and The Way of the Heart.
This book is dedicated to all those who showed me the Way through words, actions, and deeds. Especially my Dad.
The Way is 'a' way to live your life. That explanation seems to be plain enough, though the writing about it is much more difficult. For some it's the only way, a kind of live by the sword die by it mentality, truly O.G.. For others it is a mode of transportation to safety, though not necessarily to the safety of death. Some of us were shown the Way since birth and others not until they left the sheltering cove that is Home. The Way is best transmitted through the close observation of another's actions in the face of adversities and challenges. Then, as a more subtle but no less effective way, in everyday actions. Finally, and sometimes in the worst way, with words. Words spoken, or in this case written, can lock the Way into a frozen pattern, pulling us from the Light of the Heart. The Way is known to the Heart of the Hunter. And not so gloriously in the Heart of the Hunted too. So ignorance of it cannot be claimed.
Some bemoan the passing of 'respect' and of certain 'values' that were instilled from youth, in the passing on of the Way and how to see it. This was said after the turn of the century by the highwaymen and theives towards the new breed of men coming onto the scene, following the Way. It was repeated in the fifties and sixties by the leather wearing street gangs of the East coast and the bikers on the West about the new man, the eighties and the nineties also saw these conversations happening between back alley hoods about others, newer than themselves, that seemed to both have something to prove and something to hide. I'm sure there will always be one cat talking to another in some park, some alley, some dim back room somewhere, saying these words:
"These 'new' fellas have no respect for the way we run shit. Remember when so and so walked into the park and… man those are the cats that continue to show me how to Walk, how to Be, just like my old man did." You can fill in the rest.
As a side note brought about by remberance, because it's been too many years since I stood all night in the park smoking Pall Malls, hustling dime bags, flirting with the young girls from the high tone parts of town with the hopes of getting to go back to there place. I never did end up with thoes high tone girls but rather the night would usualy end with me drinking MD 20/20 under some bridge somewhere with some cheep chick howling at the rising sun. I first uttered those word, about the 'new' fellas, when I was sixteen living on the streets and following the Way. I was hanging out in 'Paranoid Park' in downtown Portland Oregon and I was talking to Loneheart. The so and so I refereed to was Sky, one of my heroes, who had just gotten out of OSCI. Within 24 hours of his release he had been picked up one more time for taxing one of the new cats by impersonating an officer, and an undercover one at that. My heroes were the Hunters, my victims the Hunted.
To my old friend Loneheart...if you read this:
"Come out of the Darkness Brother, I miss you."
And to Sky:
"Beware of the Madness, it had almost encircled me."
Stay true to your Heart, Brothers and Sisters, it is the lamp that shows us the Way.
