That’s me, unkempt as ever. I’ll probably tidy myself up a bit, for a while, then fall into dis-repair again.
That’s me, unkempt as ever. I’ll probably tidy myself up a bit, for a while, then fall into dis-repair again.
I was born in Liverpool, UK in 1959.
This was the year that Fidel Castro led the revolution in Cuba, Barbie arrived on the scene (not in Cuba!) and The Dalai Lama fled Tibet.
A year of revolutionary beginnings and tragic endings with too much meaningless stuff in the middle.
I certainly didn't want my life to be framed by that pattern. It's not that I need to achieve anything, it's much more that I want to feel as many of the moments of my life as I can. That's the ledger that tells me that I am here.
I was mostly truant from school - I've never been very good at sitting still and keeping my mouth shut.
I escaped the poverty of a Liverpool childhood for the army, but became disenchanted as my politics formed, I left and I went to live on a peace camp for a few years.
Romantic love. Kids. Heartbreak. The usual furniture of a life, creation, preservation, and the small private apocalypses in between. I didn't have a word for that pattern then. India, which has fascinated me ever since, already did, the Trimurta. Look it up if the word's new to you, it's worth the five minutes.
I'm fascinated by how people form their societal & life patterns, and how their ideas and conclusions support or frustrate their lives.
These days I have my own word for it, FEWA, Fire, Earth, Water, Air, and a book that lays it out, Master Your Shadow. Not a discipline I'm imposing on myself so much as a way of seeing what was already there. I've set off to test it properly though, on the road, overland from the UK toward Australia, on nothing but my state pension, with whatever rigour that demands. You can follow that part as it happens on the blog.
... I'll be found in a cafe or bar, somewhere around the globe, espousing philosophy and bonhomie.
Now that you know what I look like, keep a look-out, I'm always up for a chat. Or drop me a line if a cafe in Kyrgyzstan is a bit far to come.