“COMMAND PERFORMANCE” -THE ARTHUR MAILING LIST BULLETIN
No. 0013
MONDAY FEBRUARY 7, 2005
title: Money isn’t an issue.
Hello friends and future-friends,
From an AP piece… Did you know that last summer, Ricky Williams, 27, who led the NFL in 2002 with 1,853 yards rushing and broke nine team records, abruptly retired from the Miami Dolphins prior to the 2004 season?
Money wasn’t an issue. Williams, who is single but has three young children, was to make at least $3.6 million this season, with incentives possibly pushing that as high as $6 million.
After winning the Heisman Trophy at Texas in 1998, Williams joined the New Orleans Saints when coach Mike Ditka used all of his draft picks to acquire the standout running back. Ditka said after Williams’ announcement that he hasn’t spoken with Williams in about six months and was taken aback by the retirement news.
“I’d love to talk to him and try to talk him out of it,” Ditka said from Chicago. “It seems kind of foolish to me, but I don’t know what’s on his mind. You’re just destroying a great career. He’s a talent. To let that all go to waste doesn’t make a lot of sense.”
Williams dropped out of sight after his retirement in July. He has resurfaced recently in Nevada County as a student of the ancient Indian medical system system known as Ayurveda.
“I realized a while back that I have an innate ability to be compassionate,” he told the San Francisco Chronicle after Thanksgiving 2004, “and I saw that the strength of compassion is something that healers have and healers use.”
Williams is now about a month into a 17-month course at the California College of Ayurveda in Grass Valley, about 45 miles northeast of Sacramento.
“Ayurveda deals with using your environment to put yourself in balance,” he said. “I’ve realized, both on a psychological and physical level, that the things we do in football don’t bring more harmony to your life. They just bring more disharmony.”
Although he wouldn’t rule out a return to football (“I’m not a fortune- teller”), he indicated the game was far from his mind.
The 5-foot-10 Williams weighs 210 pounds, about 25 fewer than his playing weight. He looks healthy and happy. As part of his Ayurveda studies, he said, “I try to give foods and herbs attributes and find out which ones balance me out.”
He wore sandals, black trousers and a light blue T-shirt silk-screened with the message: “My home is in my head.” His beard is somewhat scraggly. His distinctive dreadlocks have given way to a short haircut.
“I loved playing football, but the reasons I loved football were just to feed my ego,” Williams said. “And any time you feed your ego, it’s a one-way street. … There were so many things I had to deal with that erased the positives I got from playing the game that it wasn’t worth it. It’s like eating a Big Mac and drinking a Diet Coke.”
He’s renting a one-bedroom cottage in nearby Nevada City. A couple of months earlier, he was planning to buy a 165-acre farm in Australia. Those plans have been shelved.
“As human beings we have a tendency when we like something to tie it up and make sure it’s there for a long time. I’ve been working on being able to let things go. I don’t think I ever want to buy property again.”
He seems to have overcome his social anxiety disorder. “I don’t know what it was,” he said. “I definitely have come out of my shell a lot more. When you question who you are, you can’t be proud of who you are. Now that I’m trying to peel off those layers and really understand who I am, I don’t have anything to be shy about.”
He was evasive on the question of his drug use. A recent article in Esquire magazine by a writer who found him in Australia described him as sharing a joint that was “sturdy enough to prop open a door.” Shortly after retiring, he told the Miami Herald that one of the many reasons he quit was that he wanted to smoke marijuana without incurring the wrath of the NFL. The Herald said he faced a four-game suspension and a $876,000 fine by the league for a third violation of its substance abuse policy. He said at the time that he used a masking agent called Extra Clean for two years in Miami to conceal his marijuana use.
As for the idea that he quit because he wanted to be free to smoke dope, he laughed.
“I think it’s funny,” he said.
We’re laughing here too, Ricky, as we imagine how many football fans’ minds you have blown with your courageous public re-setting of priorities. Wonderful!
Here’s some other things that make us feel good:
Arthur No. 15, starring Six Organs of Admittance, J.G. Ballard, Douglas Rushkoff, Jessica Yu (director of the Henry Darger documentary), a piece on meditation as a subversive activity, James Parker on the spawn of Godflesh and Sleep and more more more, is due out on February 15. It’s FREE as always. It’s also the first issue in Arthur’s exciting new format, with a 25%-increased printrun of 50,000 copies. Details about the issue are available now at
The RZA’s book is finally out.
Arik Moonhawk Roper has designed the new Arthur t-shirt, starring a two-fisted tough wizard for our times. We’ll have ’em available soon for as cheap as we can from the arthurmag.com website.
Listening to Alan Moore’s half-hour interview with Brian Eno on BBC4:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/genres/comedy/aod.shtml?radio4/chainreaction
What a hoot and a half it was to hear the confusing labyrinth that is “The Air Itself” by Sunburned Hand of the Man from their recent album (on Arthur’s Bastet label) on WFMU last week. Less form, more matter, sez he? We agree. The all-new, all-life album, “No Magic Man,” is now shipping from us for the low-as-we-can-do-it price of $12 US/$14 Can/$17 world, postpaid. Find out what all the fuzz is about at
http://www.arthurmag.com/store/bastet_cds.php
A special FREE screening of filmmaker MAYA DEREN’s seminal 1948 16mm movement study “Meditation on Violence” will be held Sunday, February 20, 2005, 18.00 – 18.30pm, in Los Angeles as part of a program called “Films with music from China Haiti Jamaica North America.” Directors Guild of America / Theater 2, 7920 West Sunset Boulevar, Los Angeles, CA 90046. RSVP, information and directions. tel +323.965.5578, tellesfineart@earthlink.net
And so on, strolling on….
We’ll see you there,
Arthur Wellness Center Staff Director
Los Angeles, California
Arthur Magazine 