seriously, honestly, for real

      There is not a you or a me in every place,” he said to me the night we met. And it was true, and its wisdom traveled far beyond the simplicity of the words. It’s a rare thing when someone understands you so profoundly, and almost instantly, and appears in front of the walls you’ve built to protect yourself. And you realize those walls are no longer needed and you let them down. And the sun shines in.

      L.A. is one of the most bizarre places on Earth, and it has an equally singular smell. The clear, alluring track of its scent is arresting. There’s the ocean breeze from Santa Monica that can travel as far East as Silver Lake; a dry desert air that comes West over Downtown and South Central; the astringent balm of eucalyptus, pine, honeysuckle, and jasmine from the hills; and car exhaust from catalytic converters, which is, in its strange industrial way, beautiful. It’s like the jolt of a drug: shifting, comforting, cool like a blanket. The lonely smell of the marine layer burns off and you get this flashy perfume of hot asphalt, engines, and sun block that you can find nowhere but in L.A.

      Comparison is a very foolish attitude, because each person is unique and incomparable. Once this understanding settles in you, jealousy disappears.

      He’s my lifeline, in an amazing way. Without him, I can’t breathe.

      The pope recently said gay marriage is a threat to humanity. Actually, the biggest threat to humanity’s future is overpopulation and the depletion of resources necessary to sustain human life. Therefore, gay marriage is a miraculous and beneficial biological mutation that allows people to live fulfilling interpersonal relationships while curbing population growth and providing additional homes for society’s unwanted children. Duh.

      This is what you shall do; Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body.