The Fire Hydrant - Part 1

June 11, 2005

It's a state of bliss, devotion is. It's a path.

Corky: What did it say?

Chris: What did the book say?

Corky: Yeah, while you were asleep. Tell us. From there.

Chris: From here?!

Corky: Uh huh. I'll pour wine while you do it.

Chris: Uh, do unto others as ... I don't know!

Corky: You don't remember?

Chris: I do, I do. She said if you decide to go with your instinct, with your ego and sensory instincts, you'll end up a corpse, and all of your potential would have been wasted.

Corky: Ok. But there was a paragraph that was really important. She talked about the waters and the coalescing.

Chris: Right. It's like a raindrop that comes down and it coalesces with the ocean.

Corky: So what did she say about that though?

Chris: That you go back to where you began.

Corky: How did she say you do it though? She sort of gave a direction, a path.

Chris: Well, I don't remember it specifically, I mean, what she said; I know what we say here.

Corky: I know, but what do you say? Say it in your way.

Chris: What do I say? Oh, ok, I thought you wanted me to do a book report or something. Um ... Stay out of thought as much as possible.

Corky: Ok ... I'll take it from there. Once upon a time there was no time. And there was no-body. And then, when there was nobody, because of possibility, there had to be everybody. Because if there's nothing, it's got to be possible for nothing to be. And if nothing is, there has got to be possibility, and so they automatically create each other. That seems sort of abstract for most people, wouldn't you think Shad?

Shad: Yeah.

Corky: They can't get it. Why? ... Does Vern get it? Vern thinks he gets it.

Shad: I would say Vern thinks he gets it, absolutely.

Corky: What do you think Steve?

Steve: It's hard to say.

Corky: What do you think about people and that? The people that you meet in life, and that thing that we just talked about, the nothing and possibility, and understanding what that really is. Do most people not even want to deal with that?

Steve: No.

Corky: Why?

Steve: Because they've already made up their mind.

Corky: About what?

Steve: About what is. What's real, who they are, who someone else is.

Corky: Yeah, but even if they've made up their mind, can't they look at that?

Steve: If they look at it, if they stand back and look at it ...

Corky: What would they say about it?

Steve: Usually they're in it, being it, not ...

Corky: Oh, they're so far in the possibility, and all the things that are happening with it, that they can't see the nothing.

Steve: Yeah, they're so in their thoughts and like this, you know, thought motor going on upstairs, that's where their attention is, and they don't step back and see that it's just a part of the vehicle.

Corky: And so you have to relax like Chris said for a minute, and meditate and find it? So once upon a time there was no time and there was no-body. And out of the nobody came everybody because of possibility. And everybody has always been there and the nobody has always been there. There is no beginning and there is no end, its alpha and omega.

You can, if you wanted to ... I think they give a name to it in the Hebrew religion, in the one that's practiced by most people today, they make it more of a life thing, wouldn't you say Chris? Rather than a consciousness thing?

Chris: Yeah.

Corky: Wouldn't you say Christianity is the same way? And the Muslims? God they really got it going in the life thing. And the Hindus ... I think that the religions themselves, if you got into the depth of them themselves, would make it a thought thing rather than a life thing, wouldn't you? Jesus said don't be of the world, be of the domain of Creation, didn't he? And I think it says that in the Old Testament. They all say it but they're all living so much in life that they don't have much time to transcend. Although the Muslims do a lot of transcending, they do it five times a day, why do they do that? What do they do? And they're willing to die for it! Cami, do they think it's a person? Muslims?

Cami: I think so, I don't know a lot about that religion.

Corky: What do you think it is, Bernie?

Bernie: Yeah. I think that people for the most part cannot identify with anything other than the person.

Corky: If they want to get into a war over it, or die for it, they've gotta think it's material, wouldn't you say? If they want to just let destiny play itself out, I think they can transcend it. But if you want to get involved in it physically, it becomes a material thing. So as Isha Schwaller would say, ... I'm trying to say this in a different way so it doesn't sound hard to do ... I said that everybody that had to come or decided to come to class on Saturday nights had to read through Chapter 2 and read Chapter 17, and learn to meditate so that they knew what we were doing here, or they would be wasting their time coming here to class. Does anybody know if Serena learned to meditate? You didn't teach her did you Su?

