Why Arizona?

Establishing relationships with people and being ripped away from them over and over. Painful and hardening.

he claimed to have a dream and one day his friend took him to this town and he knew that was home or at least thats what he says in interviews

Love your entries. Look forward to the next.

Ha ha Maynard said tickle. :) gray tickle. I love you dude :)

While I'm generally always excited to read/listen to your words, I felt like this week's post was just a recycle of things you've already stated in past interviews, most notably in the documentary Blood into Wine (which I rather enjoyed). It would be nice to hear something new. Or maybe I'm being too nearsighted in my perspective. Perhaps I should acknowledge that the possibility exists that there's many others that haven't. But to be realistic about the situation, a good majority of the people coming to read your bi-weekly thoughts are probably already EXTREMELY well acquainted with you. I'm suggesting you could be doing a little more with these posts. On a more positive note, in reference to something you stated in this week's article, and while I won't get my hopes on it ever seeing the light of day, I, and many more, would love to read your autobiography. Take care.

Crazybob, Hey guys, food for thought. You ever think that ole BloodEagle might really be MJK, just "fucking with you."

BloodEagle, for real dude. You're on here bashing someone you've never even met, let alone probably one of the greatest artists this world has seen in quite some time.  Show some respect.

I completely understand the panic part. After visiting Jerome for the first time this year, drawn up there by the promise of amazing vino, I have felt like I don't belong anywhere else. I get almost frantic to return. My body may be elsewhere but I know where my heart is. I am everyday planning ways to be there permanently. Someday...

Right on Maynard. Felt the same way when I first came to Phoenix/AZ. Been here 14 years and there's is no going back. I'm looking to retreat further into the hill country as my own pre-apocalypse itch is pushing me to vacate massed humanity. The verde valley is an option. Any openings at vineyard? 

I work around mostly cocky surgeons, some are as good as they think, some are not. Some have told me about their childhood, some have not. You have made me think of that. As cocky as they may be they are still truly vulnerable inside. We can all take a magnificant trip inside our own heads that make us land right where we belong or we can pass it up never knowing what did or did not exist in the first place. Some mumbo jumbo for you. 

I am impressed that you have opened up a peep hole into your normally private life. My oldest son has several times expressed the wish that he could have been an only child. He has never gone into the reason(s) why and when he's ready to tell me I will listen.

I can tell you that being the seventh of nine children it's not always true that the only child have their friends inside their head. Dependant upon the child's home life even one of many can become a loner, mistrusting of others. Of course, for me, that comes from having moved nearly 40 times in the first 32 years of my life. But there is always some good to come from life situations. You develop a keener sense of "people reading". Almost an animal instinct. William Glasser once said, "What happened in the past that was painful has a great deal to do with what we are today." No truer words were spoken.

Keep your music coming and I look forward to reading your biography one of these days.

been working on that biography for awhile?.... yes please!

but, so, if my recurring dream is being taken to and fro on the ferry from the island whence I came.... this must be a universal message to ride the wave of transformation (to or from, to or from?) wait, where am I...? what year is this? *cue melty guitar 

There's so much negativity about Maynard, it makes me sick. TOOL Fags are the worst fans ever. Selfish, critical bastards. Great article Nardo, much like your speech but with even more to see and feel. I'll preorder that biography, hope it's got lots of glossy photos too :P

@puscifer thanks again good sir. Always a great, thought provoking read.

So..  let me see if I am understanding this correctly, being an only child stimulates a need to listen to voices within? I grew up alone for the first 9 years of my life and have been very aware of the voices of nature around me.  (those and certain imaginary characters also I have to admit) This isn't very handy growing up surrounded by catholics I can tell you, I didn't realize what it was I was aware of until I was 32(!)

Maybe this development is stimulated as there are no distractions from other siblings around who demand that you communicate in the 'conventional'  way.

Interesting that a dream made you move.  If I listen to my dreams making me move, it will be to southern France, which is only a 12 hour drive for me, but that would also mean that the human condition has taken a turn for the worse and everything has gone to hell in a hand basket!

Thanks for sharing this personal thing, it did make me feel a little less like an alien baby left behind by accident.

Scotty beam me up!

@pletch I do like this!

@puscifer I just wanted to say thanks for all that you do. Your music, your wine, all of it. Thank you.

ha!

kind regards (and a bunch of big thank yous) from an only child.

some of these voices in my head would sound rather familiar...

if we all followed our dreams I think we would all be better off, too many of us making excuses that hold ourselves back from a true chance of happiness

So let's see.

Only only children have an internal dialogue when they're talking to people.

Maynard believes that he has such a profound sense of self awareness that he is able to resonate with cosmic will; maybe that's why he's 'hostile, so impersonal.'

He is so deeply consumed by his own sense of self-importance that he believes the universe is willing to trangress its own belief system -- to be hostile and impersonal -- so that it can communicate with Maynard on a personal level via 'signs' and 'dreams' and, no doubt, other religious communication systems.

Specious stuff, like.

completely crazy...i just booked a flight on sunday night from london to phoenix, arrived monday, totally spontaneous, following a strong feeling. and now, dude just posts this up...i didn't even realize that maynard lives in arizona..the universe and energy are incredible things

Jerome is amazing.

Great piece.  Totally captures the dichotomy of developing oneself in this world as an only child: truly beholden to no one, quietly defying the usual social expectations of compliance, submission to authority, and a whole slew of other things that seem requisite for "peaceful existence" to the Normies.  I grew up the same way as you, with a heaping side dish of Baptist Fundamentalist parents who were so terrified of the sin lurking around every corner, we fled to a different locale (and life) on an annual basis.  Intuition was absolutely rejected in their belief system, so I had to keep my smiles inside as I consistently felt those little tickles by the universe as life events unfolded, and reveled in the glowing gray areas that my guardians' soul-crushing "faith" could not accept.My verdict?  The same as yours, MJ.  Isolation in youth leads to self-trust in the latter years.  What saddens me is that even when that self-trust is manifested in the most modest and respectful way, folks still get their knickers in a twist.  In American society, we're not supposed to be emotionally independent and psychologically self-kept: it's an affront to the Dr. Phil-watching, prescription antidepressant-swallowing masses.   I wouldn't trade my wonky childhood and young adulthood for anything if it means I have to give up the incessant creativity and confidence that, well, kinda defines who I am and what I am to be.

Carlos Gonzales: Read the column and you'll find out.

@puscifer what is a puscifer its for making babies silly

But why Jerome??

Nice article.  Thanks!

This is so awesome of a real story of how a person is in tune with the insights. :D Helps a lot, I say. 'cause this puts more grounding to my mind in a real perspective.  Thanks for sharing Chicken Little.

I was brought up in isolation, never getting close to anyone, my brother who came later, and I fabricated our own worlds.  I was never the same person throughout the week. One day a cowboy, the next a superhero, and so on. When I moved to Arizona, on a whim, I was home.  I never felt so inspired, the heat, the quiet of the desert, the wildlife undeterred by human infiltration, all of these outcasts from the East coast.... My heart broke when my ex-wife (ex for this reason), up-rooted me and we moved back to Lancaster, PA. Her home.  Now, I'm putting the pieces back together, after enduring years of trauma, illness, addiction, loss, and so forth. My goal: move back as quickly as possible. No partner, no friends; just me and my cats. I can't wait.