The Bhagavad Gita, Bob Dylan, and Baseball: The trip to Denver.

Where do we start? Lubbock, TX? Or should we instead consider the temporal nature of this journey? Maybe the spiritual?

Perhaps the best way to start is to chronicle where we are at right now, that is, where we are starting from. To start, the Energy Information Association (http://www.eia.doe.gov/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publications/wrgp/mogas_home_page.html) reports the average price of gas in the United States to be $3.613/gal as of 5/5/08, and most recent edition of the Economist finds China outraged at the World’s protests of its Olympics, housing prices continue to drop in the United States, a food shortage continues to drive food prices up in the world markets. Oil prices are still on the rise and Goldman Sachs predicted that prices break $200/barrel in the next two years. The Democratic primaries continue to trudge on, Clinton finally mentioning something to the effect of: Whatever happens, don’t vote for McCain.

The baseball standings are as follows: (from www.baseball-reference.com)
American League

East W L GB BOS F.E. 22 14 --- TBR F.E. 17 16 3.5 NYY F.E. 17 18 4.5 TOR F.E. 17 18 4.5 BAL F.E. 16 18 5.0	Central W L GB MIN F.E. 17 15 --- CLE F.E. 16 17 1.5 CHW F.E. 15 17 2.0 KCR F.E. 15 18 2.5 DET F.E. 15 20 3.5	West W L GB LAA F.E. 22 14 --- OAK F.E. 22 14 --- TEX F.E. 15 20 6.5 SEA F.E. 14 21 7.5
National League Click F.E. for Team's Franchise Encyclopedia.
Expanded Standings · Wild Card · Leaders · Batting · Pitching · Splits: Bat · Pitch
East W L GB FLA F.E. 19 14 --- PHI F.E. 20 15 --- ATL F.E. 17 15 1.5 NYM F.E. 17 15 1.5 WSN F.E. 14 20 5.5	Central W L GB STL F.E. 22 13 --- CHC F.E. 19 15 2.5 HOU F.E. 18 16 3.5 MIL F.E. 16 17 5.0 PIT F.E. 14 19 7.0 CIN F.E. 14 21 8.0	West W L GB ARI F.E. 22 12 --- LAD F.E. 19 15 3.0 SFG F.E. 14 20 8.0 COL F.E. 13 21 9.0 SDP F.E. 12 22 10.0

The powerful spiritual aspect of such a journey is often overlooked. As I frantically, and unsuccessfully, struggled to find people to ride along with me on my trip, I got an inspired phone call. My friend Leighton upon hearing my struggle reminded me to never discount the power of contemplative moments, of introspection and retrospection. And I’ve hung on this idea ever since. I’ve always been a sucker for the profound, but for some reason I had lost it in my rush to pull everything together in the trip. There’s nothing better to remind you than mountains, Bob Dylan, the Bhagavad Gita, and the wisdom of an old friend.

When I found Bob Dylan’s Raspy voice on the radio, his thin raspy voice filled with diction from the 50’s and 60’s hip-swing era, I was about an hour into the drive. He has a weekly radio show that he DJs for called the “Theme Time Radio Hour” and this week’s theme was dogs. Wonderfully put together, the show focused on music from the 40s, 50s, and 60s. This I found the whole thing pretty surreal, here’s Bob Dylan, talking about dogs on the radio, playing songs from different eras of American music about dogs. All the music was so happy and carefree, whereas I associate his music normally as troubled with the politics and of the time.

The weather was cloudy and rainy for most of the trip. Clouds rolled low over mountain tops as I pulled into Colorado from the south and it was altogether a very contemplative journey, listening to the Bhagavad Gita, a treatise on action and inaction and duty, and winding through the foothills of the Rockies as I climbed up to the mile high city. This trip is definitely underway.