1)Do you understand women yet? (and no, that's not a yes/no only question, you must explain, either way)

2)Is your wife okay? (in reference to the ER trip)

Posted by Secret Agent Nico Pudding2 © on December 19, 2007 - Wednesday at 7:21 PM

2) She is okay... she feels like shit, but the antibiotics should knock it out of her in the next couple of days. Thanks for asking. And I won't count that question against your two. (-;

1) Yes and no. The more I understand women, the more I understand is beyond my understanding... lol. The biggest thing I've come to believe is that all women are not the same. Different ones do or think different things for different reasons. And hell, I don't even always understand men - or myself. So I've traded in understanding for loving appreciating and tolerating... lol. That'll have to be good enough for now.

Thanks, St. Yonder

Posted by Jesus Crisis on December 19, 2007 - Wednesday at 10:52 PM

You're overdoing understanding men. Trust me.

And yes... they are indeed beyond understanding. Not beyond prediction tho...

One of the best movie quotes, ever...

"How do you write women so well?"
"I think of a man, and I take away reason and accountability."

I'm just sayin...

Posted by Secret Agent Nico Pudding2 © on December 20, 2007 - Thursday at 1:42 AM

(-;

Posted by Jesus Crisis on December 20, 2007 - Thursday at 9:23 AM

No questions my friend - just the best of wishes and brightest blessings on you and yours.

Namaste

Posted by Art of Gilead (aka Spud, aka OB on December 19, 2007 - Wednesday at 7:36 PM

Thank you, Art! We wish you and yours the same. (-;

Posted by Jesus Crisis on December 19, 2007 - Wednesday at 9:51 PM

How much does a pound of cheese weigh in outer space?

What's the square root of 69?

That's second is actually a set up for a punch line we probably all heard when we were eleven..

Posted by The one that got away on December 20, 2007 - Thursday at 12:19 AM

LOL... my "guesses" are

1) Nothing

2) Eight-something

Thanks, Delicious!

Posted by Jesus Crisis on December 20, 2007 - Thursday at 9:38 AM

just one question:

are those skeletons hanging in the window behind you in the pic?

Posted by Conundrum on December 20, 2007 - Thursday at 6:15 AM

Yes, they are. Good eye! My mom took that pic - Lucky and I were on her back patio swing. She is really big on decorating for the holidays, and especially goes all out for Halloween. Funny... I didn't really notice the skeletons in that picture until you mentioned them.

Thanks, Conundrum!

Posted by Jesus Crisis on December 20, 2007 - Thursday at 9:33 AM

My questions for you: 1) On your page, you have a banner stating that you are going to vote for Hillary. Can you give me three compelling reasons why she is your choice? 2) Have you ever considered giving your vote to Ron Paul...why or why not? P.S. I hope that you have a wonderful holiday!

Posted by Radical Girl Friday on December 20, 2007 - Thursday at 6:37 AM

Great questions, my friend, and some of the most difficult for me to answer... (-;

1) I don't know how compelling these will be without devoting pages of elucidation to each one. But the three biggest reasons I'm supporting Hillary (and that's not to say she hasn't made some decisions I've seriously disagreed with) are as follows.

a) I had considered voting for her for a while (and some other candidates as well). But I finally made up my mind to support her after reading her autobiography Living History. I recommend that everyone read that - as well as Obama's books. I try to read every book about and by every major candidate - and hers was the one that impressed me most, for a number of reasons I don't have time to go into here. But I would like to devote an entire blog to why at some point.

b) Her experience - not just in law school or as First Lady or in the Senate - but overall. I feel that she is the most experienced candidate on several levels.

c) A combination of (admittedly) somewhat silly reasons (which might or might not seem less silly if I had time to explain my views on why each is important), including: her husband, her electability, the fact that she's a woman, her position on abortion, her support of civil (including gay) rights, her past health care reform mistakes (which, ironically, make her in many ways the most knowledgable and the least likely to make a future "mistake" in this realm), her toughness, her ability to change course (I see this willingness to concede something is obviously not working, though it often makes her seem inconsistent, as a refreshing change of pace after eight years of the intractable Bush/Cheney combo)... and the fact that Al Gore isn't running. (-;

