Holy Fucking Shit!

My Mother is a saint. I love her dearly.

But truth be told, she's usually in bed by 7 on any given night.

So to get a text from her at 9:42 her time, 10:42 mine, is strange enough.

So I'm sitting on my bed in New Mexico while she's in Lake Tahoe.

I'm listening to a song my friend John turned me on to called Clean Elvis by Dan Reeder.

I'm at the part where he sings the words..."I will always love you"

It's at this PRECISE moment in time that my Mom decides to text me out of the blue to say, verbatim: 

"I will always love you!"

WHAT THE FUCK!?!?!?!?!?!?

-Dom

P.S. I love you too Mom!

Ke$ha's Elegy

The Music Video:

The Article:

-Dom

Life's what you make it

I know quite a few people who have all said similar things. And these are people separated by time and space.  These people I'm referring to are, in the nicest way I can think of...Naysayers. I love Urban Dictionary's definition of this unfortunate sect...

naysayer

One who frequently engages in excessive complaining, negative banter and/or a genuinely poor and downbeat attitude. Naysayers are distinguished by their tendency to consistently view the glass half empty, make frequent one-way trips to negative town, and constantly emphasize the worst of a situation. They have the capacity to rant and whine for hours on end about the most insignificant inconveniences. They tend to travel solo, but have the keen ability to spread their pessimistic attitude to a group of unsuspecting bystanders and encourage others to employ their mindset. Naysayers tend to blend in with those around them rather well, granted they have learned over the years to adapt to their surroundings. However, when the opportunity arises, their true nature will be exposed and they will stop at nothing to exclude others or bring a general sense of negativity to any situation. Not to be confused with non-naysayers who fight against the negativity brought forth by naysayers, make the best of a situation and are not afraid to call out a naysayer on the spot.

I'm not going to sit here and say that I've never had a negative view on the world. There was a period in my life, that my best friend John will attest to, that was a very dark time. It was like the period in the galaxy far, far away between Episodes 3 and 4.  I had become very depressed and cynical. I can say now, it was the saddest I've ever been in my life so far. It made me uncomfortable to be around. No one WANTS to be around an unhappy pessimist. Today, I feel fortunate that I snapped the fuck out of it. My glass isn't half full. It IS full. Because honestly, why the hell shouldn't it be?

Let's face facts right now. The truth of the matter is...YES. The world can suck. It can be discriminatory, disturbing, disgusting, discouraging, dejecting and dispiriting. I would hope that no one would actually disagree with that. But, at the same time, life is a many splendid thing. It lifts us up where we belong. Without life, there would be nothing. The truth is, the planet we all live on, is Earth and while it is argued to be run by a small sector of people who don't have everyone's best interests in mind, it's still our planet. We need to accept things. Acceptance to me, seems to be the key. Once you come to an understanding of the wickedness of it all, and just lay the cards on the table, then you can finally move forward. Yeah, shit sucks, there's child molesters, greedy fucks, murderers, dog punchers, war enthusiasts, and many more monsters scouring this big blue ball of life, but hey....THAT is life.

Since all that really matters is YOUR life, then it seems obvious that people should basically live the way THEY want to live. I do believe that everyone has the right to do what they think is best for them, just as long as they're not intentionally hurting others or the planet while doing it.

I've heard people say things like:
"Well, you know, really, we're born, we live, and we die. So really, what's the point of it all?"

While that is true. We are born, we do live, and we inevitably die, that doesn't mean we have to spend the 70-90 year period on this beautiful world in a constant state of negativity and unhappiness. What a waste of time. The following is a response from a person whose opinion I greatly respect, when I asked him, "What's the meaning of life?"....

"To have as much fun as possible."

So to those people who say, What's the point? I say this:

Fun, love, happiness, sex, drugs, movies, food, the outdoors, alcohol, music, friendships, family, knowledge, surprises.

Now those are just a few of the things that I personally love about life. How cool is it that we have the opportunity to watch 'The Avengers' or eat an ice cream sandwich? There's literally millions of trees that we can climb. And that shit is totally fun. Sometimes, it really is the little things that count. So you really should ask yourself...What are YOU living for?

The following are responses from some of my friends and family when I asked what the meaning of life was to them:


"Love, happiness, success and legacy"

"Life is about experiencing everything and anything that makes you happy. To be on your deathbed
and simply say "that was so much fun""

"To cooperate with the Universe's pattern and thrive"

"FBGM"


"-To experience a full range of human emotion.
-To question everything in search of truth.
-To understand that life is not about knowledge, power, and money - but mystery.
-To choose happiness.
-To love other humans and interact with them."


"The meaning of life is to answer to the one true gift we have. FREE WILL. To fight your free will, to go against your natural instinct is sin. We as humans have a gift, free will. Be free, stay free and think free."


