I was eating lunch today in a small poblado in southern baja pondering nada and I looked up from my 5th tamale and saw an old ranchero staring at me from across the street. Blue skies, brown rolling cordillera mountains shading darker as they roll past the skyline, cactuses (of course) standing tired and very not erect behind and amongst him. Dust swirled around as if it was part of him and followed him wherever he went. His pants were cinched up with a rope, he wore a sweat stained cowboy hat and he blended into that backdrop as if he was just part of the picture. He was supposed to be there. He stared from across the street for maybe 5 minutes and then kind of limped, yet not really a limp (can you limp without limping, cause that's what he was doing) over toward me, stopped in front of me, maybe 8 feet away and looked at me. But to be honest he wasn't looking at me, he was reflecting his years upon mine and he was contemplating our circumstances. His yesterday was as is his today which will be as his tomorrow. I would have given all the money in my pocket to know what his perception of me was and how that perception could but probably wouldn't change his life (the old fella also could have just been wondering how anyone could eat two burritos, five tamales, and an empanada, wonder how that will change his perception in life).

So here comes the philosophy kids-I remember writing a few years ago about what I thought wisdom was and it always came back to the decisions one makes. I always throw out that saying "...everything you do, you touch, you smell, you think, you hear, etc.. affects you by a factor greater than zero" and I am still sticking to that, but wherein wisdom stirs is how these things change your perception or if you let them. When your perceptions change a decision you would have made before, you might not make now. So my new theory of wisdom is that it is experience, which changes your perception, but only if you are paying attention. Did I mention it feels good to get out of that fucking office so I could eat burritos, dodge burrows on my moto, and contemplate the meaning of life through the eyes of old rancheros south of the border. Feels fucking great!