friday’s post of cool stuff #51: my gift for japan

don’t know how to start this one, folks. it’s personal. i’ve been through floods and earthquakes. i’ve lived in california when the ground gave way and new orleans when the wind blew and the water rose faster than many could free themselves from. i’ve experienced much of the wrath of a planet trying to push off the sickness that we, as polluting parasites, have inflicted upon her. shall we perish, it is probably what we deserve.

f***ing hippy bull***t, i know, so here’s more.

i have two chinese characters tattooed on the left of my neck. yes, they’re chinese and i know tonight it’s japanese night but i have a point. to make this short, the top tat is from the i ching, and it’s named “chen.” translated into english, chen simply means “shake.” it’s meaning is a thunderous fright that comes from below, like an earthquake. it’s one of the basic eight trigrams in the 64 hexagrams of which carl jung called “the encyclopedia of the collective unconscious.” while it is one of the basic eight trigrams, it is not number one, nor number seven through eight. in the i ching, it is number 51.

as is tonight’s post.

when things like this happen in my life, these “coincidences,” i know from experience to tell you it is important. it is not about me and i do not possess the wisdom to know what it is that is coming, but it will be shocking, and the earthquake and it’s following tsunami in japan will play an important role. hopefully, as chen has always revealed to me, it will eventually arouse and inspire, but only through sacrifice, which i’d bet many of you already know is also coming, to japan, and the world.

my faith is that day will soon come, that joyful day of summer, and i pray for the japanese people to be a part of it. my gift is simply stating that i believe this will be true one day. hopefully soon. it is all i have and all i can do.

ahh…. that’s better. on a sad day, the woman who inexplicably loves me looks at me like that and asks things like, “do you need a massage,” or “would you like a lemonade/beer/sandwich?” i always say yes.

you know what else makes me happy? black and gold:

that is a kickass yamaha rd350 two-stroke built by twinline motorcycles in seattle. check out the blog to see their 1975 kawasaki s1 café racer. yep. that’s a rare one all right. all those 250 cc’s screaming from an inline triple. interesting. bet she revs to a million. check it out.

yes, it’s japanese because a true metric is a *** bike like a honda, yamaha or kawasaki, even if the chopper, bobber, or cafe racer is customized in america. i just toss in the brit and euro stuff because i can. but i prefer to stick to as many true metrics as possible. tonight i must.

it’s a slim “cool post” this week, but i’m having trouble concentrating on making this all fun like i don’t care, as i am usually able to do. so here’s to next week, and the safety of those we know and love in japan.

Get the best of bikerMetric directly in your inbox, once a week, every week.