LISTENING TO ARNIE MINDELL IN OUR FINAL HOURS, 
THE MONOLOGUE CREATED IN THE DREAM CANOE WHERE I DREAM WITH KAREN

  by Jim Bodeen

I’m sad about the end. Mardi Gras is coming out of the earth.
It was resurrected. The old girls needed to dance.
Let’s listen for the lessons of those who passed.
What the dead have to tell us about our lives—our personal lives
Is as important as how we might help New Orleans.
When you’re in a relationship you don’t know what you’re doing. 
Give your life to what you do.
Have courage to honor the dreaming.
Who died in New Orleans?
Listen to what this person has to say to you,
What is wanted from me? What is death?
Develop a bigger rear end, and roll around on it.
The process mind is your greatest ally.
Your ally helps you move through the world of dreaming.
Some of this can be taught.
Give your whole life to what you’re doing.
My awareness of my parts will help others become aware of theirs.
What’s missing are all of these voices.
Voices from the bottom up.
Be the change model the world wants you to see.
This isn’t just momentary dreaming.
Feed the dead. The dead aren’t fed enough.
What we can give the dead is our awareness.
Ask them what they need.
Our reality of the dead hasn’t been dealt with enough.
Maybe that’s why history repeats itself.
In particle physics, a particle enters into a field.
Our opposite annihilates us, knocks us out.
We come out of that field altered.
There is a woman in front of those who would shoot her,
But she’s so much herself, that no one can pull the trigger.
Go through the death walk and not be shot down.
Death is timeless tradition seeking of a totem spirit.
Death is finding your basic nature.
Underneath the catastrophe is a river goddess.
The ancestors are there and we’re constantly marginalizing them.
Through her death people would find their rhythms.
Sometimes you don’t need to do too much.