Akiva's paradox
After living here for over 20 months I have seen people come and people go. Akiva is one of those who have left. I knew him before he started living here. He has a wiry frame, tends to hunch over and a nasal voice. Black longish hair frames his head and a black scraggly beard hides his face - or at least last year it did. Akiva was paradoxical and I still have mixed feelings about him and his being here.
When he arrived, Akiva talked a good game. He spoke enthusiastically about the estate: "It's so beautiful here!", "I am so honored to be here!", "This land is so special!" etc. After several months of this kind of talk {with nothing to show for it in terms of actually doing anything}, I found myself resenting his constant presence in the kitchen listening to NPR's daily B.S. about the legalized(?) murder and torture taking place in Iraq and other countries though out the world.
One thing that blows my mind about Akiva is that he was able to circular breathe through a didjeridoo within 10-20 seconds of my first lesson. After teaching him and giving him a piece of PVC to practice on, I never saw him play again. It makes me wonder about the importance of the challenge. I suspect that the 2 and 1/2 years it took me to circular breathe through a didj helped me to appreciate it. The struggle and difficulty gave it value.
Presently, Akiva resides in Israel as an Israeli citizen. He'd talked about going there for years. He'd talked so much about going for so long that I'd guess no one thought he'd do it. Now, he's lived there for over a year and is doing well from what his brother Eric tells me. Akiva's gig is permaculture and Israel is desperate for folks who have this valuable knowledge.
While here, he put in about one day of work over a 4 to 6 month period. The most work he did was deconstructing a floor that I'd spent 17 hours putting in. Down in the barranca we used to have 2 tee pees. One is gone. The one I'd stayed in is now occupied by Millennium.
Akiva liked to play the guitar and sing his own songs. One day we got into a conversation about time. I basically gave him my humble opinion that we create time. That's why we have timepieces - so that we all create the same time. Otherwise we'd have difficulty perceiving each other. I said something about existence being a record. Our awareness is the needle. We have the innate ability to change the speed of the record, the RPMs. The more present we are - the slower time gets. When our life is threatened - it becomes possible to slow time down to such a degree that split seconds are experienced as minutes. There are other various devices to slow time down as well. I also went on to explain more of my limited perspective; hypothesizing that women seem to exist in a slightly slower time than men. This allows them to process information faster and give the appearance of greater intelligence in some of the neurological paradigms.
Akiva really listened to this monologue. His eyes spun around in spirals and he said something like: "Wow, dude, that makes a lot of sense. I think you’re really on to something." That night he performed at a Farmer's Market in Ojai. He told me after the fact that he'd repeated what I said to the various onlookers.
He also witnessed my most challenging experience that I've had while living here. This was when the big 6-4 300 LB South African electrician, James Ross, threatened to "beat the shit out of me". I'll spare you the ridiculous details of Ross' meltdown. Suffice to say, he has a history of flipping out over nothing. What got me was Akiva's spineless reaction - seven feet away when this terroristic threat against me occurred.
My response to Ross: "911, Jimmy. You ever threaten me again: 911. I've got witnesses." I say to Akiva: "Can you believe he threatened me?"
"I didn't hear a thing."
At that point I just walk away.
Some how though, Akiva overcame his fears and went to Israel. From my experience knowing him over the years and then having to share a kitchen among other spaces, I never thought he'd go. Thus, it’s nice to be proven wrong. He went there because he thought that he could have a positive impact and stop the profoundly meaningless slaughter and waste of sacred human life. Godspeed Akiva.
When he arrived, Akiva talked a good game. He spoke enthusiastically about the estate: "It's so beautiful here!", "I am so honored to be here!", "This land is so special!" etc. After several months of this kind of talk {with nothing to show for it in terms of actually doing anything}, I found myself resenting his constant presence in the kitchen listening to NPR's daily B.S. about the legalized(?) murder and torture taking place in Iraq and other countries though out the world.
One thing that blows my mind about Akiva is that he was able to circular breathe through a didjeridoo within 10-20 seconds of my first lesson. After teaching him and giving him a piece of PVC to practice on, I never saw him play again. It makes me wonder about the importance of the challenge. I suspect that the 2 and 1/2 years it took me to circular breathe through a didj helped me to appreciate it. The struggle and difficulty gave it value.
Presently, Akiva resides in Israel as an Israeli citizen. He'd talked about going there for years. He'd talked so much about going for so long that I'd guess no one thought he'd do it. Now, he's lived there for over a year and is doing well from what his brother Eric tells me. Akiva's gig is permaculture and Israel is desperate for folks who have this valuable knowledge.
While here, he put in about one day of work over a 4 to 6 month period. The most work he did was deconstructing a floor that I'd spent 17 hours putting in. Down in the barranca we used to have 2 tee pees. One is gone. The one I'd stayed in is now occupied by Millennium.
Akiva liked to play the guitar and sing his own songs. One day we got into a conversation about time. I basically gave him my humble opinion that we create time. That's why we have timepieces - so that we all create the same time. Otherwise we'd have difficulty perceiving each other. I said something about existence being a record. Our awareness is the needle. We have the innate ability to change the speed of the record, the RPMs. The more present we are - the slower time gets. When our life is threatened - it becomes possible to slow time down to such a degree that split seconds are experienced as minutes. There are other various devices to slow time down as well. I also went on to explain more of my limited perspective; hypothesizing that women seem to exist in a slightly slower time than men. This allows them to process information faster and give the appearance of greater intelligence in some of the neurological paradigms.
Akiva really listened to this monologue. His eyes spun around in spirals and he said something like: "Wow, dude, that makes a lot of sense. I think you’re really on to something." That night he performed at a Farmer's Market in Ojai. He told me after the fact that he'd repeated what I said to the various onlookers.
He also witnessed my most challenging experience that I've had while living here. This was when the big 6-4 300 LB South African electrician, James Ross, threatened to "beat the shit out of me". I'll spare you the ridiculous details of Ross' meltdown. Suffice to say, he has a history of flipping out over nothing. What got me was Akiva's spineless reaction - seven feet away when this terroristic threat against me occurred.
My response to Ross: "911, Jimmy. You ever threaten me again: 911. I've got witnesses." I say to Akiva: "Can you believe he threatened me?"
"I didn't hear a thing."
At that point I just walk away.
Some how though, Akiva overcame his fears and went to Israel. From my experience knowing him over the years and then having to share a kitchen among other spaces, I never thought he'd go. Thus, it’s nice to be proven wrong. He went there because he thought that he could have a positive impact and stop the profoundly meaningless slaughter and waste of sacred human life. Godspeed Akiva.
posted by Dij at 11:01 PM
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