Page Two: Being Here Now

The great wave of South by Southwest now rising will keep climbing until it reaches full height before it comes gushing, rushing down.

I think of other times. Driving toward the West with a deep, almost desperate sense of getting away from the day-to-day. I'm heading toward the ocean. Sunset turns the sky a dripping bloodred while the mountains are stained with tarnished, deep pinks. I'm running away from me with me, so I'm really not getting away.

I am me, and my jobs are me. It was a trail of my blood runs, sunsets, and sunrises mixed to cocktail proportions. The sporadic breathing combines with the all-time confusion. Action must follow careful moral reasoning, but one's own heavy thumb so often threatens balance.

Many of the people I know have jobs: a certain, set number of hours that they work each day. There's nothing wrong there. Almost all of them do honorable work. Many are already retired. Their leisure time is defined. Their family time is clear. They have lives.

In a way that is almost classically unhealthy, my life and my work are one and the same. They flow together sometimes – the best of times – most of the time mixing, creating a new force when meshed. Occasionally, they work against one another, sometimes violently.

In the swirling white-water rapids of SXSW, there are no distinctions – just a terrific, accelerating propulsion forward. I go. I urge you to join me if you are so inclined. If not, I nod my head in respect but also hold it close to my body.

But right now, I am in the here and now. Memories collide with expectations, and desire mutes experience. But, rather than being removed, I am centered. It will be interesting to move forward in a way that is matched to time rather than removed from it.

This issue is filled with information and notices on SXSW, as well as related, and even nonrelated, events. Take it as an index to Austin, a guide to activities, a description of possibilities, and an encyclopedia of the immediate.