From Prologue
June 25, 2016
God is one
June 25, 2016

Moo-koonda?

Then Mike Grant, at twenty-four, not much expression on his face, says he has a spiritual master. “Yeah, I got initiated by the Swami, big ceremony with like a campfire in the middle of the room– and he gave me a new name.”Mike seemed so different. But what was it? I handed him a joint, showing off (see, even out there in the wilderness …), and he said no thanks, appreciating the offer, but “We took a vow to the Swami. No more intoxicants.”InTOXicants? A little grass?Mike Grant, my Reed College hero: in his black beret and shades, tickling the ivories at 2 a.m. in that dark coffeehouse on Stark Street in Portland, who turned this innocent farm boy from Salem on to Lenny Bruce and John Coltrane – my hero, with a new name like Moo-koonda? – telling me, “Yeah, you got to meet this guy, the Swami.”