Every man is an Angel; and every man is the Wolf.
*
Trippers and askers surround me;
People I meet—the effect upon me of my early life, or the ward and city I live in,
or the nation,
The latest dates, discoveries, inventions, societies, authors old and new,
My dinner, dress, associates, looks, compliments, dues,
The real or fancied indifference of some man or woman I love,
The sickness of one of my folks, or of myself, or ill-doing, or loss or lack of money,
or depressions or exaltations;
Battles, the horrors of fratricidal war, the fever of doubtful news, the fitful events;
These come to me days and nights, and go from me again,
But they are not the Me myself.
Apart from the pulling and hauling stands what I am;
Stands amused, complacent, compassionating, idle, unitary;
Looks down, is erect, or bends an arm on an impalpable certain rest,
Looking with side-curved head, curious what will come next;
Both in and out of the game, and watching and wondering at it.
Backward I see in my own days where I sweated through fog with linguists and contenders; I have no mockings or arguments—I witness and wait.
—Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass
*
“All contradictions may be found in me ... bashful, insolent; chaste, lascivious; talkative, taciturn; tough, delicate; clever, stupid; surly, affable; lying, truthful; learned, ignorant; liberal, miserly and prodigal; all this I see in myself to some extent according to how I turn.... I have nothing to say about myself absolutely, simply and solidly, without confusion and without mixture, or in one word.” —Michel de Montaigne
*
“In each individual the spirit is made flesh, in each one the whole of creation suffers, in each one a Savior is crucified.” —Hermann Hesse, Demian
*
Werewolves prowl the Web by night, call them what you will. They no longer buy into the corporate sponsored propaganda of politicians; they have no faith in corporation churches or the suits and vestments of those who manage them. Disenfranchised from a society that would rather be entertained than enlightened, they seek another Way, a different path. This is the home of one of them.
I rank the following among my heroes: my father, my brothers (by blood and by temperament), Joe Strummer, Thomas Jefferson, Joni Mitchell, Abbie Hoffman, Bobby Seale, Che Guevara, Emiliano Zapata, Frida Kahlo, John Lennon (Mark David Chapman shot the wrong Beatle), Jesus, the Dalai Lama, Jimmy Carter, Gloria Steinem, James Dean, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, J.L. Moehring, Walt Whitman, Octavio Paz, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Danny Ortega, Studs Terkel, Richard Brautigan, Rembrandt, Bruce Cockburn, Carl Sandburg, any of the Baroque composers, Russell Means, Eddie Hinton, Mohandas Gandhi, the 1920s Lost Generation writers and artists, Miles Davis, Whoopie Goldberg and Alberts Einstein and Camus — and a cast of thousands more.
Be quiet now. The moon is full. Free the werewolves.