Eighth chapter

Not to become religious in Los Angeles

Oh, God said to Abraham, "Kill me a son"

Abe said, "Man, you must be puttin 'me on"

God said, "No" Abe say, "What?"

God say, "You can do what you want, Abe, but

The next time you see me comin ', you better run "

Well, Abe said, "Where would you like this killin 'done?"

God said, "Out on Highway 61"

Bob Dylan

When the Satan grows old, he becomes religious, it is said. That is not right for me. I have been allergic to religion for a long time, and notice no signs that I would doubt my atheism now that I have grown old.

I'm in the car on my way from Joshua Tree to Laguna Beach and remember a time when I felt what I thought was a closest religious feeling when I drove over 150 miles an hour with my car. With age I have become wiser and have no desire to experience any religious feeling in any way. Now I keep the speed limits almost ridiculously accurate. Still, it takes no more than two hours to get from the desert to the Pacific.

The weather is beautiful here in Laguna Beach and the beaches are inviting even this late autumn, but would I really want to spend my old age here? I fold up the Mustang's roof and take a walk. Besides the beaches, there are world-class restaurants here, according to the tourist information. Since I skipped breakfast this morning, I'm hungry early and looking up Las Brisas, serving seafood with Mexican touch. I ask the waiter what I shound not miss in Laguna and he suggests testing local wines, a whale cruise or a visit to the art museum.  .

When I enjoyed a seafood platter and a beer and take one more walk I start being restless and tired of Laguna Beach. I wonder what hotel Albert Carlson, the protagonist of “A time on Earth”, stayed. Possibly Laguna Hotel, which looks small, but I'm not sure it's right.

I think of a quote from Albert Carlson:

"The travels seemed to me like drugs for a pain: it alleviated the symptoms, but did not bring anything to the cause."

I'll think about when to use the catheter tonight.

A while later I take the Mustang and head north to Venice Beach. It is time to hand in the car at a rental office in Santa Monica.

On my way, thoughts return to religion. One reason I dislike all religions is that it is unlikely that there might be any god. Instead, people are fooled to act irrationally because of something that is not available. It could be OK if they do good deeds, but as I see it, you can do good without mixing non existent gods in it.

Then there are also many examples of evil deeds in the name of religion or of God's people. Everything from mass murder to giving little children a bad conscience because they do not believe in God or behave "sinfully".

No matter how old this damn Kurt Andersson will be, he will never become religious.

At the same time, I have to admit that I know many good people both within the Christian Church and Islam.

It also feels liberating not to believe in any life after this. The only thing I need to keep in mind before my death is to behave in such a good way that my grandchildren can remember me with pride.

Do you think I'm repeating myself? Yes, but I think a lot about this.

Now it is evening and I have returned the rental car and checked in to my little room in Venice. I'm hungry looking for a restaurant I ate when I was in Los Angeles a few years ago, a Chinese restaurant called Mao's Kitchen. I eat a fabulous good dish with homemade noodles and nutritional vegetables.

The name of the restaurant bothered me a bit. Chairman Mao looked round and happy, but was really an evil devil who was responsible for many people's death. The personal cult that was built around him also showed that communism in China had religious features.

Many people were killed in the name of holy communism.

Today many are killed in the name of God by IS and other strange religious extremists. Catholic priests around the world have abused children. During my 70 years long life, religious groups have been fighting against each other in Ireland, the Balkans, the Middle East, and in India and in more places. It is easy to see that football war is not at all as common as religious war.

Yes, I know that some say that the religion wars are actually caused by struggle for power and money, but at the same time I have the impression that it would be harder for the warlords to recruit soldiers unless they fooled them that they are fighting for some sort of higher purpose.

Whilst I feel angry for all the evil that happens in the name of religion, I have to remind myself that good things are also happening in the name of religion. In Sweden today, the Swedish Church is probably the organization most strongly responsible for humanism in refugee reception and against racism.

The fact remains, however. There has never been any god.

I have not realized what religion is the predominant here in Los Angeles. It is easy to get the perception that there is money and the pursuit of a beautiful surface that controls the souls of people here. But to quote Neil Young:

"There is more to the picture than meets the eye."

I am looking forward to trying to look for a little more than surface here. To the extent it goes without a car. Tomorrow I will try to take a bus to the Holocaust Museum. I will also try to see the Paul Getty museum, where too much money has been transformed into immortal art, if I understood it all right.

Before I fall asleep, I browse restlessly in my downloaded e-book by Vilhelm Moberg, “A time on Earth”. Even though I have read it several times before, I've forgotten a lot. But I really like it.

The year is 1962. When the book begins, it's summer. The main character Albert Carlson lives in room 20 at Eden Hotel on Cleo Street right by the sea. He is looking forward to hearing the sounds from the waves. He realizes that he has a short time left to live and does not think much forward, but tries to succeed, to some extent, to resemble what has been. In particular, he thinks of his brother Sigfrid who died young. He cares for the bright memory of when the brothers were out fishing in the hometown.

Albert is divorced from two wives and has two sons who he rarely hear from. He is waiting for physical letters from the sons to come. The tempo is different from today. During his more than 40 years in the United States, he has visited his hometown only three times.

Fall is coming.

Albert Carlson is distinctly alone, do not believe in God, cannot sleep well so he eats sleeping pills. Nevertheless, he thinks he has settled with both life and death.

I decide to read the book about Albert more times.

Here in Venice this is the evening again. Now I have gone to an Italian restaurant nearby where I stay. It is call Barrique  and it's not cheap, but I'm prepared to pay 36 dollars for wild boar chop with raspberry sauce.

Today I have been to the Holocaust Museum, which was so interesting that I did not even care about finding out how to go by bus to Paul Getty's Art Museum. I took so much time that there was no time for yet another museum.

