskey's Blog into something resembling a 4-in-the-morning, controlled substance-inspired, '70s dorm room discussion, I offer the following:

I think about some weird stuff sometimes... when I'm lying in bed trying to fall asleep, when I'm driving down the freeway, while sitting in the dispatcher's chair... well, you know how it goes... Anyway, one thing I've been pondering lately is whether people in the great beyond -- whose spirits go wherever they go when they leave their earthly lives -- can see and experience things through the senses of their friends and loved ones still living here on earth.

Case in point - a few months ago, KHYI featured a "Belt it out" theme for the all-request lunch hour. The idea was, when they answered the phone, you would sing the song you wanted them to play. No small-talk, no pleasantries, just "belt it out". I called in with M and we belted out the first verse of Merle Haggard's "Daddy Frank", a song that my dad had sung to me when I was about a year older than M is now. Yes, we made it onto the show that day, and if M and I say so ourselves, we did a mighty fine job! (Bruce was saying "God bless the youth of America!" while Brett, seeming slightly dumbfounded, simply responded with a "Wow!.") And I started wondering... could my dad, who passed away two years ago, hear us that day on the airwaves?

I think my first exploration of that concept was a line in the Red Hot Chili Peppers song "Californication": "Cobain can you hear the spheres singing songs off station to station". That line kind of struck me as a sort of interstellar, interdimensional shout-out to the late Kurt Cobain (lead singer of the grunge band Nirvana who took his own life in 1994). If Cobain was "out there", was he listening, and did he hear it?

Most recently, these thoughts crossed my mind last Saturday at the Ray Wylie Hubbard show, when Ray performed his old classic "Redneck Mother", which is another song my dad introduced me to back in the '70s (presumably, the Jerry Jeff Walker version). As I sat there watching Ray play and sing, a flood of memories came over me, and I couldn't help but think that Dad probably would have really enjoyed being there. Of course, he wasn't with me, but was he "With" me? Could he see and hear what I was experiencing through MY senses?

The film "Being John Malkovich", one of my favorites from the past ten years, and definitely an under-rated one IMHO, kind of dabbled in some of these ideas... as the story went, people would pay large sums of money for the opportunity to see and experience the world through the eyes of others... once they figured out how to avoid being kicked out of the mind of their "host", they could prolong their stays indefinitely, thus extending their lives on earth even if their own bodies were about to die due to illness, old age, etc.

Of course, that whole premise brings up a lot of ethical questions, and doesn't completely relate to the possibilities I've been considering... in the movie, it was living people experiencing the lives of others... in my hypotheticals, the visitor would be the spirit of someone no longer living (well, not phyisically), and would visit only by "invitation" -- i.e., when the "host" thought of them or wanted them to be there.

I guess if nothing else, I can take solace in the concept that the fact that as long as I have my memories of my dad, he's not really gone ... Wasn't there a line like that in a Seinfeld episode? Is it any coincidence that I'm writing all of this at 5 in the morning after staying up all night?

This whole discussion reminds me of some of the hypothetical conversations I had with college friends while driving across west Texas in the middle of the night, on our way back to Dallas from a ski trip. If it's any consolation to you, the reader, this is about as contemplative or philosophical as I plan to ever get here on Whiskey's Blog.

The fast track to my "blocked senders" list

I'm always glad to receive email from blog readers and those who visit other parts of my Southwest Railfan site. Drop me a note about pretty much anything, and I'll usually -- at the minimum -- answer with a "thanks for the note" response... and usually more if I am responding to a question.

But if you insist on sending me excessively lame jokes, stupid cartoons or pictures, or extremely large files that aren't even worth my time to open... I will likely never see -- let alone read -- your emails, because such actions will earn you an entry into my mailbox's "blocked senders" list. And you know what happens to your emails once I've blocked you as a sender... an automatic trip to "deleted items", baby! One unlucky member of the Railspot list has earned this distinction, and yet -- when I check my "deleted items" file every so often, I see that he continues to email me, apparently unphased by my lack of response to EVERY ONE of his mailings. Well, good buddy, I didn't like having to do it, but if you hadn't been bombarding me so much CRAP, it wouldn't have been necessary!

WSC

np: just like yesterday, "Texas Blues Radio" on KNON 89.3 FM
nr: Stephen Ambrose - Undaunted Courage