Su: No.

Corky: I don't think anybody taught her. I don't think anybody ought to come to Saturday night's class unless they learn to meditate, what do you guys think? The reason being is they don't put enough effort out to even know what we're doing here. It's really interesting. I asked Serena why she didn't want to get involved and stuff, and she said she knew it all already and she didn't want to sign any papers saying she agreed to do anything. And so, it seemed to me as if Serena has or had an argument on. I don't know whether she does or whatever she has going on.

If you've got an argument on, you are someplace out there in possibility arguing with it. And to be able to get rid of your argument you've got to be in a form of mind where you can let go of it. And a path that I think Isha Schwaller talked about, she may not call it that, but Osho's talked about it, Patanjali talked about it, Jesus talked about it, everybody has sort of talked about it, but it's called devotion. The path of devotion. Osho called it love. But devotion and love are the same thing, it's just a different word. I would say devotion is more correct than the word love, because love you put flowers on it, and when you put flowers on it, all of a sudden it gets gooey, wouldn't you say?

Bernie: Yeah, the word love has so much stuff on it.

Corky: It does doesn't it? Today. Maybe it was ok in Osho's time, but I'd say that today devotion would be a cleaner word, only to the extent that if you can be devoted to something so strongly that your devotion makes you silent, then you're in the meditation of ... Osho would call it love, I would call it devotion. It's a meditation of devotion. And you get so devoted that all of a sudden you get devoted to a cause greater than yourself. Anybody know where it says that? Al Martin?

Al M: You said it, it says it in the Summum Book.

Corky: Oh, it says it in the Summum book. "To a cause greater than yourself." So if you get lost in the cause greater than yourself, rather than yourself, then all of a sudden there is a disconnection that takes place. Your attention goes from yourself to this devotion thing, to this cause. And you want to make it a creative cause, you don't want to make it a destructive cause if you're going to creation. If you want to go to destruction then you make it a destructive cause. So you make it a creative cause that you want to get devoted to, and then in that creation you surrender yourself so much that you lose your propensities and your arguments and everything, and you go into being that drop of water [going back] into the ocean. And I think every one of them said it. I was talking to Su the other day, and she was telling me about what the Book of Mirdad said, and I said, "My god, that sounds like the thing that everybody is saying!" Right? There is a common thread that goes between all of them, and they all sort of say that thing. And so I say to myself, why is it so difficult for people to devote themselves to a cause, Al? You could answer that the best maybe right now.

Al M: It's hard to trust people or organizations or whatever because people just can't help being human.

Corky: Now wait a second, you don't trust this place?

Al M: I don't know.

Corky: Oh my God! Donna doesn't. Why? What did it do to Donna? It's been here all this time. Donna doesn't trust herself. Is that what it is?

Al M: And so you are disappointed all your life when you do put your trust in, when you do devote yourself to something because it's always ...

Corky: Summum isn't doing anything different now than it was doing 25 years ago when Donna came here. How could she have trusted it then and not trust it now?

Al M: I don't know.

Corky: Shad?

Shad: I think it's a conflict. I think everybody is devoted to a cause, it just happens to be their own cause. And the conflict comes up when they feel that it's something that isn't their own cause.

Corky: Yeah, but how can you become that drop of water, and get so clear, if you're devoted to your own cause, and [how can you] fall into the water if you can't get devoted to the water?

Shad: Well, you can't. That's the problem.

Corky: That's the problem isn't it? And so losing yourself is difficult? Why?

Shad: Yeah. Because people spend their whole life focusing on their own thing, on what they want and how they want life to be.

Corky: So what's that got to do with Al, if you've got to be really honest?

Shad: Well, the same thing that has to do with anybody.

Corky: No, with Al. I'm not talking about anybody, I'm talking about Al Martinez. Allen Martinez. Isn't it Allen Martinez? [Corky poses this question to Al Martin, who changed his name from Martinez to Martin]

Al M: Yeah, I think it is. It's been a long time since I've heard that.

Corky: It's been a long time?

Al M: Yeah, I dropped that -ez because it was a big drag.

Su: Ha. But its e-z.

Corky: Ha, why would you drop the easy? Why did you drop the easy?

