Mary in de Nint Ward

Here is Mary in the Ninth Ward, she is looking for a rockin sockin, go to Sunday morning meeting at that church with the hallelujah gospel choir.

BETTER THAN SEX

***We human be-ins have a cerebral area that lights up on MRI when people meditate in the cold tube of examination. We are hard wired for spiritual states. That brain spot itches to be scratched. Some of us itch like crazy, others have a barely noticeable tickle. There are many ways to get a spiritual high. I spend time in the woods and make art. It feels so good when the spiritual neurons fire up.

***People will do the strangest things to activate this biochemical neuronal event. Think of whirling dervishes, snake handlers, pilgrims crawling up mountains on their hands and knees, think of raves.

***Sometimes people crawl into tiny huts with dangerous hot glowing rocks. They pour out quarts of stinky perspiration crowded in with other stinky wet people. Recently three people, in the Sedona Arizona USA, died in a sweat lodge, longing for nirvana.

***I must tell you sweat lodges have worked for me. During and after sweat lodges, smelling like a skunk, I have had visions, inspirations, dazzling euphorias.

***Humans also create magnificent art to activate those nerve centers. Think of St. Louis Cathedral, Notre Dame, Zen gardens, Stone Henge. Think of Aaron Neville singing "Amazing Grace".

***Dali's "Last Supper" in the Washington National Museum of Art did it for me a few decades back. Zapped me to cloud nine.

***Seeing Monet's water lilies for real, the first time, in a Boston museum, I began to glow. Salty water dripped from my eyes. I was transfixed. Were people staring? I do not know because my consciousness was in another realm.

***Here's to that nameless longing to rend the curtain of so called reality, and join "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds." Spiritual states are Better than sex.