2) Regarding Ron Paul.... I don't know enough about him to make an intelligent argument about him either way. But my impressions (for what they're worth) are these. He's Republican (not a deal killer if I were convinced that he's the best candidate and electable - but I'm not). As I just said, I feel he's unelectable - which is one reason I wouldn't "waste" my vote on Kucinich, though on many issues, I feel Kucinich is more a like mind than Clinton). And I think that if Ron Paul didn't feel he had more in common with the Republicans than the Democrats, he wouldn't choose to be a Republican. Also, experience is a huge issue for me. I love what I've seen of Obama so far - but I'd like to see him with more experience and more of a record I could judge him on. Part of me thinks the best Democratic candidate is Richardson - but can he win? As far as Ron Paul, I don't think he can even come close to winning the Republican nomination, especially without kowtowing to Republican interests. I'd like to see him break off and run as an independent, if he means what he says about being different - I think that would spur a lot of people (myself included) to give him a closer look. And in his case, I think doing so would enhance his electability.

Posted by Jesus Crisis on December 21, 2007 - Friday at 12:40 PM

"... and the fact that Al Gore isn't running. (-;"

*sobs*

Posted by Susannah Dean on December 21, 2007 - Friday at 2:12 PM

What is the worst thing that happened to you in prison?

And Merry Christmas!

Posted by Black Widow on December 20, 2007 - Thursday at 6:45 AM

Hi, BW!  Merry Christmas to you as well!  That's a good question, and I had to think about it for a while, because several things came to mind as possibilities. THE worst would probably be this: early in my "bit," I was working as a program aide in the prison's residential drug/alcohol treatment dormitory. One of my "friends," a Christian guy I liked and who didn't seem to "belong" in prison, said he thought somebody was stealing his belongings while he was at work. Since he trusted me and since I worked in the dorm where I could observe everything, he asked me to keep an eye on his bed area and let him know if anyone got into his things. Well.... That day I saw one of his "buddies" get a cigarette out of his drawer. The buddy (named Robert Vaughn) was always hanging out with my "friend" - they ate meals together, etc. So I figured he must have had permission. I didn't really make the connection that this Robert was the thief. So when my "friend" came back to the dorm from work and asked me if I'd seen anybody in his area, I told him I hadn't seen anyone there "but Vaughn getting a cigarette." I told him for his information only, and didn't really expect him to tell the thief. Well.... A few hours later, Vaughn came up to me, acting friendly as always, and asked me if I could go into the day room for a minute. I didn't think anything of it, since my job required me to tutor the residents in the day room whenever they needed help. And I naively did not put two and two together (there was a corrections officer in the main dormitory, but not in the day room). (-; When we got in there, Vaughn asked me, "Did you tell him I was in his drawer?" My response, "yes, I..." was interrupted by a massive blow to my head that knocked me to the floor. When I regained consciousness, I was summoned to the sergeant's office. Somebody had told him I'd been assaulted - and the sergeant wanted to make the guilty party pay. But he needed me to tell him what happened and sign a statement. Well, I wasn't going to make the same mistake twice and let my mouth get me in trouble again. So I insisted that I had merely slipped on a puddle of water near the microwave oven in the day room. The sergeant didn't pursue it further then, and I returned to the dormitory. The fact that I didn't tell on Vaughn earned me a great deal of respect among the inmates. And eventually (months later) Vaughn would apologize to me and try to be my friend.

Posted by Jesus Crisis on December 21, 2007 - Friday at 1:29 PM

Wow, that was interesting. And I think you were probably pretty lucky if that was the worst thing!!!!

Posted by Black Widow on December 23, 2007 - Sunday at 5:09 PM

Worse than that almost happened... but thankfully, no! (-;

Posted by Jesus Crisis on December 23, 2007 - Sunday at 6:09 PM

Dear Jesus,

Why does it hurt when I pee?

Posted by David Lawton on December 20, 2007 - Thursday at 8:32 AM

You got it from the toilet seat....

(-;

Posted by Jesus Crisis on December 20, 2007 - Thursday at 9:25 AM

Thanks for the opportunity to "ask anything." How did you come up with the name Jesus Crisis. What do you think is the nature of God?

Posted by Tara on December 20, 2007 - Thursday at 8:37 AM

Excellent questions, Tara! Thanks....

