Friday, August 27, 2010

All I Can Figure is You're All Astounded....

All I can figure is you're all astounded into silence by my recent spate of blogs. I mean, nobody is answering except my friend G, who posted the same thing five times. Which means he was having a great night on apple cider or the trembling set in....and given that he's a freaking surgeon, let's just hope it was a great night. There was one post, from someone who didn't read my book, who wanted to know who Papa Viejo and the women of Loreto were. Papa Viejo was an old Matses headman and warrior--he fought the Peruvian military as recently as 1970 or so--who has a great scene in my book. He never became my friend for real but he certainly influenced me and his daughter Irene and some of his sons did become my friends--though Irene still looks at me like she looks at a tapir on a trap spike: Good lunch, nothing more. The women of Loreto are the women who are charapitas, women born in the area of Iquitos, Peru. Generally 2-3-4 generations from genuine indigenous life, they still have deep indigenous genetic roots--like my wife/ex-wife Chepa--with so many of their behaviors, including a secret language, a sort of a jungle Pig Latin that only the women are taught, an indigenous part of their day to day lives.
So what is it? Bored to death? What do you want me to do, come over to your houses and shake you up? Want me to write in big letters? Want me to add pictures to this perfectly clean blog? Want me to tell more Madeleina stories? I would tell you more Sierra and Alexa stories but I have not seen either one of them since May 31, and that's driving me crazy. I will see them in about 10-12 days, if all goes well, and then I will have new stories for sure. But for now? What I've got to write about is what I've got. And you guys got to go with that. If it's ayahuasca, let it be. Learn something even if you never use the stuff.
If it's cooking, go with that too, even if all you ever eat is chips. People will be impressed if you rattle off my simple but elegant recipes.
Madeleina just walked through he room saying, "Father, you're number one...!!!" as if I didn't notice that she was taking another handful of the best green grapes in the world with her after I told her no more grapes till after swordfish dinner...
And Marco came in last night and this morning my wallet was $13 lighter. Not that he can possibly imagine that a semi-broke dad actually knows how much money is in his wallet till next payday....HAHAHAHA!
And now I'm going out to do some painting on my new porch fence. It was painted three times or so while it was just in 2x4 form, but now that it's been cut and placed, it needs a couple of coats more to look right.
As for you? I don't know. Maybe it's my fault. Maybe I'm putting you all to sleep. Or maybe I'm just stunning you into silence with wonderful takes on daily occurrences.....either way, unless somebody starts talking I'm gonna assume you all died and then light candles for ya.
Or I'll just forgive your silence, figure you're still paying attention--QUIZ TOMORROW AND GOD HELP YOU IF YOU FAIL!!!--and keep wriiting. Love to everybody. Hug a tree or insolent teen today. Hint: Trees don't curse back. But they do have insidious ants.
Peace out....or Please, out...or Peas, mashed...
Gorman

10 comments:

The Grudge said...

Hey Peter, I love your posts. Some of the content, for myself, leaves me speechless. I don't know how to add anything to the conversation other than "thanks for sharing," which gets old after a while. Hope you and your family are all well of health. I love to hang out with you. Heck I would help out with repairs and yard work. I need a break from my life.

Jin said...

Peter,

I enjoy your blog...I gotta get your book. I wanna go on one of your excursions to the jungle. Thank you for sharing.

Anonymous said...

We are still reading, we are just kinda busy.
But not to busy to read about your adventures big or small.So keep the beer cold and fingers pressing the keys!
Take care ,
Steve

Bill said...

Peter, you know we love you, but this is a blog, man--a one-way street. You write; we read. No further obligations.

If you want a dialogue, start a BBS.

phoenix said...

Yo, I'm still around. I loved the book and i feel honored to have met a lot of the people in it and got to meet you. thanks for the stories and the experiences. you're A-Ok in my book.

Gritter said...

OK mister, here ya go. Tonight I made Bulgogi with kimchi and enjoyed it with a fine Chilean Cabernet. What a glorious tongue party.

Dr. Grossman said...

I read every post, just that I usually don't have much to say. If I do, I say it.

You're appreciated, Peter. I don't have time to read a lot of blogs and yours is one of the only ones I read every post of.

Johan said...

I am reading, and try to pipe in when I have something to say.

It is different if one reads a blog talking a lot about politics or something that really invites to heated discussions.

But if you want to have a bit more interaction, maybe try to open up a dialog through a post. I mean just make the last paragraph a question, like "any of my readers done the same thing", or "should I really get these pink shorts?"

Photos would be appreciated too :)

Glen said...

Hey Peter,

Hello from Ireland. Had to sign up to google blog-thingy to post a comment here. No ticket, no laundry. I'm still tuning in. I'm also still banging on about your book to friends. Particularly after a feed of Guinness. I feel that's when people listen to me more closely.

Unknown said...

Hi Peter,

We spoke briefly at the conference last month, and I've been checking in on your blog since I read your book recently. I borrowed a copy from Alan--sorry, but I am a semi-broke writer myself, hope you understand.

I've been writing about ayahuasca some myself and I enjoyed reading your experiences in the book. I must admit that, like another of your readers, I was puzzled by ayahuasca's request for fresh meat! IT's an enigmatic thing to say, for sure.

I really liked your blog comments about domination and ayahuasca, it rings very true for me. It's not all peace and love in the spirit world, there are bullies and downright bad entities out there. In a way it's kind of like middle school. You have to stand up for yourself to make any progress, and that means controlling your fear.

I also like your take on jungle girls. My girlfriend is from Iquitos, and she is hot-tempered but very loving, like a lot of the girls here. She is due with our first child in six weeks. Tonight we are having paiche a la plancha with fried bananas, a very charapa meal!

take care, hope to see you again here or stateside.