Jubei...Kibagami, Jubei...

What ever it is that makes me A Smith [no pun intended], brought me in to existence on the side of a mountain somewhere in the Himalayas. My mother being alone with newborn and running a fever of 105-106, certainly would have perished if not for the two monks/Sherpas that found her in distress [to say the very least]. Or so the story goes...Regardless, she was a "free spirit"? who became deathly ill before/during/after I was born, and some how ended up in the neighborhood of Nepal, Tibet [Fuck you China, you know exactly what you did...], India, and Bangladesh [not sure on that one]. Due to the extremely heavy Buddhist influence, I'm quite certain [I checked with Detective 27] the ballpark of conception was Tibet or Nepal, with the only way she could have been inside of Tibet, was through ninja magic. The only two people who will ever know exactly, are the aforementioned rescuers, for I was barely completing my first trip around the Sun [9-10 months old], and my mother was freely hallucinating from dying, and Buddha knows what else [sorry, could not stop myself]. So I have faith that the sane and extremely intelligent, but also switched on woman that safely brought me here was indeed telling me the truth decades before she lost her way and ceased to be my mother. I realized, as many ninjas do [Asian or otherwise], that she was part of my objective, and once she ceased to be relevant, I never existed with her again. I just couldn't proverbially kill her, because that was not part of the mission, never mind I would have been doing her and the planet a gigantic favor. Plus, out of the chaos that consumed her came the most awesome thing I had ever seen: my sibling [would probably prefer to remain anonymous, just in case...]. So I took what information and memories I needed on the subject of mother with me and never returned.

Having quested through out the Asian continent, and the human mind, I was always happy that I was able to be immersed in what is now [almost] a daily part of my life, in the region from which it was born [so to speak]. From Kung Fu, to Samurais, and all Ninjas in between, I was heavy on building my knowledge base, and theoretical application of Zen, Buddhism, and Ninjas. I had already gorged myself on more cultural stew than the black hole at the center of my stomach could handle [not really, but close]. It left me with free time to wander aimlessly [just a tad] in my head, at which point it dawned on me that Ninjas were not black pajamas and rooftop shenanigans, as so many civilians are led to believe, but in fact, a way of mental life. Granted Ninjas due often were dark clothing, and extremely skilled at high altitude combat, and of course the ever popular assassinating for gold is key, but besides all that, you can apply Ninjitsu [mental and physical] to everything you do, from wiping your derriere, to pulling a 4 inch nail out of some one's brain without killing them. Point A to point B. Obviously that is not how it always goes, hence the path of the linear circle. Ninja only wants to successfully complete the contract, what ever it may be, with minimal resistance, and no needless abuse of the land or it's pedestrian inhabitants. Point A to point B, and Back again to collect what is due. But complications, hostilities, confusion, and a host of adversaries can arise without any notice, and so the straight line becomes horribly skewed and runs all over making it hard to keep things in focus, and achieve the appropriate perception of the start and finish of the entire event. But ultimately Ninja returns to the finish, and despite whatever twists and turns were thrown his way, if you take the body of work and lay it on its side, the complicated and jumbled tangents he faced [circles], disappear, and only a the results remain, point A to point B [line]. His target is sometimes swift and effortless, but more often it is ridiculously abrupt, and borderline quixotic. Still, Ninja adapts, overcomes, and damage controls his mission [path] and lives to contemplate another day of secret ninja bullshit...

I have by no means come as close as I think I am capable of coming, to said Ninja enlightenment, but in my 30 plus trips around the Sun, I have experienced many things that defy rational or conventional thought. Some good, some very bad, some neither here nor there. I do know that they all had one thing in common which was that all 8 senses were affected, including coherent and subconscious thought. So perhaps I am still alive [knock on wood] to try and make sense of it. Maybe at some point down my own path of linear circles, something I say will be a catalyst that I/the world needs, to pull its collective head out of it's ass. Or not.

Call it God, Allah, Science, The Universe, What Ever the Fuck You Want, until the Shit hits the Planetary Fan, we will never truly understand what set existence into motion. We did not create ourselves/ancestors nor the world we inhabit, and so therefore it is all the same. We all bleed red. We all die. We all require fundamentally the same fuel to survive. Better tan? Funny sounding Deity? Place of Birth? If you are going to screw the pooch [Chuck Yeager], at least be able to half ass explain yourself. Seriously. Racism and Religious genocide? That was your big plan? We will talk soon enough...