It’s all about Your Attitude

Posted on October 30, 2018 by Michael Kane

It’s all about Your Attitude

oaxaca sign

Adopting the right attitude can convert a negative stress into a positive one. ~ Hans Selye

Last night I was kicking around on Facebook before crashing for the night and I found an article, 10 famous travel locations that DO live up to the hype.  I looked through the article and had to laugh, the list was pretty similar to pieces I’ve read before entitled, 10 famous locations that don’t live up to the hype.  The two on both lists included the pyramids at Giza and the Eiffel Tower.

So hopefully not some huge spoiler for you, but the Great Pyramid of Giza is a half block from a Pizza Hut and the entire city of Giza, there’s garbage, there are tourist traps and scams that surround the pyramid.  So one person’s list makes this place a huge disappointment.  On the other hand this massive structure was built to exacting mathematical, geographic and construction standards thousands of years before anyone in the western world knew for sure North America even existed, so a person approaching it with that attitude sees an ancient marvel and is moved by the experience.

The Eiffel Tower has similar reviews, if you have romanticized the idea of the Eiffel Tower, of standing alone upon the tower and viewing Paris, well, long lines, admission fees and tons of rude tourists might really kill the experience for you.  However, the person writing last night’s article basked in the reality of just standing underneath such an amazing and iconic piece of architecture.

The only difference between these being horrible let downs or amazing experiences were the writer’s expectations and attitudes.

oaxaca cathedral

Watch Your Attitude

I’ve been experiencing this phenomenon a lot on my 2018 adventure.  The first was my Camino Experience in Spain.  I went into it with lots of doubts and not the best attitude and the universe helped me manifest an unpleasant experience.  The opposite could be said about my time hiking in Scotland, where some bad weather, a huge blister, getting lost, getting ripped off due to a mistake by my tour company and some fierce midges at one point was a great experience.  My attitude going into Scotland was sooo much better than my attitude on the Camino.  Not that I didn’t have valid complaints about the Camino, but I would have been happier had I had a better attitude.

marigold streets

For me Mexico has been a microcosm of the same issue.  The trip in was stressful, I was tired and so things seemed overly negative.  Happily as I talked about in a blog post about the trip, I was aware that the stress and lack of sleep were likely ganging up on me.  Day 2 in Oaxaca was better, I was feeling more myself and had some time to do a bit of photography and look around after getting settled in. Today was much better, I have come to realize that the place I’m staying at for the first two weeks is a bit at the edge of the hood.  This is not a revelation, the razor wire kind of gave it away, also for $12 per night you have to kind of expect you’re not in the center of the tourist section of town.  Not to scare anyone, the neighborhood so far seems very safe and the place I’m staying is actually great and very secure.  We’ll see how I feel walking home at midnight after my cemetery tour on Halloween night.

However on my morning walk today, I decided to take a left turn and head for the big cathedral in the city which I see when heading down into the center of town.  Once I got into that area it was a whole new world.  Here was the Oaxaca you read about in the travel guides.  The cathedral is surrounded by artisan markets, galleries, coffee shops and you’re walking on cobblestone streets.  The restaurants are pretty and serve the traditional foods Oaxaca is famous for world-wide.  I had to laugh, I instantly had an even better impression of Oaxaca than I already had.  The apartment I have while in language school is actually located three blocks from the cathedral in this area.

marigold streets 2

It was a great illustration of the effect of your perception, expectation and attitude really impacting your perceptions of a place.

sleeping store owner

Business was slow today

BUT, this is not the sole reason I came to Oaxaca and I’m happy for how things played out.  You see the first night I arrived late and stayed in the tourist zone at a very nice hotel near the zocalo.  Riding in from the airport, tired and grouchy and through a rundown section of Oaxaca didn’t leave me excited.  Walking to my current location I used Google Maps to give me the route to my place.  And here’s the thing about Google Maps, I love Google Maps and it’s made traveling a hundred times easier than it used to be.  However, there is no humanity or additional knowledge.  The algorithm picks the “best” meaning the most direct route.  It does not account for the types of things that also matter, how pretty is the route, how safe is the neighborhood you’ll be walking through, hills anyone?

