it’s got a good beat

I spent some time with folks in Oakland last night – the marvel of electrics and photons and stuff – and the theme of the conversation was to make your mind a question mark. Kind of like, be the question mark. Hmmm. What do you do with that? For me, I threw open the windows of my mind to allow ‘whatever’ to blow in, and what blew in was the song “96 Tears” by ? & The Mysterians. And I got to wondering, and was brave or loose or out on the far reaches enough to share with a few of those folks, this question – Why were there 96 tears? Why not 89, or 17, or 44? If it was ‘Bandstand’ I bet people would say any one of those numbers have a good beat, it’s easy to dance to. They might give it an 85. Hmmm. “You’re gonna cry 85 tears.”

Mostly, I’m hoping to write here about wonder. And wondering. I wonder why it was 96? I’m filled with wonder the way my mind is forever running to the musical background of my life. Like, last week that same group was talking about a question so cool – What if a monkey puts on a monkey mask? And where’d I go? “Everybody’s got something to hide except for me and my monkey.” I wonder why I do that? My heart and soul are so filled with musical wonder.

Lots of the time, maybe most of the time, my mind feels very generous. Like I’ll be going to order a coffee and start singing “Keep an Eye on Summer.” Here, in the winter. In the rain. The wonder of San Diego rain.

And, check this out. I wonder what might happen if this morning, around 11, skipping amidst those wondrous raindrops, I scoot over to the Starbucks next store and order 96 coffees? To go. Tralala. I’m pretty sure the planet needs questions just like that. And it may be okay to hold the tears. However many intend to fall.

Hmmm. I wonder if the Cheshire cat ever thinks about this stuff? Or is thinking at all. Who can tell, with that goofy grin?