2) What do I think is the nature of God? I feel like I could write pages and pages on this topic without adequately explaining my view. But I will try to keep it short and relatively simple. Richard Dawkins has argued that "God" is not the best word for the type of "thing" that I tend to refer to as "God" - and maybe he's right. But here goes....

God is not supernatural. I don't know that there is anything that IS supernatural. I'm not saying it's impossible. But I tend not to believe in such things. I believe that all we can know are natural phenomena. Just because we don't understand certain things does not mean that there is no reasonable, natural explanation. People used to think that the idea of the earth orbiting the sun was unnatural - but it was NOT unnatural. People used to think there must be a god pulling the sun around the earth in a chariot - or that the sun WAS a god - because they couldn't understand how it could be possible otherwise. Before we understood photosynthesis, we thought the growing of plants was supernatural - but it's not. Before we understood chemistry, we thought the reaction that occurs when baking soda and vinegar are combined was magical - but it's NOT. These are all natural phenomena with reasonable explanations that we didn't understand before. Show somebody from Shakespeare's time a television, cell phone or computer - they would think it must magic, or something supernatural. But they'd be wrong.

So if I don't believe in a supernatural God, what do I call "God"? There is an energy that is part of everything that is. And "everything that is" is a part of that energy. Everything is flux, movement, energy.... We "living beings" are merely associations of molecules, which are associations of atoms. We don't really die; our molecules simply unassociate... and then they eventually form new associations - maybe with the earth, or the air, or the plants that grow out of the earth, or the animals that eat those plants. Every atom has a certain amount of atomic energy. This energy that is part of everything, that everything is part of, and that essentially IS everything... this energy is what I call God. Why? It is omnipresent (present everywhere). It is omnipotent (it does everything that is done). And it is omniscient (all consciousness comes from it - even if consciousness is dependent on the molecules forming certain associations in certain ways). And this energy is natural. I choose to call it God, but others can call it anything they like. (-;

Posted by Jesus Crisis on December 21, 2007 - Friday at 3:56 PM

1) Several friends have asked me about the name Jesus Crisis in the past, and I've been meaning to write a blog about it, but.... Now it seems I can procrastinate no longer! (-;
I used to play piano for the chapel services in prison. My friend Tim, who played trumpet, sat beside me. Well... we had a good friend named Joe, a smart/funny/multi-talented guy who also had a mental illness. He was perfectly fine as long as he took his prescribed medication. But once in a while, Joe would start to think he didn't need it anymore. He'd quit taking his medicine and start becoming delusional. It was sad, because like I said, he's really a great guy. Anyway... at one point he went off his meds, and one Sunday morning while we were sitting in "church" we witnessed Joe stand up, interrupt the chaplain's sermon, and exclaim to the congregation something like this (I wish I had written down his exact words): "You're all blind! You sit here thinking about how much you supposedly love Jesus, while the chaplain stands up there making it sound like he's so well acquainted with Jesus - and yet here I am, Jesus Christ, sitting in your congregation, and you don't even recognize Me!" Of course the whole congregation burst into laughter. It was very tragic, but (I must admit) quite funny at the same time. My friend Tim whispered into my ear, "Uh-oh. It looks like Joe's having another crisis." And I said, "Jesus crisis." At the time, I thought it was quite witty and original. I told him the next day that if I got out and formed a band, I would call it "Jesus Crisis." Another thing that made me choose the name.... I participated in (and later helped teach) a conflict resolution workshop called "Opening Doors" while in prison. In that group, we discussed how the Chinese character for "Crisis" is actually a combination of two different Chinese characters - one meaning "Danger" and one meaning "Opportunity." In every crisis, there is potential for danger and/or opportunity. The key is to look for the opportunity and thus overcome or sidestep the danger. And being in a dangerous situation like prison, this concept really resonated with me. So when I use the name Jesus Crisis, I am reminded that every crisis contains two possibilities - and that the choices I make matter very much. Sadly, though, after I created this MySpace music profile (several years later) and took on the name "Jesus Crisis," I learned that some other folks had independently come up with that same name. I'm not even the only "Jesus Crisis" on MySpace! Alas.... (-;

Posted by Jesus Crisis on December 21, 2007 - Friday at 3:28 PM

Hey, at one point in my life I was the subject of a similar accusation, and like you I was innocent. Fortunately it never came to anything so i didn't have to go through anything like what you've been through. But the experience changed me, it made me more thoughtful and philosophical, so despite how shit it was at the time I wouldn't change it because i like who I am now. Would you change things if you could? and would it necessarily be that event that you'd change?

