10/23/06
Home from Mark Victor Hansen--
a real healing adventure.
Stopped in to see Best Friend/Twin Soul
this morning before ocming home.
In retrospect could have spent the night up there,
but my spirit was basically wanting be to get home.
My set up day for the Pacific Symposium is next Wednesday.
Got a great book in the mail today--
that hits me in different ways.
The more I read, the more nastalgic I feel.
I was Richard's first snake hunting buddy.
he mentions me on page 11, a one liner, and most
of this book is about his Arizona adventures
with Buz. We had some great adventures too. We went
through puberty together. His car was
an instrument of our freedom as teens.
Richard Lapidus has self-published
"Snake Hunting on the Devil's Highway."
Richard has had done a lovely job with this book.
We were in Jr. High together...that's where we met.
We hit the road when we were 16...he is born in May,
I in November. He got his license to drive right at 16.
We would go out to the Borrego Springs and look for snakes.
Richard tells me Buz was classified as terminal
from Cancer but escaped the hospital. A week later he and Richard
were out snake hunting. He told the hospital he was not going
to die. He is alive today, many years later.
Richard, has a delightful writing style.
He writes, "I often think of those warm summer nights,
especially after a rain, how the humidity had a certain smell,
where you just knew something good was going to happen. I remember
how good the coffee tasted at 2:00 a.m. when poured out of a thermos.
I thnk of Larry' how he embarrassed me in the Sunizona Cafe, and how
I got my revenge. And sometimes I wonder if the devil made me do it,
being on Highway 666 and all. I remember the poor, disoriented cottontail
rabbit weaving back and forth in front of the car. I think of Bux standing
on an old broken ladder in the dark mine, chipping away at a vein of practically
worthless sivler with bats flying around....
I always recall the absolute wonder of hiking in the Monument, the picturesque
ston pillars and balanced rocks,the smell of pine, the squawking of birds,
or the complete silence.
Other times I think of how much fun it was exploring deserted ghost towns,
or seeing the sights in quaint historic places like Bisbee and Tombstone.
When I become reflective and think of these things, I usually tell myself,
yes, but that ws then and this is now. You're older now. You've moved on.
Buz has moved on. The road has changed and conditions are no longer appropriate.
A few years ago, I hung up my snake hook and put my flashlight in a place
where it could be found in a power outage.
These days when I look in the mirror, a different person stares back.
The untimate truth is, we're only young once. we should life life to the fullest
when we have the chance. I did tbat tbrough hunting snakes, and I have no
regrets."
--Richard Lapidus
This is a lovely book.
Go to Http://www.snakehuntingbook.com