Al M: Because if you're a man you're defined as a man, if you're a woman you're defined as a woman, if you're black you're defined as a black, you just can't escape from it. I just didn't want to be defined as anybody.

Corky: Yes Shad, you were saying about Al? He dropped the easy.

Shad: Yeah, he dropped the -ez because it was weighing him down.

Corky: No, it was lightening him up, but he thought it was weighing him down because he wanted to become something specialized. He thought he could become something rather than nobody. And so he decided to become somebody, so he dropped the -ez and decided to become special. Then what?

Shad: Then it turns into a continual struggle. You've got to beat everything up.

Corky: Is he doing well?

Shad: I don't know.

Corky: What do you think Cami? Be honest now.

Cami: I'm really not sure.

Corky: Is he struggling?

Cami: In some ways yes.

Corky: Who's struggling more, Chris or Al?

Cami: With what exactly?

Corky: With everything.

Cami: I think there's the compensation in both.

Corky: Yeah, but with everything, who has the greater degree of struggle? Who's swimming the hardest? But hiding it the best. They're both hiding it pretty good right?

Cami: That's a tough call. I don't know, I'm really not sure.

Corky: Between you and Shad, who's struggling the hardest?

Cami: All I can speak for is myself, so I would say me. But I think Shad is struggling with things that I'm not struggling with right now. But we do that shift a lot.

Corky: [To Chris] What was it like to get the first email? You've got cat hair. [Chris is pulling unseen cat hair from his shirt and arms] You're acting like Bob now. Come on, what was it like to get the first email?

Chris: Sixes. No, I'm just kidding.

Corky: It was what?

Chris: Sixes, isn't that what Bob used to say?

Corky: It was like sixes? It was like sixes. Did it throw you?

Chris: It threw me.

Corky: Like sixes right? What am I supposed to do here?

Chris: I was like oh no, what is up here? Another job. Is it real, is it not real? Who gives a shit. Fuck him, I'll do it. Well, maybe, should I do it? Yeah. Fuck him. I'll do it, it'll be fun.

Corky: Did you believe it was true? Because you got the emails, we sent the emails, I sent most of them from the people. They didn't really order food, I made them do it.

Chris: I know it.

Corky: You knew it?

Chris: They're going to take that up with you because as far as I'm concerned the donation receipts have their name on it. They'll take it up with you, it's not my problem.

Corky: HA HA. ... Steve? What do you say about that?

Steve: Uhh, what is he talking about? He's dancing around something.

Chris: No, I liked it. I mean I went through the thing of "Is this real? Oh shit! What a pain." But, I also had a sense of the ... any task I've ever been given here ...

Corky: Light the lanterns?

Chris: Yeah, or go down the street, light the lanterns or whatever, I've always learned something from. So, after some initial clicking back and forth ... it wasn't that bad though.

Corky: It didn't hurt?

Chris: No, I have more arguments at my work right now.

Corky: But it didn't hurt?

Chris: Not bad. No, not bad.

Corky: Al, does it hurt to come here a little for you? It must hurt for Donna because she said she'd never come here again you told me. Did she really say that? I can tell the world? You tell the world.

Al M: She said I will never go there again. But yet, maybe.

Corky: No, what did Donna say? You tell the world.

Al M: She said I'll never go to Summum again. But maybe she had the door open just a little bit.

Su: Just in case it's the right way.

Corky: What does she want here?

Al M: I don't know, she was going really smooth with Summum, she was participating, and then she just cut it off. I think I know what it is.

Corky: What was it?

Al M: Because you were calling her on how she used to use her femininity, and how she used to ...

Corky: No, I'll tell you what it was. She wanted to move in the house and I told her she couldn't because I wanted to live alone.

Al M: Well yeah, that might have been the last straw.

Corky: I want to live alone. I don't want to live with anybody. Anyway ... Devotion transcends love. Because if you can fall into devotion, fall into devotion, it becomes real, and it comes alive, and it starts living within you. Devotion. You know what I'm talking about, right Bernie?

Bernie: It's the joy that she talked about.