it's a great, and very brave blog by the way

andy

x

Posted by Andy on December 20, 2007 - Thursday at 8:46 AM

Would I change things if I could? I'd like to say I wouldn't - that all the experiences were necessary steps in my personal evolution, and that I'm a better, wiser man as a result... et cetera. But do I really know? I recently watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (starring Jim Carrey) - and in it, he decided to change something, only to regret that decision and then move heaven and earth in an attempt to change it back. But if I REALLY had the chance to change something in the past, maybe I WOULD change it. If I did change one thing, I would probably make it so that I would never have even crossed paths with my accuser.

Thank you very much, Andy - for your friendship, your question, and especially your sharing a bit of your own experience.

Posted by Jesus Crisis on December 21, 2007 - Friday at 1:40 PM

Thank you for this opportunity to find out more about you, already an interesting and inspiring person.
My question is : If you could ask anyone or tell anyone anything you wanted, at any time in history, who would you ask or tell, and what would you ask or tell them? That includes your history. I hope that isn't too many questions disguised as one!

Posted by Edwinna on December 20, 2007 - Thursday at 9:19 AM

Thanks, Edwinna!

This is a very tough question. There are so many people I'd like to ask so many things. If God exists, he or she might be the first "person" for whom I'd have questions. But if I limit myself to actual human beings, I'd probably choose my alleged victim. I'd like to ask her why she accused me of such a horrible crime - and why now that she's over thirty, she still doesn't come forward and tell the truth. Is she afraid of getting into trouble for perjury? Hopefully, the court wouldn't hold a lie she told when she was only 15 against her too much now. I wouldn't want to see her get into trouble or go to jail. I'd just want to see the truth come out, have my name cleared, and then put it all behind me and go on with my life.

Posted by Jesus Crisis on December 21, 2007 - Friday at 1:50 PM

Assuming that you are innocent...

I imagine that she is as trapped by her lie as you were. She probably built up her own personality around being a victim. One lie after another built upon one another in such a way that she is trapped in a personality and reality built on a fabrication. She has probably lived a life of the fear of being found out the phony that she has become.

One possibility anyway.

Karma of a sort. The thief fears theft the most.

mm

Posted by MentalMaze on December 24, 2007 - Monday at 9:23 PM

You may be right, my friend. I mean, how could it not bother her?

Posted by Jesus Crisis on December 24, 2007 - Monday at 9:52 PM

Thank you, thank you and kudos for the past few sentences above. Pardon me totally for bringing up THAT GIRL. As I recall she said to you in a letter "shit happens" I will say no more. You can explain her. All I can say here is remember your friend Gary Reece! This is even a worse story.
25 years innocent...and finally out on parole. Is he also considered a "sex offender" while on parole? Time out for questions. It's too late. But there will be more to come when you return.

Posted by Elena on December 21, 2007 - Friday at 2:30 PM

Yes, he still has to register as a sex offender... every three months for the rest of his life.

Gary's the one who first informed me of the passage of S.B. 10.

Posted by Jesus Crisis on December 24, 2007 - Monday at 9:54 PM

Sending loving vibes to you both....
I found this really interesting to read and had some intelligent questions to ask as I was reading them until I had a brain dump, or maybe it was just a mind fart!

1. Do you believe that life is like training for who you need to become?
2. Would you do it all again if you had the choice to go back and get the truth out there early?
3. Would you really want to trade all the learning and understanding you came out from this with, gifts can have funny wrapping sometimes don't you think?

Can I link to my newest blog.....smiles I liked it when I wrote it I hope others like it too :o)
We are in this all together~with or without a God~discuss please all angles

Posted by Elaine being my own hero/wizard/teacher/guru on December 20, 2007 - Thursday at 9:55 AM

Thanks for the vibes, the great questions, and your friendship, Elaine!  Please feel free to link to your blog in mine anytime you like!

1) Yes, I believe life is training. Some of my friends in prison and I used to say that "the joint" was our university and our seminary. And because we looked at it in that way, it became that for us, to a large degree. But I believe the same could be said of ALL our experiences in life - the good, bad, and neutral. To me, everything is an opportunity for learning, for growth, and for personal evolution....