So my first day I took a direct and efficient route that took me down streets that gave me the razor wire and broken glass fence top route.  Again, and I can’t emphasize how safe I feel in Oaxaca, not a terrible place.  We’re not talking about walking through the South Bronx at night in the 80’s.  However, I could just as easily have walked the tourist route that first day up Dia de Los Muertos, skeleton filled and marigold lined decorated streets with a more gently sloping hill.  So today’s walk improved my attitude and allowed me to find some really neat places.  So my friends, watch your attitude and you’ll have happier days.  Below are some photos from today’s Oaxaca explorations, enjoy. ~ Rev Kane

street art 1

street art

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Stranger in a Strange Land

Posted on October 29, 2018 by Michael Kane

Stranger in a Strange Land

church muertos sign

‘Grok’ means to understand so thoroughly that the observer becomes a part of the process being observed — to experience.
~ Dr. Mahmoud (Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land)

Greetings from Oaxaca City, Mexico!

I finally feel like I’m here in Oaxaca City now that I’ve checked into the space I’ll be living in for the first two weeks.  My plan here is pretty simple, two weeks of playing tourist and getting my bearings.  Then four weeks of language school to improve my Spanish language skills while living in my second space.  Right now I have a room in a courtyard with a shared kitchen and bathroom.  Space number two is a full apartment all to myself.  During this period of time I plan to get a bit of writing done, there are things hanging out there that I need to get to.  Primarily my next book of poetry, work on a website project, digging into some fiction projects and my next non-fiction book.

So I’ll be in Oaxaca for at least six weeks, a few weeks in I’ll decide if I want to extend this trip into February or make a move sooner somewhere else.  My initial impressions of Oaxaca is that it is a lovely city.  There certainly is an emphasis on food, art and music so we have that in common.  The town is ramping up heavily for the Dia de Los Muertos festival with decorations going up everywhere, people in costume are on the streets heading to parties and all of the little kids are dressed up.  I love this holiday so much.

I have to admit to a certain weariness at the moment.  I’m not sure if it’s just having had so many nights on so many variable sleeping surfaces or being so many consecutive nights on the road.  More likely it is that on this adventure I’ve spent more time in non-English speaking countries than I ever have before.  It adds to the stress I talked about the other night.  So it will be a careful decision about whether or not I will extend my six weeks in Oaxaca to ten or to move on.  Either way I am really determined to improve my Spanish skills, it frustrates the hell out of me not being able to easily communicate with people.

Stranger in a Strange Land

So I picked tonight’s title and quote very purposefully.  If you have not read Robert Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land you really should.  Most people know the saying but have never read the book.  It is all about a Martian to who comes to Earth in an attempt to Grok earthlings.  I really feel like the Marian right now, trying to Grok everything about Oaxaca.  Especially at the moment, why they have been firing rockets from our neighborhood for the last 48 hours.  They fired them until midnight or so last night and started again at seven this morning.  Think of bottle rockets on steroids, the big boomers without the sparkles from fourth of July.  The concussions have at times been significant enough to set off all the car alarms on the street.  Oaxaca – 1, me groking – 0 at this point.