Corky: It's a joy, yeah. If devotion starts living within you, it turns into a joy. It's a state of bliss, devotion is. It's a path. Osho called it love. For his time, it may have been a good word. And what he said, he said love the master in a way differently than you love everybody else, and change the way that you love everybody else into the way that you love a master, is what Osho was saying. But that was in that age and I don't know if all ... it says ... physicists are understanding the natural laws change with time. Even the law of gravity, and the law of propulsion, and all the natural laws, the speed of light and everything change as you evolve. Those laws don't hold. And so it's not necessarily "love," it could be called "devotion" in our age. And if you can fall into devotion with a cause, and then with a person that's in that cause, and discover that it's ok to get an email, it's ok to get one. Even if it says to jump off of a bridge. Because you have to be so devoted that you trust it so much that you can fall into the pool of water as a drop. Right Al? Don't you? You have to trust it so much that you can become a drop of water and fall into the pool of water and become it. Because if you have some kind of distrust about it, you can't fall into it. Can you? You're repelled from it right? And so it does say also, besides devotion, that you have to trust it. Why is it so hard to trust, Shad? Has it done anything to you?

Shad: Has trusting done anything to me?

Corky: No, has this thing, Summum, done anything bad to you?

Shad: No. I mean, there may have been times where ...

Corky: It wrinkled your weenie.

Shad: Right, where I wasn't feeling all that wonderful about it.

Corky: Why? Because it punched your button?

Shad: Yeah. Which was great actually.

Corky: Do you think it punched Vernon's button?

Shad: Yeah.

Corky: But he didn't think it was great right?

Shad: Apparently, yeah. I don't know.

Corky: Sometimes it punches people's buttons and they don't think it's too great. Right? Why?

Bernie: It shows them something that ...

Corky: They're holding onto their button right? And if they're holding onto their button, and their button got punched, it causes an earthquake or a disturbance. Sort of like those old mountains that were way up there are sort of like sand in the desert. It shakes them down to sand, to the nothingness. It makes them nothing, and makes them a nobody. And not everybody wants to be a nobody.

Shad: Very few people do. Because they think that they're separate.

Corky: Yeah, but don't you think that it's funny that if you're nobody you're everybody? Automatically you're everybody when you're nobody.

Shad: I don't think that most people would agree.

Corky: It's too philosophical? But it's so logical. Isn't it? Isn't it logical that if you're nobody then your everybody because it's the opposite. You're on that wavelength. It's sort of like if you are somebody you're stuck at a lower vibration. If you're nobody you raise to the vibration of everybody. It's a different vibration.

Shad: I don't think most people are familiar with that.

Corky: They all say they are, they all talk about it on the Kybalion board and everything like that don't they? They say to use the one law over the other, and use the higher law over the lower law, and do this and put a little of this on it and a little of that on it.

Shad: Everybody seems to be a somebody on that board.

Corky: Wow. Huh. Steve, you got to turn off that speaker because it's making a hum. Thank you, is that better? You told me you would remember before class. Didn't you? I've been waiting. I gave you plenty of time didn't I? Didn't I? We talked about this.

Steve: Oh yeah, I said "I'll remember, I'll turn it off."

Su: It's those sunglasses.

Steve: Sunglasses on my brain I guess.

Corky: You've got to stay away from those fire hydrants. They electrocute them these days. If you pee on fire hydrants it burns your weenie. They got a thing on them in today's society. No fire hydrant peeing. Do you think Al ... I think Al's up for peeing on a fire hydrant if he had a chance, don't you?

Bernie: Excitement.

Corky: Excitement. I think if a fire hydrant came along, he'd pee on it in a flash. Wouldn't you? Don't you think Su?

Su: If somebody said not to, then he would.

Corky: What if some girl were a fire hydrant? Would he pee on it? I mean, do his thing to it?

Su: Probably would, yes.

Corky: Don't you think he would if he got an opportunity?

Chris: Me? Oh, him? Yeah.

Corky: Why would he want to pee on a fire hydrant?

Shad: Desire, propensity.

Corky: Does he think that if he peed on a fire hydrant he would become something different than what he is now? He would have accomplished?

Shad: Yeah, that makes sense.

Corky: Whenever Al shakes his head no it means yes. Ron, what do you think about this? Give us your take on it. Do you think that the fire hydrant tried to lasso Al in recently?

Ron: Uh huh.

Corky: Do you think that if it would have tried to lasso him in as far as Al would have wanted to go, it could have?

