its like this..:

its quite possibly the most perfect summer night you've seen. the sky is clear, giving you an amazing view of the stars. ok, yeah, you're in the city so the stars aren't quite as bright as they would be if you were, say, in the desert, but its not bad. you're sitting on the porch steps, arms wrapped around your legs, and you're just sitting. that's all. there is no alcohol with you. in fact, you haven't had any in about 3 days. the only thing with you is a copy of 'Brave New World,' but right now, the lack of alcohol is a good thing. because right now, you're very aware of your surroundings.

the street lights are on, giving you some light. enough light to see the cracks in the cement of the stairs. enough light to see that damn vine that keeps growing up onto the stairs no matter how often you cut it down. the light shines on the dull, chipped black paint on the metal railings on the stairs. you know that if you gave the railings a good kick or two, they�d come off and fall over into the yard. the screws on the railings need to be tightened down, but you put that in the back of your mind, you�ll worry about that later.

you close your eyes. you can clearly hear the squeaks of the bats, and if you listen carefully enough, you can hear the flapping of their wings as they fly past you. you can hear the crickets chirping, probably telling each other little cricket secrets. who knows. you inhale.. it smells like a summer night. the smell of fresh mowed lawns, of flowers, of.. of kids enjoying their freedom from school. you�re not sure how you know what that smells like. but you know it. you know what it feels like too. it feels like staying out until the street lights came on. running inside and begging your parents to let you play a little longer with your friends. you run back outside and join back in the football game the neighborhood kids have started. it feels like waking up early in the morning, eating a waffle and then riding your bike around the block over and over with your friends. it feels like riding around with your best guy friend and splashing in mud puddles and playing in the woods and catching fish and frogs and turtles and snakes and trying to get your mom to let you keep them as pets. it feels like eating lunches of peanut butter sandwiches while making plans with a friend to build a raft so you can ride the creek behind your house.

when you open your eyes, you catch a glimpse of a bat zipping by. you turn your head in the direction the bat is going, and see the construction barrels sitting next to the road with the flashing light on top. its from earlier when a storm was going through during the middle of the night. a tree right next to your house was struck by lightening, and almost half of it, split vertically, crashed down in the street. if it was a few feet longer, it might have hit the house across the street. you remember staying awake during the night, watching the lightening flash across the sky. it lit up the sky like it was 3 o�clock on a summer afternoon without a cloud in the sky. there was a severe thunderstorm warning and a tornado watch going at the same time. you watched the local news, listening to the weatherman talk about the storm, how it was moving south/south-east, but there was some straight line winds moving east, which caused signs of rotation, not far from where you used to live. you learned more about weather last night than you ever did in your earth science class in high school.

you think of stealing one of the construction barrels. but people are awake inside your house, so you can�t carry it in that way. you�d have to go right past them. you think of taking it to the back of the house, opening up your window, and bringing it in that way. you�re glad you remembered to wear shoes this time, but then a thought comes to you. due to how high up your window is, and how tall you�re not, you�d have a problem getting the window open enough to get the barrel in. but then you remember you have rope in the garage, and maybe you could rig a pulley system. like that time when you and your somewhat step-brother at the time, rigged a pulley system going from the ground to the top of a garage. and the system you rigged up going from the top of a really high tree to the house, so you could slide down the rope, that connected the two, holding onto a pulley with a handle. sliding down the rope, yelling at the top of your lungs, pretending you were ninjas.

but before you grab the barrel, the rope and get the urge to kung-fu chop someone, you decide against the whole idea. because it took too long to think out, and if you get caught, it wouldn�t be worth it. it would. but it wouldn�t. you don�t feel like having to explain why you took the barrel. it�d involve ninjas and being a kid and doing things that could hurt you and taking risks and being an idiot.

you�re a pretend grown-up now, so it mostly just involves taking risks and being an idiot. and occasionally ninjas.

you go back to sitting peacefully. once in a while, a car drives by. always with the volume turned up and windows rolled down, so you can perfectly hear the music and feel the ground vibrating beneath your feet due to the bass. enimem. the beatles. iron maiden. the clash. george clinton.

enimem the beatles iron maiden the clash george clinton.

enimemthebeatlesironmaidentheclashgeorgeclinton

and the music all runs together and the people all run together, and you think �this is what i want. i want all sorts of people to just come together and dance and party and most importantly: have fun.� it reminds you of the ending of the muppet movie where gonzo�s family finds him. with the big spaceship and all sorts of people on the beach dancing and having fun as gonzo�s family dances and sings disco songs and everyone is having fun and there isn�t a bad thought around. you don�t want any thoughts of war or dirty bombs or terrorism or suicide bombers or anthrax or kids killing each other at school or plane high jacking or �friendly fire� (there is no such thing as friendly fire) or hate crimes or anything like that. you just want people to get together and dance. you want to be able to dance with people you�d probably never meet. a cute british girl. a cute japanese boy. people you don�t know. but all brought together because you just want to dance. because you hold onto what you were told in elementary school: music makes the world go �round. and you want the world to go �round and �round in a global groove.

you go back inside your house and get a glass of water. you drink it, but you don�t tell anyone else living there that you want a big global dance party. they�d laugh at you and say it was stupid and ignore anything else you had to say. so you go in your room, and write it all down for other people. because maybe other people will understand what you mean. maybe the cute british girl and the cute japanese boy will get what you mean and you won�t feel so alone sometimes.

more dancing (ninjas) and less fighting.