Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Fall to Grace An Introduction

       So, I think I have taken long enough to tell my story. Ridiculously long, actually.  I just never thought I had an ending.  Maybe that's the point.  I've kicked my feet and dug in my heels long enough.  This really isn't for anybody out there.  Its for everybody out there... it is a story that... whatever you want to call it- Destiny, Circumstance, Chaos and Chance, Science, Mathematics, Divine Intervention, God - however you interpret it. Make no mistake, there are no pluralities here.

       I am writing my with my own gaze.  This is the truth in my life as it has been revealed to me.  My witnesses are my family, and my friends, the news stories and few interviews I've given on this subject.   It is the story given not only to me, but to those that I have ever known.  If there is one thing that I want to be remembered for it is this.  Joshua James Davis loved.  Not that I always succeeded.  Not that I was rich or famous.  Not that I was a genius or fashionable.  Not that I had either good or bad style.  I want people to look at my life from this moment on and say, "He loved".  Life, Me, You, God, California, Brasil, Acting, Film, Shakespeare, Edison, Jefferson, Music, Disney, Jobs, Newton, Magritte, Lewis, Beethoven, Bach, Einstein, Michelangelo, Welles, Hitchcock, Mozart, Williams, Speilberg, Washington, Lincoln, Davy Crockett, Art, Truth, Science, Peace, War, Lamentations all that jazz.  I love living.  Life is scary.  Life is beautiful.  Life is precious.  Don't waste a second.

     I have lived a really really great life.  I can not, in all good conscience remain silent with my good news.  Just the opposite.  I feel that now it is the time to let go of the story of my life.  To give it away, the same way it has been given to me.  I just hope that when this story is told to you, in whatever medium in creeps into your cortex, you are able to learn from my mistakes before making the same, or similar ones, yourself. Because this is my testimony to the events that I have seen in my life, I am going to step on toes.  I don't know who will like me and I don't know who will even read this but I have to speak.   Maybe you will be able to relate, or maybe I can relate to you.  Either way, we are all spinning on this same great big, tiny green ball towards the future. 

       This is a true story.  So let's us just get all the gory details out of the way.  It is the story of a man who fell off of a four story balcony while attending UCLA on September 16/17th, 1998 (I say 16/17th because it was almost midnight).  It was on the morning news here in LA, but was preempted due to the fact that President William Jefferson Clinton 'fessed up that morning as in this link:  http://www.davidstuff.com/political/confess.htm  The story of my four story fall from a balcony at 527 Midvale Avenue #422 (I think, Milo or Aaron help a brother out) to a terracotta tile courtyard.  But the story isn't about the accident.  Or even all of the knowledge that I've gleaned from having sustained a diffuse axonal brain injury (here's a wiki about it:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffuse_axonal_injury ) and being on what should have been my death bed, to maybe being a vegetable, then possibly being able to care for myself again, blah blah blah Thirteen years later I am completing my undergraduate degree in Theater at UCLA.  All the time I hear the remark, "Wow, you'd never know you were disabled  from looking at you"  It, along with my wife's, has had the highest highs and the lowest lows that I can imagine.  It's a good story, one not unlike the stories of your life as well as mine.  Now, as you and I edge closer day by day towards the end, its time to quote two of my favorite quotes in the world these are as follows-

1) A quote from Jacques Cousteau that I first became aware of from Wes Anderson's wonderful film Rushmore- "When one man, for whatever reason, has the opportunity to lead an extraordinary life, he has no right to keep it to himself."

2) A song lyric from my favorite song, at least lyrically, in the world. That isn't true.  One post in and I'm already making these outrageous statements about limiting my tastes at all ... But for the sake of brevity,  I'll just leave you the words and maybe a link to the music if I can, but I don't know all the legal stuff but maybe google does and if they let me it'll be here:  http://www.thethe.com/ It's in the jukebox section under the album Burning Blue Soul and it is the last song on that album.  If a cease and desist email or letter is ever warranted please just ask me and I will remove information as soon as I can.  (and that applies to anything, corporate or not) (Seriously... if something ... anything has grounds to be edited or removed, far be it from me to stand in the way, I'll get on it asap)

"Moving on. Opening new doors
Life just doesn't seem that simple anymore
And in case I don't see you again
I hope you’ll feel glad that you knew me
While I was here"
From Another Boy Drowning,
by Matt Johnson

So that's where it's coming from.  I would guess that some would say this may just be a bit of egocrap, or something; but I really do believe that this story of my life will be entertaining as well as beneficial.

There is a lot here-

It will begin shortly.

This is a tale of true love, in all of it's terrifying glory.

joshuajamesdavisPsalm 118:17,18

This book is dedicated to my beautiful wife Christiane who once said of me,
"Your life is an open book, but there's always a new chapter,"

Here's to many more, baby.

I love you

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