{"id":1159,"date":"2010-03-07T18:31:37","date_gmt":"2010-03-08T01:31:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=1159"},"modified":"2011-12-12T09:28:18","modified_gmt":"2011-12-12T16:28:18","slug":"reflecting-his-radiance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1159\/reflecting-his-radiance\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflecting His Radiance . . ."},"content":{"rendered":"

A Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Willie story<\/i><\/p>\n

“Imagine yourself larger,” said His Radiance.<\/p>\n

Stopped me<\/i> in my tracks.<\/p>\n

“Imagine yourself larger. You are everything you’ve ever hoped to be, but you’re afraid to let yourself be it. Free your mind. Imagine yourself larger.”<\/p>\n

I imagined myself warier. Hanging around in a college town you’ll pay if you let your guard down. Things are not always what they seem, after all, and that’s the point. The bohemian enclave on the left bank of every university in America is a little Accidental Disneyland where distraction is the main attraction. So even as I approached His Radiance, I backed off mentally.<\/p>\n

He was not a pretty man, particularly, but something inside him was beautiful and subtly seductive and, I thought, very, very dangerous. He was Hispanic, and he held himself like a king. He was wearing a radiant white linen suit in the hot summer sun, and the contrast of the bright white against his brown skin was stunning. His sleek black hair was swept straight back from his forehead and his teeth were straight and white and perfect.<\/p>\n

In truth, he made me think that this might be what god would look like, if any god of any religion had ever managed to grow beyond the age of three. I called myself an idiot for thinking that, but I thought it anyway.<\/p>\n

“Imagine yourself whole. Rid yourself of every drain on your energy. Purge yourself of doubt and fear. Stretch yourself to reach the completion of your life’s destiny.”<\/p>\n

He was standing in a little cobbled alleyway between a New Age bookstore and a fern bar, and I wasn’t sure whose wares he’d been sampling.<\/p>\n

“Imagine yourself glorious.<\/i> You are an immense soaring bird, and the Earth is your toy, not your tether.”<\/p>\n

And you can only spit so much before you hit your own shoe: I wasn’t buying a word of it, and yet I sat down on a bench to hear His Radiance out.<\/p>\n

“We are not here to crawl. We are not here to grovel. We are not here to plead and suffer and mourn.”<\/p>\n

“Yeah? What we here for then, stick?” The Gangster Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Willie story “Imagine yourself larger,” said His Radiance. Stopped me in my tracks. “Imagine yourself larger. You are everything you’ve ever hoped to be, but you’re afraid to let yourself be it. Free your mind. Imagine yourself larger.” I imagined myself warier. Hanging around in a college town you’ll pay if you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,24],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1159","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-casual-friday","7":"category-egoism-in-action","9":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11310,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/11310\/the-epistemology-of-splendor-apprehending-the-memes-that-move-me\/","url_meta":{"origin":1159,"position":0},"title":"The epistemology of Splendor: Apprehending the memes that move me.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"February 13, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I had a great week. That's not something I get to say all the time -- rarely more than fifty times a year. The truth is, most of the time I feel like an undocumented refugee from a forgotten country known as A Different Way Of Thinking. I don't feel\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Egoism in Action"","block_context":{"text":"Egoism in Action","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/egoism-in-action\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2018,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2018\/recognizing-greatness-by-means-of-outrageous-insult\/","url_meta":{"origin":1159,"position":1},"title":"Recognizing greatness by means of outrageous insult…","author":"Greg Swann","date":"October 9, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Let's play a little game of practical morality. Imagine that you're the Mozart of real estate webloggers, the Jimi Freakin' Hendrix of the RE.net. Winner of the Carnival of Real Estate more than any other writer, winner of the Odysseus Medal, three-time nominee in a field of twenty nominated posts\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":801,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/801\/christmas-story-courtney-at-the-speed-of-life\/","url_meta":{"origin":1159,"position":2},"title":"Courtney at the speed of life","author":"Greg Swann","date":"December 31, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"A Ramblin' Gamblin' Willie story \"Lord-a-mercy!\" I said in my thickest southern drawl. \"Somebody tell god to take the rest of the week off. He has made perfection, and there ain't no topping that!\" The beautiful blonde woman scowled and blushed at the same time. It made her look seventeen\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Casual Friday"","block_context":{"text":"Casual Friday","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/casual-friday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14833,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/14833\/the-sky-is-falling-and-so-are-loan-limits\/","url_meta":{"origin":1159,"position":3},"title":"The Sky is Falling… and So Are Loan Limits","author":"Sean Purcell","date":"July 25, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The most recent loan limit in San Diego County has been $697,500, thus making it exceedingly difficult for those of us who toil away in the real estate salt mines of America's Finest City to keep beautiful San Diegans housed in the luxury to which they have become accustomed...","rel":"","context":"In "Big Mother"","block_context":{"text":"Big Mother","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/big-mother\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14949,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/14949\/reforming-fanniemae-and-freddiemac-with-marx-rotarian-socialist-rent-seekers-of-the-world-unite-you-have-nothing-to-lose-but-your-brains\/","url_meta":{"origin":1159,"position":4},"title":"Reforming FannieMae and FreddieMac with Marx: Rotarian Socialist rent-seekers of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your brains!","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 17, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Totally cool. An actual newspaper article about America's favorite welfare program, government subsidized mortgages -- and in The Boston Globe, no less:Amid all the clamor about entitlement reform during the struggle to raise the debt ceiling, one enormous cost - and potential source of future savings - largely escaped scrutiny:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Flourishing"","block_context":{"text":"Flourishing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/flourishing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1931,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1931\/i-invented-a-brand-new-social-networking-technology-today-so-once-somebody-implements-it-i-want-my-iradio-for-free\/","url_meta":{"origin":1159,"position":5},"title":"I invented a brand new social networking technology today, so, once somebody implements it, I want my iRadio for free","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 15, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Ideas are easy. Implementation is hard. Even so, here's a cool idea I had today. First, art is selection. You have to stand back, because I can define art seven different ways in seven seconds. But one thing that art is is the selection of seemingly disparate elements into a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Casual Friday"","block_context":{"text":"Casual Friday","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/casual-friday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1159"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1159\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15445,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1159\/revisions\/15445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}