So far there are four primary reactions to me by people here.  At least 50% pretty much ignore my existence, just another tourist, nothing to see here.  Of the other 50% I get three primary reactions.  The least frequent and most disturbing are the occasional men who just glare at me, they are definitely anti-gringo at every level, one guy stared at me for a third of a block, I didn’t make eye contact but it’s a weird reaction.  Not one that really makes me feel unsafe, but a tad bit unsettling.  The second, is utter fascination.  I get this a lot from little kids.  I think this has a little to do with being a gringo and a bit about size and facial hair.  My friend Larry who has spent some time in Oaxaca made a comment about Oaxacans that has stuck with me, he said, gleefully, “they are so tiny!”  He’s right, the further you get from the tourist section of two the lower the average height gets.  Without exaggeration I have walked by a whole lot of four-foot full-grown adults, especially older folks.  One lady was working at a booth with her six year-old granddaughter and the kid was only about two inches shorter than her grandmother.  So a nearly six-foot, two hundred pound bald man with gleaming white skin and a beard is definitely a bit of an experience, especially for the munchkins.  The third reaction has been utterly friendly.  The women I met at the airport, the folks at my first night’s hotel, my Air BnB host, random smiling folks on the street and some folks at the grocery store.  The usual question, in English is to ask where I’m from, when I say California they all expect me to be from LA.  I think they get a lot of Angelinos in Oaxaca.

The food so far has been good, I’m just getting out but have been eating a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables from the markets and tonight for dinner had my first of the many, many moles they make here.  A little mole verde with pork, it was quite good.

mole verde con pork

By the way, why are the rest of the world barbarians when it comes to salsa.  Since arriving in Mexico not once have I gotten a bowl of salsa that didn’t come with a tiny serving spoon in the bowl.  Really puts an end to the disgusting double dipping that so many people do.  Okay, tangent over.

So, below are a series of photos from the last couple of days, about a third of what I’ve shot already, it’s going to take me months to catch up with all of you on photos, so you’ve got that to look forward to.  Enjoy and have a happy day my friends.  ~ Rev Kane

 

 

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The Stress of Travel and the Wonderful Part as Well

Posted on October 27, 2018 by Michael Kane

The Stress of Travel and the Wonderful Part as Well

travel, mexico, oaxacaIt’s not stress that kills us, it’s our reaction to it. ~ Hans Selye

The very first caveat for this post is that I’m writing this at 10:30PM at the end of a day and a half of travel and I’m very, very tired.  Things always look better after you get some sleep.  I set out from Albany, NY last night, flew to Charlotte, spent the night, got about 5 hours of sleep.  This morning I got a plane from Charlotte to Mexico City, had a 6 hour layover and flew to Oaxaca City, Mexico where I’m writing this from.

STRESS

So travel, particularly travel to a country for months at a time when you don’t speak the language has some built-in stress.  When that country is Mexico you get an extra dose of US media about crime in Mexico.  Then, everyone, right after you tell them you’re moving to Mexico says in concerned and hushed tones, “is it safe?”  And occasionally, “are you crazy, it’s not safe there.”  Add in tonight that the guy on the van to the hotel sat behind me and explained for 10 minutes to his client how she is almost certain to get pickpocketed tomorrow when they go to the market.

The stress of started the day before the trip, I had over estimated how much I had of one of my medications and had to have it rush filled at the pharmacy.  I’d also let my departure date sneak up on me and so was doing last-minute things right to the wall, only to realize in Mexico City, that I had not set travel notifications on my credit cards, and one Citibank, sucks because you can only do it by phone.  Happily, Bank of America let’s me do it online so I was able to rectify that situation tonight at the hotel after I checked in.

The stress on the road is always a bit my fault, I’m always a little too worried about missing planes and that gets ramped up even more when you’re overseas, when you check-in and they give you one boarding pass for a flight with three legs, when every flight is threatening to make you check your carryon that I honestly have no faith will arrive when I do in a foreign country 36 hours later.  It spikes a bit when at the airport in Mexico City where the airport has gates 1-36 and your flight says gate B.  And of course for some reason my phone refuses to get time zones correct, for your reference I’m on Dizney Time (hello John Thorne) otherwise known as Central Standard Time.

The flights didn’t help, first take off this morning was side to side in a similar way to my near death experience in Phoenix 15 years ago.  And the cream of the crop was coming in half sideways to Oaxaca when suddenly the flaps start groaning and the pilot ramps up the engines full speed and pulls a crazy hard bank to the right.  My Spanish comprehension isn’t great but I definitely caught the gist of the pilots speech after, everything is cool, perfectly normal situation, yeah right.

