Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Back on the Scene

Yikes! Y'all need to remind me not to spend so much time away from here. But, I'm back on the scene and ready to express myself to all of you again. Just to let you all know, I didn't make it on to Last Comic Standing. I did get an opportunity to audition, but alas, the judges decided to pass. No biggie. Time to move on. I would like to congratulate Felipe Esparza for winning the latest season of Last Comic Standing. I've had the opportunity to perform with him in the same shows early in my career. He was always very encouraging and I wish him nothing but the best.

Today, I want to talk to y'all about the movie, "Fight Club". This movie has had a significant influence on my life and the way that I view the world. In the movie, Brad Pitt's character says - The things you own end up owning you. It's only after you lose everything that you're free to do anything. It hit me pretty hard when he said that. See, I never realized how much of a burden that owning houses, nice cars, and HD TV's can be. Most people spend their lives working jobs they hate in order to acquire those things. And, when they finally get them, they lack joy and fulfillment in their lives. It's like all that effort was for nothing.

But, ever since that movie came out, I've wanted to live a simple life. I took a step in that direction the past few days, by getting rid of a lot of "junk" that I've accumulated over the years. I got rid of a lot of books that I barely read, CD's that I already loaded into my ITunes, a bunch of different scraps of paper and junk mail. I got rid of a lot of notebooks of jokes that I stopped telling many years ago. I got rid of a lot of clothes that I no longer wear or no longer fit me. The goal is to eventually get it to where I can fit all of my possessions into my car. Then, eventually, get it down to what I can fit inside a backpack. People think I'm crazy. But, what people fail to realize is that at any point, all of your stuff can be taken away from you. A fire, hurricane, earthquake can easily do the trick. Then, there's thieves and the government. Sometimes these two things are one in the same. And then, you're left with nothing anyways. So, what's the point?

Don't get me wrong. There are some nice things about sleeping on a comfortable bed, inside a place that has heating and air conditioning. But, there's a great big world out there waiting to be discovered. There's a lot of beautiful people out there to meet and spend time with. I understand that you can have lots of possessions as well as travel. But there's only so much time. Time I'm spending working and acquiring possessions is time taken away from doing the things that bring me joy and fulfillment. And, it's the simple things bring me joy: a warm smile from a stranger, genuine laughter from an audience, good conversation while overlooking great scenery.

Basically, I desire to live as a nomad. I mean, I could have skipped the last few paragraphs and just said I wanna be a nomad. But, I did feel like I had to explain myself a little bit. So, the Way of the Braza is starting to become the Way of the Nomad. Where will I go? I dunno quite yet. I'll let my heart lead the way.