On the other hand, I've found out that there are quite good connections by bus from Los Angeles to Tijuana. It takes about four hours, and could work to stay six afternoon hours in Mexico.

One problem is that it is three miles, half an hour by taxi, from Venice to the Greyhound station in downtown Los Angeles. This city, as someone expressed it, looks like a small town on region-sized surface. Most houses are two to three floors high and the city is spreading miles after miles.

It also turns out that the stay in San Diego is only ten minutes. I would like to see more of that city, where is possible to drive without an open roof car year round.

I realize that there is a small car rental company in Marina del Rey just less than a mile from my small rental room. When I have checked that I can drive the rental car across the border, I decide to drive to San Diego and Tijuana and back here tomorrow. I manage to book a small cheap car via the phone while I'm waiting for coffee and a small glass of Strega. The sweet Strega tastes delicious with the good coffee.

The sweet smell of marijuana, which follows me all the way home to my accommodation, is not good at all.

After two hours of driving along a road that's not as beautiful as Highway 1, between Los Angeles and San Francisco, I'm in San Diego. I drive around a little restless and like what I see but do not feel like parking and walking around so I turn out on highway 5 again and half an hour later I'm in Tijuana and can act like an idiot by tipping off Mexico on my world map.

What should I do in Tijuana?

I have found a list of ten activities that do not include drinking tequila. The city's cultural center, Cecut, will be my first choice. I'm skipping the beach, because I do not think it's so good for the prostate. A bus tour gives me an overview. Markets are not my cup of tea, but I cannot help making a visit to the Pope's market, where I actually try not to buy local crafts. In order to follow up on my religious theme, I also enter the Catedral de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe without being affected in any way.

I realize that I should stay here in Tijuana because there's more to see, but when it starts to darken, I drive back to Venice and park the rental car at the rental office and walk the rest of the way.

Now I feel a bit like an American or Japanese tourist trying to see Europe in a week.

The question is whether I will stay here one more night before going to San Francisco. I have not thought so much about how I can get in contact with Neil Young so I decide to stay here tomorrow too to organize the trip further.

In the morning I walk barefoot along the beach from Venice to Santa Monica. Before I left I wrote to a few addresses that could put me in touch with Neil Young. I have booked a bus ticket for tomorrow and I have also contacted Megan's friend in San Francisco and booked a few nights in her big apartment in North Beach.

By the way, I am lucky that this is so hot here in southern California this late in the year. Now I'm enjoying feeling the soft sand against my soles, the sound of the waves, and being able be a bit of a dirty old man and, under the protection of the sunglasses, watch the many beautiful women who are also are walking along the beach in their bikinis.

My thoughts go back to religion. Is there any religion with a healthy view of sex? As a child, I learned that naked ladies were very sinful. Islam seems to be several times worse when men demand that women should hide almost completely so that they do not get excited. How the IS can combine their religion with keeping young girls as sex slaves is even more incomprehensible. Recently, I also read that even the Jewish Assembly in Stockholm discusses how to separate the men and women in the synagogue. Buddhism teaches preaching that sex should not be abused and keeps it openly what is abuse.

Many religions seem extremely interested in how people have sex. For some reason, many prophets condemn men to lie with men, and less often when women are with women. I think that is an unhealthy interest in other people's sex life.

In my high age, the religions negative opinions on sex almost does not matter, yet it contributes to my negative attitude towards religions.

After a long stroll, I'm back in my little room in Venice to see if any of Neil Young's employees have answered. No not yet.

I google and find Larry's gastropub near my little room. There I go for pizza with wild mushrooms and try several kinds of local beer. A plantation with potted plants, which I think is called the mother of sword, adorns the room in a little doubtful way. The plants give me a bad impression of the premises.

I'm sitting in the bar, but nobody tries to talk to me. What has happened? Now I hurry home to my computer instead.

From Kurt Andersson's Facebook

Martin Franklin, Atlanta

Now I am back home and have spent five days taking long walks and eating much less. So far I feel fine. I am sometimes very hungry, but I try to think of something else, take a short extra walk or go to a movie or a concert. I am very optimistic about my new life and I will report all progress and failures here at facebook.

Mary Jackson, Dallas

Hi Kurt! I am glad that you found the Holocaust museum interesting. It is sad but important to keep those memories alive.

You did not write very much about what you saw in San Diego and Tijuana. Did you find it boring or were you out of inspiration?

Sonny Smith, Memphis

Now I am back from New York and I feel like a new life started. I guess it will be more difficult to sing the blues now that I feel so happy. Tom and Jerry are joking and telling me that maybe we should change style and name. What do you think about being the Country Siblings. I am not sure that the bar owners on Beale Street would like that. Maybe we could move to Nashville and perform at Lower Broadway. I am joking.

But now as we have got a contract with a record company as the Blues Siblings I guess we would have to forget all about singing country music,

Robert Nelson, Kansas City

Hi Kurt, now I have tried to discover some Swedish music at You tube. I really liked that guy Thastrom and also Hakan Hellstrom. And I found someone you did not tell me about: Laleh. She is fantastic singer with a great charisma. Have you heard of her? What can you tell me about her?

Facts about Los Angeles

• Los Angeles is located in the state of California. The capital of California is called Sacramento.

• Los Angeles had 3,884 million inhabitants in 2013.

• The University of California in Los Angeles has about 45,000 students.

• The film and television industry is big in Los Angeles. Here you will find Universal Studios. There is also a high technology industry, which, among other things, works as subcontractors to the IT industry. Food and furniture are also made here.

• In Los Angeles is the world's first Disneyland.

Read more at www.losangeles.com