It all builds up over a couple of days, you get worn out and you start second guessing all of your decisions.  Like I said, sleep makes it all look better. Then of course:

The Wonderful Things

First the little things, like asking an older Mexican woman in perfect Spanish if she needs help with her bag, and this older, nervous looking woman falls all over me with gratitude and then smiles and says so you speak Spanish.  I corrected her, then in Mexico City after fumbling my first few conversations in Spanish I had a perfectly lucid conversation with a phone vendor.  I met a cool guy from Austin whose friend is getting married in Oaxaca this weekend and an immigrant from Seattle who was really fun to talk with and having the sunset above the clouds as we flew out of Mexico City be my favorite color, creamsicle blue.  Then arriving in Oaxaca to see Day of the Dead art just bloody everywhere, I’m excited for my photographic opportunities over the next week.

One of the wonderful things today was sitting down next to a mom and daughter and eventually the mom asked if I spoke English.  Her daughter has been studying for several years and she was hoping to practice as they headed for Los Angeles.  Her English was awesome, far better than my Spanish and we had a lovely conversation.  But more than that, there is something really wonderful about someone who is just so incredibly proud of where they are from.  They both created an amazing list of all the places I needed to go, all the food I needed to eat and even took my contact information and have offered to be my tour guides when they return from America.  On top of that, mom even mentioned that since I wasn’t married she had some single friends I needed to meet.  Super nice people.

So I’m here, about to crash and I’m sure I’ll be much higher energy and far more positive in the morning.  Even more so once I’m settled in my Air BnB tomorrow.  Have a happy day my friends. ~ Rev Kane

 

day of the dead, mexico

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Leavin on a Jet Plane

Posted on October 25, 2018 by Michael Kane

Leavin on a Jet Plane

How’s that title for an earworm and in case you have no idea what I mean, here’s a link to Peter, Paul and Mary.  I’m leaving again, well technically, changing locations but I’m leaving my birthplace to head for Mexico tomorrow.  I’m excited for my next temporary home in Oaxaca City, Mexico for the next several months.  My time back in New York has been very good, first of all I’ve seen a lot of people I haven’t seen in decades.  I got a chance to catch some hockey games and of course it has all corresponded with the fall colors in New York, including some great photographic opportunities in cemeteries.

It’s been great as well to spend time with my nieces and nephews all who are happily as nuts as I am apparently.

It’s been funny telling people I’m going to Mexico.  First, no one has any bloody idea where Oaxaca City is so here’s a little map to help.  The next country east is Guatemala.

Second, everyone asks me, “is it safe.”  The only answer I’m giving these days is one of the cultural norms from Burning Man pictured below.

safety third, burning manIt’s as safe as it can be, as safe as it will be, life is inherently dangerous friends.  I’m excited to start language school, to celebrate one of my favorite holidays, the Day of the Dead in the country of the holiday’s origin, for more photography and especially writing time, hoping to have my next poetry book published by Christmas.  It’s time to leave the northeast, my favorite time of year is transition to my least favorite time here, so it’s time to go.  I see many happy days ahead and I hope you do as well my friends. ~ Rev Kane

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A Beautiful Fall Day

Posted on October 22, 2018 by Michael Kane

A Beautiful Fall Day

fall header

Now Autumn’s fire burns slowly along the woods and day by day the dead leaves fall and melt. ~ William Allingham

Today was just a really wonderful day, the kind of day you hope to have when you’re on the road.  First, I was in Plattsburgh, NY a place I went to college.  The thing is when I toured SUNY Plattsburgh, the tour guide told me it was a really special place.  I rolled my eyes, it would be my third college and honestly a college was  a college was my  thought.  I was wrong.  My time at SUNY Plattsburgh would turn out to be three of  the best years of my life, I’ve held on to more lifelong friends from there than I have from anywhere else I’ve been.  Sure, I was lucky to be around good people, sure I was making better decisions in my life at that time, sure there were great staff and faculty at the institution but I maintain there is something really special about that college and I’m far from alone in that opinion.

