TOAY IS DAN"S BIRTHDAY!!! lets take some time out of our busy lives to say,
"happy birthday to you
happy birthday to you
happy birthday dear dan!
happy birthday to you!"

birthdays are cool. they remind us we are growing and progressing-and although many people may think getting older is a bad thing (especially in america where they wanna sell you a remedy for everything, including age...i mean really? a remedy for age?--i digress)
i think birthdays a re abeautiful thing. people say its all downhill after 21, i think its all uphill.
you get wiser, stronger, smarter (hopefully---)
you realize thing you may have done wrong, you begin to want to atone for these things, some of us begin to care less what others thing and thereby gain more freedom to be ourselves.

today dan turns 33, but it is not his age that is what matters. it is the reminder that he, like all of us, is growing and turning along with our world. and although i know a few people with this birthday, today i turn attention to him. Dan is the man. thats how i first explained him to my mother. a man with a wonderful sense of perception, grace, patience and empathy. he reminds me where i am lacking and also where i remain strong. he isd not perfect--a testament to how we beleive we are right, but must remember we are all usually wrong.

the otherday i got a text from someone (who i had been ignoring for some time to take time for myself and detract from energy spending with people that are not an integral part of my life). the text said something along the lines of text me back, i have something to tell you real bad. thinking some kind of life changing or terrible mishap happened, i text back and to my dismay it is (although tragic) a selfish display if immaturity. this knd of urgency to let me know that two months ago HE was injured and will not be playing football this season. what this had to do with me baffled me, and i proceeded into meaningless texts, about HIS birthday coming up (which also happens to be today) and what HE is doing, and why i havent talked to HIM. I explained as briefly as possible, that i have stopped communicating with those that i dont see on a regular basis, with the exception of family. and then got asked "WHY?" Do i need a reason any more complex than i dont feel like it. or its a waste of my energy when im not getting anything in return? (thats not sefish, its called being wisely self centered)

Today is Dan's birthday, a good day for me to wish him happiness and remind him he is wiser, not older. his age is only a number--his wisdom, something that cannot be numbered-is ageless. his influence, something that cannot be measured.

I write about Dan, because without him--in all honesty, i dont think i would be at the place mentally (or physically) that i am now. He has filled my days witha perspective unmatched. this doesnt mean i think he is always right, but most of the time, he is close to right.

in islam, birthdays are not celebrated, they are considered to take away from the ever glorious god, or be a thing of childhood. i think not. the day we are born represents so much. a oneness with the earth and space and change from the time we were born to now. a showing of progress, a day to indulge in ourselves and not give our energy out freely for all to suck us dry.

dan told me today-in a response text that i should write music. but to start with a poem or two.

here goes:


smiles are the words of the soul,
they speak softly, grow quietly
curled between ears, lips bent in graciousness
let us speak more from the soul
happy birthday!

Good Morning! Words of inspiration for your day.

To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, — that is genius. Speak your latent conviction, and it shall be the universal sense; for the inmost in due time becomes the outmost...
In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts: they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty. Great works of art have no more affecting lesson for us than this. They teach us to abide by our spontaneous impression with good-humored inflexibility then most when the whole cry of voices is on the other side. Else, to-morrow a stranger will say with masterly good sense precisely what we have thought and felt all the time, and we shall be forced to take with shame our own opinion from another.

There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried.

Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events. Great men have always done so, and confided themselves childlike to the genius of their age, betraying their perception that the absolutely trustworthy was seated at their heart, working through their hands, predominating in all their being. And we are now men, and must accept in the highest mind the same transcendent destiny; and not minors and invalids in a protected corner, not cowards fleeing before a revolution, but guides, redeemers, and benefactors, obeying the Almighty effort, and advancing on Chaos and the Dark.

Infancy conforms to nobody: all conform to it, so that one babe commonly makes four or five out of the adults who prattle and play to it. Their mind being whole, their eye is as yet unconquered, and when we look in their faces, we are disconcerted. So God has armed youth and puberty and manhood no less with its own piquancy and charm, and made it enviable and gracious and its claims not to be put by, if it will stand by itself. Do not think the youth has no force, .... in the next room his voice is sufficiently clear and emphatic. It seems he knows how to speak to his contemporaries. Bashful or bold, then, he will know how to make us seniors very unnecessary.

Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the world. I remember an answer which when quite young I was prompted to make to a valued adviser, who was wont to importune me with the dear old doctrines of the church. On my saying, What have I to do with the sacredness of traditions, if I live wholly from within? my friend suggested, — "But these impulses may be from below, not from above." I replied, "They do not seem to me to be such; but if I am the Devil's child, I will live then from the Devil." No law can be sacred to me but that of my nature. Good and bad are but names very readily transferable to that or this; the only right is what is after my constitution, the only wrong what is against it.


this is just the beginning...i would put the whole thing, but prefer to simply post a link. you may finish this essay at the ease of your comfort. take comfort in ralph's words, as they may be your opinions manifested.

http://www.emersoncentral.com/selfreliance.htm

Concerts: upcoming

rock the bells is happening--->i wont be there for the first time 4 years. really only desire to see reflection eternal and of course, nas and damian marley...but the time, distance and money arent really worth it, as i have seen all except damian marley before...

ill take time to reflect on previous rock the bells. the past 3 have all been awesome for the most part.

the first one i attened was in SF--near club mighty..red and meth were headlining along with busta rhymes...i came in time to catch these finals acts, as most of the day had passed...after the show we attended club mighty for the afterparty and had a great time...kickin it with red and meth...

i missed the next, as i had a family event in vermont i was obligated to go to...which was a blast---but had to miss out on m def...so i guess i have missed one in the last four yrs...anyway....

the year before last headlined by rage was dope. kev and i took the great trek up to glen helen by train and cab...watched as dope act after dope act performed, mos def, the roots had a GREAT set, cypress hill, wu tang and finally rage came out and shut it down. people were dancing around bon fires on the lawn and moshing like ti was going out of style. kev and i made some friends and got a ride to glendale...cab to hollywood from there...long day--well worth it..even though i messed up my penny 2s.

LAST YEAR: not quite as lively as the year before, but made up for this with the pharcyde performing!! prob the best of the night, tribe, nas, mos def....and we rushed the stage halfway through, but were eventually kicked out back to the lawn...had to take a 100dollar cab back to LA as i was too tired to spend 6 more at the denny's in burbank...

this year, i will be working from this morning, till sunday morning, no time for fun, money for my honey...

Mos Def has a show coming up with badu as the opener...be there or be square...

All Things Macish

This is the first post here at downtowntuli.blogspot.com.....my new blog
a place for all things tuli mac, where we get it poppin, push the hard line and recognize game...from the bay to LA all things me