"All in all, life is subjective, just like Aristotle said. Define your parameters and 
find your own damn meaning. Also, having fun is cool, too."


"In my opinion there is no meaning. It's the arrogance of man to assume a grand position in the scheme of the galaxy."

""You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life. -Albert Camus""

"42"

"I don't know so much about the meaning of life, but I've always felt that the purpose of life is to learn and experience as much as possible. And don't be a cunt."



-Dom

'The Experience' by Dominic Albert Risso

‘The Experience’

A Short Story by Dominic Albert Risso

                Light years away, in the Primrose galaxy, a flourishing  kingdom led by a dying king faced a turning point. Even though his only son was the rightful heir, Prince Myriad was anything but right for this sacred position. He was brash, arrogant, and even cruel. He took for granted the gold he owned and the power he adopted.  A boy in adult skin, he had little respect for others. He treated his fellow man the same way a chef would handle expired food.

                In this world, a technology existed. A special chair only used for dire situations. Since the Prince was the only one that could lawfully inherit the crown, it was almost a requirement that he have, “The Experience”. Myriad was sat in the cold, steel chair. Two neon blue sensors, attached to dull green wires were placed on both of his temples. A half helmet riddled with blinking lights, hovered above his head.  The eldest doctor approached the Prince’s side.

“Myriad,” the doctor said bluntly, “This is how it will be.  You are not fit to rule this kingdom. You know nothing about life and its counter parts. You are like a flower that feeds off of star light. When you were a child, you were taught of Earth. This distant planet is home to hollow vessels known as humans. They incubate our souls. We are about to transmit your life force in to a suitable host. The life span could be anywhere from 65 to 80 years. Maybe longer. You will feel every second of it. But while you are living this experience, you will have no memory of your current life. In fact, you will think of yourself as a human and nothing more. From our perspective, no more than a minute will pass. It begins with the light and ends with the light. Myriad…Are you ready?”

                The Prince nods and lets his body relax. The scientists exit the room, observing through the glass partition. A switch is pressed and a flood of science is catapulted in to Myriad’s body.  His sternum jolts in to the air, while his eyes roll back in to his skull. The next thing he sees is a blinding white light. He finds himself in the small, fragile body of a newborn human baby. He is pulled from the womb of a beautiful woman. This baby belongs to a middle class family. Not poor, but not rich. He lives in America. He is the youngest of three children. He lives a modest life. His parents raise him to be a caring, respectful boy. He receives an adequate education. He knows that the key to a good, noble existence is to treat others the way that he wishes to be treated. He experiences love. Several times in fact. But with the good, comes the bad. This Earthling experiences the agonizing discomfort of losing his Mother to a dreadful evil known as cancer. He also gets in to meaningless squabbles with strangers. He watches films and listens to songs. They change his way of thinking. They alter his view of the world in front of him. He makes mistakes. He sees breathtaking sunsets, mountains, seas, and ancient ruins. He even marries a fellow human and pro-creates. He lives a full, genuine life. Sure he has regrets, but they are quite minute compared to the overall whirlwind of positive emotion. When his host body spends 88 years in full swing, he finds that his soul needs to find somewhere else to dwell. He passes peacefully in his bed. When he closes his eyes, instead of seeing the black behind his eyelids, he is again visited by this dimension-less white light. Myriad’s eyes return to normal. The helmet retracts and the doctors re-enter the room to remove the sensors from his head.

                “Myriad. Did it work?” asked the doctor. The Prince smiled in a way that no one had seen before. This smile was immediately followed by a stream of tears. Both happy and sad ones. He is informed that 33 seconds have passed. At first, this concept is very difficult for Myriad’s mind to grasp. “I was there for 88 years. I had two daughters, a gorgeous wife, an affectionate Mother, a supportive Father, and two wonderful, caring brothers. It was an experience unlike any other. It was beautiful, disturbing, whimsical, and horrifying.” The doctor nodded with a straight face and said, “It was necessary.”

Lions

Lions have been coming up a lot lately. I read Alan Abbadessa's article on Obama as the Lion King about a week or two ago.  I heard mention of a green lion in a podcast, only to bring my attention to my painting of a green lion on my wall next to me.  I can't even tell you where I got the idea to paint a green lion three months ago.  My friend and I were talking about lions the other day and how much we both liked them. A conversation that I initiated. Last night, she visited town from Utah for the holidays.  Her and I and some friends were at the local bar, catching up, as an inside joke now, I hugged her goodbye and yelled, LION HUG!  Then we parted ways.  I was driving home by myself, listening to pandora radio on my phone. 'The Righteous Brothers' station.  She text me to say how good it was to catch up. I replied with a, "LION HUG!" text.  Not a minute later, "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" comes on pandora.  Haven't heard that song in at least two years. Probably much longer.

-Dom