Brian Wilson died this week.
My mental image of him is sad -- an obese, overgrown, bearded kid sitting in his living room with a piano and a truckload of sand spread across the carpet.
But when I was a kid, I'd play my mom's Endless Summer records over and over, during that dead part of winter after the holidays. I hear "The Warmth of the Sun" now, and remember staring outside at the bright, blinding light, the snow sparkling, blown around by bitter-cold winds.
I didn't realize that I'd internalized this idea of California as a long, continuous beach until I moved to San Francisco in my 20s and thought, "HUH. Not what I expected..."
I found beaches close to what I'd imagined eventually, but California's a complicated thing.
Most things are more complicated than I'd like, honestly. I used to think it was important to keep the complications of life front-of-mind, as a serious adult.
Maybe it IS important, but it's tiring to think like that. You get older, time grows short, it's so much easier to just let go of things that are tiring.
The days are LONG. Evenings are cool again, so I bundle up and walk down the block to sit and draw or watch people go by until the sun finally goes down.
How's your (almost) summer going so far? I know there's a lot that could be weighing you down, but I hope you're able to keep things in perspective. I'm pretty big on the "circle of control" idea myself. That circle's small. Most of what's outside of that is a desert of distraction and wasted energy.
It is what it is. You do what you can. Don't worry, Baby...