El Paso

Today was a pretty good day. We left Tom’s place about 9 or 9:30, and got to El Paso around 7. We had the wind at our backs most of the way, and the skies were clear all the way. As I promised myself, I did play Kinky Friedman’s hit song, Asshole from El Paso after we arrived

There sure is a lot of nothing in southern Arizona and New Mexico, so it was a bit boring at times. But then again, one of the beauties of riding is being alone with your thoughts, and becoming one with the bike, the wind, and the road. (If you don’t believe me, read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert Persig. It’s a must for all sensitive new-age guys like me.)

It is good to be alone with my thoughts, with no music or conversation to distract me. Sometimes it is almost possible to achieve a semi Zen-like state where the miles just fly by. Other times, I just think random thoughts and let them go where they lead. For example, today I was thinking about opera and one of my all-time favorite songs, Dom Epais, from the opera Lakme. Like most operas, this one has a rather convoluted plot that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. It is set in French Colonial India (I didn’t know there was a French colonial India either until I saw this opera), and is a cross between Romeo and Juliet and Love Story. A French officer falls in love with the beautiful daughter of a powerful Brahim, but it’s a hopeless affair. To make a long story short, the officer is wounded in battle against her father and is lying dying when his lover finds him. She becomes distraught at the sight of him, and starts tearing at her hair and her sari in her anguish. He becomes conscious while she is doing this, and tells her to stop ripping her clothes and not be so sad. She sees what she’s done to herself and her clothes, and is embarrassed and doesn’t want the officer to think badly of her. She apologizes and straightens her hair and sari as best she can and tells him that she’ll repair the sari as soon as she can. He tells her not to worry about her sari, and then dies in her arms. Then, with him still in her arms, the sari magically repairs itself and is better than new. The point of the story is that “love means never to have to sew your sari.”

Yes folks, I made most of that up, all by myself.

I tried to figure out a way to link both Dom Epais and Asshole from El Paso from my computer to this post so that you all could enjoy both songs, but I don't think it's possible. You'll just have to use your imagination.