Welcome. Where does one start? For some reason, over twenty years ago, I started writing down things that I had experienced, that had happened to me, that I had done or accomplished. People always seemed to enjoy my stories. Some friends who saw early bits of this wanted more. Then someone who mattered to me a long time ago was very discouraging, feeling it lacked a point of view. In retrospect, I do not see how one could say that; this is ALL from my point of view, at the center of all of it. Ego? No, just sharing as we all do with our friends, family, lovers. I put this aside for a very long time, devastated by her reaction.

Then, a year ago, during another one of those major transitions we undergo in our lives, a friend who is an editor read it and encouraged me to continue. So I did. One advantage I have is a very good memory, an ability to return in my mind and be there when things happened. Of course, if you are familiar with the Japanese tale Rashomon, who knows what any of us really remembered, saw, experienced.

The other reason to do this is that over the years people have written things for me, some to be published in our literary and other efforts, which for various circumstances never saw the light of day. Where they can be attributed after all this time they will be. Where unsigned or unlabeled that will be described. If anyone after all these decades recognizes themselves or their work, let me know and attribution will be added. I hope that happens because then I would be back in touch with people I have lost who mattered enough to each other in our relationships to give me these things.

That editor was upset I had quit Facebook, which was a conscious choice, refusing to participate in, what in my opinion, is a very damaging platform to our society and our very existence as a civilization, for the sake of money.

“That is the perfect platform to get your writing out on!”

I have never done something that goes against my deeply held core beliefs of what is right just to!. When I announced I was leaving Facebook, I received many reactions that my posts would be missed.

When I first started writing these bits I planned to only share the pleasant, humorous, intriguing. Then one day I wrote about my Mother’s physical abuse as a child, and I realized it ALL needed to be shared (This one was posted and then UN-published at the suggestion of a friend!). I may put a warning label in front of the very disturbing parts. A comment by my editor friend, who seemed to think my goal was publishing a book, was that memoirs only succeed if you are famous, or have interactions with a lot of famous people. That last I have. I can afford if I want to coalesce these Findings and Keepings, these Sketches from Life (the titles of two books by the most important personal scholarly influence in my life, Lewis Mumford), publish them myself, and give copies away to libraries and independent bookstores. No, I wasn’t hoping to be a publishing success.

Lastly, my assistant, James Barrow, and I have created this ourselves. We have not hired a web service. I obtained my own domain name and we bought software to assist in publishing this. We have been experimenting with how to structure the site. People used to land on the current daily post, but I felt it was important everyone read this post.

So if you have landed here and want to see all the posts go to Posts which is an Archive with the most recent post first, ten per display, and at the bottom is an arrow pointing you to older posts. Also the Site Map is a quick way to navigate the entire site. When I pick up a nonfiction book, I go through the table of contents, the index if it has one, read the preface and introduction and then leaf through the chapters. The Site map is a good equivalent. IF you are reading this on a mobile device, the menu is accessible by clicking on the three line icon usually at the upper right of your display. I hope all this has made the site more accessible.

I hope this proves to be interesting, informative, entertaining, intriguing; but most of all I hope to hear from you. Please email me. Thank you.