Ron: Yeah.

Corky: Because why could it have? Because of what reason? Because of Al's what? Propensity.

Ron: Yeah, because of his availability at the time.

Corky: He's available for a fire hydrant, right? What do you think? Do you think he is?

Shad: I would call it more active than available. I would use a more active adjective than available.

Corky: Oh, he's scoping out the fire hydrant? Oh God, that's even better. You mean he could get it up for a fire hydrant? Oh no! Does that sound dangerous? You could lose your tooth!

Ron: [to Steve] You created a metaphor!

Corky: Right Steve?

Steve: Rrriiiiggghhtt ...

Chris: Oh yeah, that's what you're talking about. Are you all fixed up?

Su: Ha ha!! In what way are you talking about?

Corky: Paul Barton brought by an M72 LAW. It was a training thing. An empty training canister from ... and I took it back to his office because I thought he needed to deal with it.

Bernie: I saw that and I thought, "Is that a mortar or what is that?"

Corky: No, that's something you use in the military, and I didn't want it around here, and I don't know what he's going to do with it but he's the one that's got to deal with it, not us. I'm not going to let him bring it over here and give it to us.

Shad: What is it?

Corky: An M72 LAW. It's a rocket propelled grenade launcher that you can do bad things with. But it didn't have anything in it, but it doesn't make any difference, even if it's empty the new laws could say that you're going to give it to someone to train them how to use it or whatever. It's got sites on it and stuff like that.

Shad: Why would he bring that over?

Corky: Who knows. But I took back to his office in front of his secretary and gave it to him, and said don't bring it to me, it's yours, and I never owned it and I never saw it before. It's his. He's got to deal with it. I don't want it.

Do you think Al would have, if he were given the opportunity? Jumped the fire hydrant?

Chris: Uh, yeah, probably. I don't know Al real well, but ...

Corky: If he were told by the fire hydrant that it didn't have any water in it, it wouldn't get him wet, but as soon as he did it, it would drown him to death. He'd still do it? And he knew it really did, but he would make up an excuse thinking that it didn't cause it had three kinds of water in it.

Chris: Yeah, I could see a lot of late night conversations between him and the fire hydrant, and drinking and drinking, and finally coming to a compromise ... That whole "ok, just this time, it would be alright."

Su: Coming to a head?

Corky: It would be ok right? It would be safe right? Even though it wasn't really safe.

Al M: I agree with a lot of things you say, but at the same time when you say what you're saying, they're going to go along with you whether its true or not.

Corky: Oh. Al is trying to say that Serena doesn't have venereal warts.

Al M: She doesn't. I checked.

Su: Oh!! He checked it out!!

Al M: I talked to Mike O'Hare and I talked to her and she said something. Fucking lie. It's a rumor. It's like when you're in high school and you don't want anybody to fuck this really pretty chick because she's not fucking anybody. And so you want to make sure everybody's not going to. Because if you can't have her nobody can. Can I have a glass of wine before you make a fool out of me.

Corky: No, can't have any wine. Oh no! He believed it! Ok, now. Chris. Have you ever heard stories like that before?

Chris: Oh God yeah.

Corky: What are they like? Are they like a tornado?

Chris: [deep breath] Ohhhh ... This is a big argument ...

Corky: Ok. I've seen that when everybody goes through their destiny of life, many things approach them. It's sort of like voices come to them and try to call them, and they try to call them into their propensities. And until one overcomes a propensity, a louder voice will always come back and call you on it until you've made a decision not to become available for the propensity. Because you automatically create a louder voice that comes calling on it. Does that make sense? A prettier woman, a prettier man, a bigger this, a bigger that, more of this, more of that, whatever will come and call on you as long as it's a propensity, until you've said that's not a propensity for me anymore. Till you've made the decision. But as long as you allow the propensity, it will always call.

Do you think that's possible with Al? And so he would have a long talk with it and it would be able to tell him what he wants to hear.

Chris: It would tell him that there are two sides to every story, and it would tell him well, you know everybody has their thing on over there, and everybody wants you to do this or wants you to do that and get ...

Corky: And I really don't have those things. It'll get you to relax. And call up Mike, he'll tell you that I don't have them.

