Gray days, People!
I’ll take them. The weather in LA has been a bit San Franny lately and I fucking love it. If I hear another person whine about the slight chill in the air and the occasional drizzle I may set them on fire. This weather is so relieving to me. Not just because I prefer it but because it means I’m not worrying about the state burning or the air being filled with apocalyptic cinder particles.
I didn’t move here for the weather. I don’t mind most weather. The fact is, it will be more than 100 degrees for long stretches of weeks ahead and knowing the earth is soaked and the water containers are full make me way less anxious. Bring on the clouds. Climate change is bad but I’ll take the wet over the crispy anytime.
I reunited with an old friend of mine over the weekend. A guy I have known since he was a little kid and I was a slightly older kid. Our families were friends. I hadn’t seen him in more than 20 years. We lost touch. When he was a teenager he started doing comedy after I had been doing it a few years. He couldn’t really cut it so he decided to quit. He was funny.
I ran into him here and there over the years. I helped him out of a crisis back in the day and got him into a better living situation. Then, I just lost him. I would hear things here and there about what he was doing. He got married, had a kid, got divorced, was having a hard time, kind of lost, etc. He reached out a few weeks ago and we got together the other day. He went to The Comedy Store with me. We caught up. It was very emotional.
We get lost sometimes. People. I’ve been lost and found a few times. I’ve lived long enough to lose friends to disease and drugs and accidents. That’s part of it. I’ve also been around long enough to lose people to broken hearts and broken spirits which is in some ways harder. When some light goes out in someone and they can no longer access the essence that made them open to life it's hard to encounter but it too is part of it.
I was nervous having heard things about this guy that his spirit may be broken and he may have hardened somehow. We were emotionally connected at one time, like family. I wondered whether or not that was gone.
Right when I saw this kid (53 years old) at my door I knew he was still in the light somehow. There was still that connection and it was engaged. It's an amazing thing about life and the people in yours. Sometimes, time goes by and people get away from you, for years even. When you reunite and the essence of who you both were is still there it’s a beautiful thing. One of the amazing life moments available if you don’t lose yourself entirely or shift your brain into something alien or alienating.
Today I talk to comic and actor Vir Das about India and controversy. On Thursday I have what I thought was a very fun and funny talk with the perpetually odd William Shatner. Good week.
Enjoy!
Boomer, Monkey and LaFonda live!
Love,
Maron
Wet Over Crispy.