2) If I had the choice, I would definitely have gotten the truth out from the beginning. The feeling that one can't be open and honest is in many ways as much a prison as the brick and mortar one I spent eleven years in. Some friends have told me they thought my coming out with all this when I had a good, popular blog going was utterly foolish. But I don't agree. It hasn't been entirely easy, and I've lost a few "friends" as a result. But it's been liberating! And the friendships that remain have deepened and become more meaningful as a result.

3) As difficult as it has been, I don't think I would trade in "the learning and understanding" to be rid of my "experience." I've thought a lot about this - and, as I said in response to Lisa's earlier question, I think I need, in some hard-to-describe way, to be ME, to live my life, for better or worse, and make it the best life it can be.

Posted by Jesus Crisis on December 21, 2007 - Friday at 10:20 AM

It is hard and difficult to be "in the joint" but as I said to you many times, what you have been able to read, to learn there was your university. From everything you have written in the past year on these blogs I KNOW you have learned and absorbed knowledge and spirituality. The hard thing now is to redeem the stigma and fight it any way you can since innocence is the truth in your case.

Posted by Elena on December 21, 2007 - Friday at 2:39 PM

Thanks, Justine!

I have heard a little about the case. My impression without having all the facts is that they were wrongly incarcerated - and I recall a tribute album being done by Eddie Vedder and others to help their cause. But I'm reluctant to comment too much on the case, because, like I said, I don't feel I have enough facts to reach an intelligent opinion.

Posted by Jesus Crisis on December 21, 2007 - Friday at 1:55 PM

1. who is your favorite poet and what poem by this person is your particular favorite?

2. who is your favorite painter and what is your favorite piece by them?

3. if you could have any job you want, in any place that you would like to be, what/where would they be?

and, i'm giving myself a bonus question, since i answered the question about the statue first:

4. are you right handed or left handed or both?

Posted by Susannah Dean on December 20, 2007 - Thursday at 3:49 PM

1) My favorite poet.... That's even more difficult than my favorite painter! So many worthy choices and I find it so hard to put one above the other.... I tend to have favorites in categories. For example: my favorite 19th century American female poet (Emily Dickinson), my favorite 20th century British male poet (T.S. Eliot, followed by Ted Hughes), my favorite Spanish-speaking poet (Pablo Neruda, with Lorca a close runner up), my favorite living male poet I've actually met in the flesh (S B Smith) ... and so on and so on, ad infinitum. Comparing them with each other, however, seems to me almost the equivalent of comparing apples and oranges, pineapples and peaches. It's like a Christian choosing his or her favorite member of the Trinity.

So to answer your question I will refer you to what I think is in many ways a perfect poem (it's not the only one, and it's quite different from other poems I might call perfect), by a man who was, at least at the very moment he wrote it, though not at every moment in his long poetic career, the finest poet of his generation - Allen Ginsberg.

Click here to lend your ear to Ginsberg's "Howl."

Posted by Jesus Crisis on December 21, 2007 - Friday at 2:50 PM

howl is one of my very favorite poems.

i had a feeling this would be a hard one for you *smiles*

i do not think i could pick a favorite painter, so your willingness to try to pick a favorite poet ummm speaks volumes...

(i keep tryng to give you more kudos with every comment

Posted by Susannah Dean on December 21, 2007 - Friday at 4:39 PM

2) It's very hard for me to choose a favorite painter. If I have to pick one, it would probably be Salvador Dalí. Choosing a favorite work by him is difficult, too, and largely depends on my mood at the time I do the selecting. And it's hard for me to say one is better than the other when I see excellence in so many of his pieces. So I guess I'll quit trying to overthink it and just give you the first one that came to mind when I thought of "my favorite Dalí" this afternoon:


Geopolitical Child Watches the Birth of the New Man (1943)

Posted by Jesus Crisis on December 21, 2007 - Friday at 2:09 PM

this particular piece seems very appropriate for you right now. i like.

Posted by Susannah Dean on December 21, 2007 - Friday at 2:30 PM

4) Right handed! Though I've tried intentionally to write poetry with my left hand....

3) First thought: I'd like to make a living as an author and songwriter, living on the coast in Maine - or on Nova Scotia or Prince Edward Island in Canada.

Posted by Jesus Crisis