So I started the morning having breakfast with a close friend from those days and one of the staff members that was really helpful to me while I was there.  It was great to catch up, the conversation was lively and deep, not just the silly chit chat you often get from folks.  I left to head for a cemetery near Montpelier, VT to do some photography.  It was a really crisp fall day, I love this time of year in the Northeast.  It was around 40 degrees, the kind of cold fall air that when you draw it in stings just a bit but the air tastes clean and clear.  It also helps that I was driving through multicolored landscapes, as if nature had decided to turn Monet loose and let him do his thing on a global scale.

I’ve been photographing the fall colors for the last week, I’ll have some cemetery posts coming out soon, but tonight, just a pile of fall color photos, enjoy and have a happy day my friends. ~ Rev Kane

 

fall 4

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Happiness is Art: Some of My Favorite Poets

Posted on October 15, 2018 by Michael Kane

Happiness is Art: Some of My Favorite Poets

01An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way.  An artist says a hard thing in a simple way. ~ Charles Bukowski

Happiness is Poetry: Bukowski

Even More Bukowski

Warsan Shire

Warsan Shire

At the end of the day, it isn’t where I came from. Maybe home is somewhere I’m going and never have been before. ~ Warsan Shire

Some of her poems

Happiness is Poetry: Warsan Shire, Again

More of her work

01“Art” without the blood and torment Mickey Mouse without the mouse turds. ~ from Illumination Information

Happiness is Poetry: Doug Draime

Six Poems

Other Poetry Posts You Might Enjoy!

Rev Kane

Pablo Neruda

Hosho McCreesh

Langston Hughes

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Photographing, Montjuic Cemetery – Part 1

Posted on October 13, 2018 by Michael Kane

Photographing, Montjuic Cemetery – Part 1

cemetery, photography, spain

Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving.  What you have captured on film is captured forever…it remembers the little things long after you have forgotten everything. ~ Aaron Siskind

I love photographing cemeteries.  I know this and recently I actually asked myself why.  I can think of a lot of factors.  My fascination/fear of death, the beautiful quiet that you often find at cemeteries, the care taken in creating the monuments, the pure aesthetic beauty of the setting and monuments.  It does seem to me to be at one level kind of morbid, but I can’t get past how really beautiful the photos come out, and how much I enjoy shooting in cemeteries.  So as you can tell I really haven’t come up with a satisfactory answer.

On the way to Barcelona I did a Google search on things to do in Barcelona.  One of the things that came up in the search was Montjuic Cemetery.  So I found an afternoon and headed off to the cemetery, although cemetery seems an insufficient definition of Montjuic.  First, it’s a mountain, literally a mountain of dead people, carefully laid out as a city of the dead.  In one section the crypt numbers are above 20,000+ which is really amazing to me and that may only have been for that section.

Montjuic was a really amazing place and by far my favorite monument is the one below.  A monument depicting a man with his foot on the throat of a turtle while holding a double-sided axe.  I have no idea how this imagery related to the deceased and I love it because it is by far the most bizarre monument I have ever encountered.

cemetery, photography, spain

I shot for over four hours on Mountjuic and honestly I hope to return some day and shoot for two full days because I covered such a small part of the mountain.  Below are a bunch of images from the cemetery, enjoy. ~ Rev Kane

 

 

 

 

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Learning to Relax Again

Posted on October 11, 2018 by Michael Kane

Learning to Relax Again

I’ve always been active – outdoors, on the beach, playing – and so to go home, and have to sit on my couch to relax…it’s frustrating.  Sometimes you really just have to shut yourself down. ~ Landon Donovan