Chris: Cause Mike is a registered dermatologist with the American Medical Association. Board certified in dermatology isn't he? ... Sorry.

Corky: Why is she working for a dermatologist, she's looking for a cure. Right? Wouldn't you say? That's the only thing I can think of, she's looking for a cure for something that's life long. And there isn't any cure, is there Steve? Is there a cure for all venereal warts?

Steve: I don't know. I've never had venereal warts.

Al M: Steve, didn't you say the other day that you're not really sure it was Serena, that it might have been somebody else. You're just not sure.

Steve: No.

Al M: Yeah you did, that's what you told me.

Steve: No, I did not say it might be somebody else.

Corky: What did you say?

Al M: You said it might be somebody else. You're not sure.

Steve: I said, I can't say for sure that Serena gave me papilloma. I did not say "It could have been somebody else."

Al M: And let the rumor fly. If you can't have her then fuck, spread this rumor. Sorry, sorry, sorry, I'll shut up.

Cami: Sorry, I just want to mention that when we talk about these things, I think that an STD is the least thing that you concern yourself with in this situation.

Corky: Right! You're getting it. There is more to it than that.

Cami: Yes. In the book we read by Osho, the freedom, aloneness book, he talked about the detriment ... any type of encounter with another individual that there is this communion that happens.

Corky: Called the "plug in phenomenon?"

Cami: Right. That there's more than just the bodies, and more than just the STD's and that effect that you have to worry about.

Corky: And so if it doesn't have an STD it could have something worse?

Cami: Absolutely. It can be so detrimental in so many ways. And I think that that's what you're trying to get at more than the STD's.

Al M: What's an STD?

Cami: Sexually transmitted diseases.

Corky: He doesn't even know what they are.

Cami: The warts, it's a virus that you may not even know that you have. And that's aside from all the other viruses.

Corky: There are other viruses that are spiritual right, or of your essence? That will get you. Do you think, um, I don't think that she's watching so it's ok to say, do you think she had a virus? A spiritual virus? I saw it walk up the sidewalk. From day one it had one. God.

Cami: And I think that's far more threatening than any STD.

Corky: Boy, you're not a kidding. It is devastating. Jan Fabian had one too. Serena's worse than Jan Fabian ... I think. I don't know. So, if you looked at this story we just went through Chris, would you say that Al is devoted to something? Al Martin. There is only one Al here tonight so we don't have to worry about confusing any names. What's he devoted to in general?

Chris: Probably that word they use in the Summum book, the ego master. Probably more ...

Corky: A propensity, or several? Would you say that he is Bernie? Why? It is normal right?

Bernie: Yeah, that's the common condition of humanity.

Corky: The condition of the condition that humanity is in. So there is nothing wrong with it is there? But all we're trying to do is discuss it so that if he decides to take a key and unlock the door and let himself out of it, he's got to realize that he's got it. He can't get out of it unless he realizes that he's got it first, can he?

Bernie: He has to admit the propensities and be able to start examining them.

Corky: And looking at them? And, it's so easy to see around here don't you think?

Bernie: Especially around here.

Corky: I mean they just POP to the surface, huh? Why?

Bernie: Because the milieu here brings it out into the open.

Corky: Is that why nobody wants to come?

Bernie: That is exactly why.

Corky: You guys must be masochists. Because it's dangerous you said right? Because you can't trust it. It will do to you tonight what it's doing to you. So if it does that to you ... you can't trust it can you? Here Shad, you can have this.

Al M: I sit here hoping that I will get a glass of wine, and no.

Corky: Do you think you'll be able to make it through it?

Al M: I always get the backwash.

Corky: Ha ha. I always pass the glasses out the way I do on purpose. Um, do you remember the question?

Al M: Yeah.

Corky: What was it?

Al M: There are very few things that you can devote yourself to.

Corky: You've only probably got a max of about 20 years left. It's about time you start doing something about it. Don't you think Shad? I mean, if you had only 20 years left to live, and you've already lived the majority of your life, you ought to get down to doing something about what's going to happen?

Shad: Yeah, I would start feeling that pressure.

Corky: And instead of pushing it off ... [Shad drinks the last of the nectar, and hands the empty glass to Al M., who takes it dejectedly] ... good job. Good job. Great. So why do you think he's avoiding, he's still trying to do some young thing trip? Why does he want to do that? It will make his weenie fall off besides.

