The core and the surface are essentially the same,
words making them seem different only to express appearance.
If name be needed, wonder names them both;
from wonder into wonder, existence opens.— Dao-De-Jing
I learned to appreciate black and white photography when, as a young man, I was stationed as a member of the U.S. Army in Korea in 1970. The availability of a darkroom on-base and a new culture to explore off-base were the ingredients of a life long love of the process of photography. It has had profound consequences for the trajectory of my life.
My experience in Korea, which included a year of intensive Korean Language training, shifted my educational interests from the physical sciences to anthropology. I became very receptive to the ideas and traditions of East Asia. The wisdom of the Dao-De-Jing and the ancient I-Ching became my life companions. But incorporating the Way into my life has been illusive. Undaunted, I continue my willingness to shed the attachments that hinder correct mind.
I have a degree in Cultural Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley. In my life I’ve been a student and sometimes a teacher, soldier, photographer, printer and typesetter, carpenter, Volkswagon mechanic, print/digital production artist, and image retoucher. I’ve worked in schools, print shops, advertising agencies, photo studios, a body shop, a cemetery, drove the night streets of Oakland until two in the morning in my Yellow Cab, and built a house with my father.
The piano has always been the constant in my life. I learned to read music when I was eleven years old. If I’ve learned anything about music it is to appreciate great compositions and the mastery of performance art by gifted musicians. Ultimately, it is the rigor of immersing myself in Sebastian Bach’s Das Wohltemperiete Klavier, Die Kunst der Fuge, the Goldberg-Variationen, and the joy of Scott Joplin’s Rags, Marches, and Waltzes that bring me peace. Playing the piano is an immutable part of my life and refuge for my spirit.
This site is the record of my odyssey to unite a range of interests and free myself of that which is unimportant. There always will be more questions than answers. I claim no authority on any of the topics, just an intense curiosity and willingness to question just about everything. A post will begin as I understand the topic at the moment it is written. Posts will be modified as my understanding evolves.
Please forgive my haste but at 70 a sense of urgency seems prudent. This project is the journal of my remaining intellectual life. It is public because it encourages me to reflect very carefully on what I write and hopefully clear the path before the transformation.