About six months ago someone who doesn’t know me very well told me they didn’t think I was someone who could ever just relax.  She meant it as a compliment, inferring that I was someone who is productive and gets things done.  I replied that I was one of the laziest humans she could imagine.  What I’m coming to realize is that both impressions seem to becoming the truth about me.  First, I am lazy, seriously, I have the potential to watch hours of football and movies and eat, everything all day, for days.  One of the reasons I don’t own a video game system, or have any games on my computers or phones is that I can spend hours playing games without even noticing the time go by.  On the flip-side, lying around today just watching an episode of Babylon 5 on Amazon I felt like I was wasting time.

This is the dichotomy that lives in my brain.  It’s the ability to completely tune out in battle with the thought that I have one life and I need to use my time effectively, achieve something, create something to live by the Ben Franklin motto I’ve adopted for my life.

life, living, quote

My motto in life

The one thing that splits the difference is reading, funny how that holds this special place in my life.  As long as I’m reading a book, even for pure pleasure, I never see that as wasting time.

I’m trying to get back to being more accepting of just relaxing.  Taking time to stare at the clouds, watch snow flakes fall, stare at the stars or just lay down and listen to music.  Relaxation has so many benefits in life, decreasing blood pressure and stress, reduces chronic pain, etc… so working it regularly into your routine is a really beneficial thing.  So, I guess I’ll take my own advice, publish this and go watch a little Babylon 5 and try not to feel bad about it, besides, technically I’m on vacation.  ~ Rev Kane

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The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Posted on October 10, 2018 by Michael Kane

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

starry night selfie

The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily lives off our souls. ~ Pablo Picasso

bryant park, nyc, new york

So after coming stateside I spent a really wonderful day hanging out with my brother’s family in Brooklyn.  My little 3 year-old nephew has every construction site, including the color of any excavator involved memorized.  It’s really cute, he also has an extreme fascination with one particular crane.  My other nephew I fully believe thinks I’m a moron.  Anytime I joke or are sarcastic he very directly and very seriously explains to me the situation.  He’s quite smart and incredibly sweet and I hope someday he starts to think I’m smarter.

moma rose

From there I jumped over to Manhattan for a couple of days, to see friends and have dinner in Bryant Park as well as spend a day at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, home of my favorite painting, Van Gogh’s, Starry Night.

moma starry night

For tonight’s post, simply just a collection of some of my favorite pieces from the museum.  I honestly have a love/hate relationship with modern art.  Love some, Jackson Pollack’s work, really love some Picasso and not so impressed with some of the standards like Monet.  And I absolutely consider some of the famous square paintings, and the blank canvases as a total farce.  But to each their own I guess.  Here are the pieces I liked, enjoy and have a happy day. ~ Rev Kane

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Come out, come out wherever you are?

Posted on October 8, 2018 by Michael Kane

Come out, come out wherever you are?

quote, happinessA friend is someone who give your permission to be yourself. ~ Jim Morrison

I’m back in my hometown for a couple of weeks before I head off to Mexico.  Yesterday I had the opportunity to have coffee with a friend I haven’t seen in probably ten years.  She’d been one of the readers for my last book of poetry, Otherness.  She wanted to tell me that she felt the book, my poetry, had played some small piece in her healing process, that it reminded her she was not alone.  I was honored to have helped in any way, excited and flattered to know that the book had done, even in some small way, to do exactly what I hoped it would.  It’s what I wrote in the forward to the book.

otherness, book, writing

Otherness

The reason I’m writing about this today is because this meeting with my friend is a reminder that we all need to tell our own story, to offer positivity because you never know when speaking your truth might help someone on their own journey.  So come out, come out wherever you are and tell  your story.  Be yourself and proud of who you are and have a happy day my friend. ~ Rev Kane

 

You can find Otherness and my other book Appalachian Trail Happiness, about my time on the Appalachian Trail, on Amazon.com.

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