I think therefore it happens....

There was an unofficial meeting of the Vent Haven Advisory Board last night at Kate Mantalini in Beverly Hills last night.  Dale and Leslie Brown, Bryan, Marge and Sandi and me had a lovely dinner before the Browns had to return to Milwaukee this morning. Dale is a fellow vent and friend who serve on the Vent Board with Marge, Bryan and me.  Dale was here with Leslie on a quick trip to the coast.  Dale is one of my favorite people as well as a vent.

Dale mentioned that he reads this blog.  I am always amazed that anyone is actually reading this except my family. However, Dale said he liked my "road stories" the best.  I know the reason why.

Comedy comes out of difficult situations and traveling is definitely a difficult situation these days. We were able to trade horror stories about the TSA and other agencies that make airplane travel SO much fun.  I told him that by not being on the road as much the beginning of this year my funny/horror stories have been missing. 

Spalding Gray in a monologue asked the question to himself, "Did I do it? Did I cause this situation in my life just so I could do a monologue about it?" It is a question that I ask myself often.  I am often in search of irritations that stimulate my funny bone.  There is certainly some pathological misalignment in my persona that would develop such a experiential examination.  

On the other hand it could be quite sane to approach life in this manner.  There are always two ways to see any situation.  One is to react with equal negative force toward any unpleasant situation. The other is to see it as potential fodder for comedy material.  Ultimately the process of turning a disaster into a funny story is therapeutic.  I have quoted my friend and comedy writer Mike Price many times when he told me, "If you can't think of something funny, look for something that pisses you off and make it funny." Good advice as long as one is not inadvertently creating the situations to get pissed so it can be written about. 

The truth is you get back what you are sending out.  You don't try to attract ducks with a moose call, and if you are quacking into the universe you must expect that ducks will try and find you. It is a universal law of attraction.  We are actually sending out the signals of the experience we will have even though we may be totally unaware we are doing it. It would stand to reason that we all should listen to the calls we are sending out and make sure they are the situations we want to experience. As simple as that seems it is in practice very difficult to do because most of the time we are unaware that we are quacking.

I am reminded of Y2K.  Remember that non-event. They even referred to it as the Y2K Bug. There was such a dire prediction of what would happen from planes falling from the air to the power grid failing. Thousands of generators were purchased to head off the disaster locally.  As we know nothing happened on New Years Eve that year.... or did it?  In reality it was one of the worst flu seasons on record. There was a flu going around that kept lots of people home for the holidays coughing and wheezing.  Although the computers were fine one of the most aggressive flu "bugs" responded to the call we were sending out. In very specific terms we got the experience of the what we were sending out. We called for a bug and got one.

So... Dale thanks for the great evening.  It was a great time and got me to think of something that might help my next trip.  It may not be a funny trip to write about, but it might keep my blood pressure down. Safe travels my friend and I will see you at the ConVENTion.

As you were,

Jay