Shad: Hope, wishes, wants, desires.

Corky: Hope for what? He'd be better off getting a Lamb Chop [Lamb Chop is a plastic female sheep doll in the pyramid]. Don't you think? It would be safer. At least you could get it X-rayed and kill all the organisms. [A second glass of nectar is passed. It reaches Shad nearly empty. Al M. looks at Shad. Shad looks at Al, then at the glass, then at Al M with a big smile. The tension of the moment is broken with giggles from Su and Corky]

Al M: You guys are funny.

Shad: I think Al is going to start crying if I drink this.

Corky: Do you think we're funny Chris? Or do you think it's so true that it's funny?

Chris: It's so true that it's funny.

Corky: Do you think that Al thinks that we're being mean to him, or he thinks he's on the spot?

Chris: Both.

Corky: We're being mean AND he's on the spot? Oh no. That's bad. Two things at one time? He's getting it from both directions? You're acting like Bob, you're scratching your head.

Chris: Give me a lizard. I'll comb my hair with a lizard.

Corky: You saw him do it? Do you remember?

Ron: Who's this?

Corky: Bob combed his hair with a lizard, do you remember? God, he picked up a little lizard and started combing his hair with it.

Su: Did you get a photo of that one?

Corky: I didn't. I didn't have a camera with me or I would have. Did I ever tell you guys about the time Bob and I were coming back from Laguna, and we were on the overpass going on to the 405, and they were doing an air show at El Toro and we were in the '77 gray van, and we were parked on top of the overpass and we were stopped. And down, getting onto the 405, the freeway was stopped because everybody was looking at the airplanes. The jets and everything. You know, the freeway stops! People park on it. And some guy bought a brand new ... I can't even remember even what color it was, but a BMW that had a ... they used to have a sign or something like that that said "the car that never breaks down" or something like that on the back of it. Anyway, the hood was up and it had boiled because he was stuck on the freeway. And he took off all of his clothes and he was walking back and forth on the freeway, and he'd get back in his car and then walk back and forth on the freeway. And Bob says, "Look at that guy, he's naked down there." And I said oh bullshit. And I couldn't believe it. This guy was walking up and down the freeway, and he had his shoes on though because he didn't want to get his feet burned on the pavement, but he was totally naked and he took off all of his clothes in protest. And the back of his license plate said "These BMW's never break down," and the car was brand new, I mean it was unbelievable. And I guess he was just flipped out. It was weird. Everything when you're around Bob was weird. Like Bob combing his hair with a lizard. [Looks at Al for a moment]

Al M: What?

Corky: So how could a fire hydrant talk to you, and you listen?

Al M: I don't know, you tell me.

Corky: Huh?

Al M.: It's hard to look at yourself and be honest.

Corky: [To Chris] Why would you say?

Chris: I'm sorry, I was thinking about a fire hydrant.

Corky: Why would you say that a fire hydrant could talk to him and he would listen?

Chris: Because the desire is there, the propensity.

Corky: Wow. Amazing huh?

Chris: I understand the dilemma.

Corky: Do you think it's good to master fire hydrants? Do you think it's necessary before becoming a drop of water falling into the rest of the water? Or you get stuck on a fire hydrant. Know what I mean? If you can't get off the fire hydrant, you're on the fire hydrant. You're still on the fire hydrant. So you've got to be able to drop from it. Look at those three cats! [Sings] "Three cats at the door. It's easy." And you got rid of easy?

Al M: Huh? What?

Corky: And you got rid of easy?

Al M: Oh yeah. Yup.

Corky: [Singing] "Three cats at the door, and life is easy." [To Chris] So, you're just as easy as he is? Why? Because you haven't been spending enough time meditating. You've been thinking about that is all.

Chris: Probably. That wine made me cough. Unless it's the topic.

Corky: I think Cami's dad coughed because of the topic.

Cami: My dad's just very unhealthy.

Corky: Yeah, but he did cough because of the topic too though don't you think?

Cami: Probably, but he really enjoyed it here.

Corky: Good. Is he going to come back?

Cami: He says he will, so we'll see.

Corky: Ok. Well, let's take a break!