It Came to Pass

Posted: June 20, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Art & Healing, Chronicles of a First Time Parent, consciousness | Tags: , , , , , | 1 Comment

We ended our homeschool science class with the study of tarot.  Some may say this is heresy, that tarot is not science, but I defy that line of reasoning.  Consider these facts:

  • The word “science” is derived from the Latin word “scio” which means “to know” or “to understand.”  My son shall be raised to have broad, not narrow, understanding. 
  • Sir Isaac Newton, the paragon of the rational scientific method, was a lifelong alchemist.  The Renaissance alchemists pursued rigorous empirical observation and experimentation; the notion of “active principles” that repel and attract arguably contributed to the theory of universal gravitation. 
  • Carl Jung, founder of “analytical psychology,” developed the concept of the collective unconscious, which resonates clearly with the tarot’s imagery.  At the C.G. Jung Institute, he supervised research on the importance of tarot.  

Such then, when I asked my son to pull one card from the Ryder-Waite deck, the “Hanged Man” emerged.  At the age of 12, my son pulled card 12 from the deck.  Jung referred to this as a synchronicity; events that coincide in time and appear meaningfully related, yet lack a discoverable causal connection.  “Causal” speaks to the rational mind, but we were plumbing the subconscious.  

At the age of 12 my son comes of age, which is a physical bodily experience as well as a deeply emotional and psychological transformation.  Card #12 deals with beliefs that are stored in the subconscious mind, what is handed down.  The Hanged Man represents a breaking away from that tradition.  As my son comes of age, he becomes his own man.  

Carl Jung believed that the archetypes are deeply embedded in the human psyche, and have emerged in the form of religious narratives.  Saint Peter, the “Rock” upon which the Catholic church has been built, reportedly was hung upside down, by the Roman Emperor Nero.  The hanging took place near the “Circus of Nero” close to the present day Saint Peter’s Basilica.  The Cross of Saint Peter, an inverted cross, remains a central image in the arms of the Holy See and the Vatican City.  

Let us consider this symbol more deeply.  In “Tarot” Paul Foster Case writes, reversal in Hanged Man is “a reversal of thought, a point-of-view which is just the opposite to the accepted by most persons.  In this scientific age we know that everything is an expression of the working of the law of cause and effect. …Practical psychology shows the potency of ideas.  It demonstrates conclusively the truth that thoughts are the seeds of speech and action, that interpretations are the patterns for experience, that what happens to us is what we have selected, whether the selection be conscious and intentional, or unconscious and unpremeditated.  

“The central theme of the hanged man…is that every human personality is completely dependent upon the All, here symbolized by the tree.  As soon as this truth is realized, the only logical and sensible course of conduct is a complete surrender.  This surrender begins in the mind.  It is the submission of the personal consciousness to the direction of the Universal Mind.  That submission is foreshadowed even in the picture of the Magician, who derives all his power from above.  Until we know that of ourselves we can do nothing, we shall never attain the adeptship.  The greater the adept, the more complete his personal self-surrender.”

Saint Peter of the Cross, in founding the Church during the Roman Empire, most definitely followed “a reversal of thought, a point-of-view which is just the opposite to the accepted by most persons.” To pursue this further we drove to Western Maine, to sit with a Reiki Energy Master, a White Witch, and talk about the tarot.  This Master, as a child, lived in Morocco, Athens and Cairo; living now in the Lakes Region she is not provincial but broad in her understanding.  

She explained that tarot is the journey to wisdom.  The journey begins at 0, when you know nothing, and then you go through life.  The Fool is ready to jump off the cliff.  #1 the Magician has tools to become grounded, spiritual.  #2 the High Priestess has intuition.  #12 the Hanged Man is saying “take your time, there is no rush.”

She spoke of card #13 Death.  She asked my son what he thought of death and he paused, then replied, “I think death is not good, it is bad.”  She explained that death can be seen as a change, that all things must pass and transform.  In that sense death is not bad, it is just change; it can be hard, very hard, but it is part of life.  “The old self of the Hanged Man is changing.  This is the death of the old way.  Your Dad’s belief system will die off and you will choose your own.”  She spoke about spirituality.  My son explained that he had no religious practice.  She encouraged a nature based approach.  As my son comes of age, he will make many choices, his own.  

Many cards had been lain on the table.  As we cleaned up, the last card picked up was #13 Death.  Again, synchronous, the Master commented, “You are all going through a transition.”  

And so our season of homeschooling has ended.  

Art Predates Agriculture

Posted: May 16, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Art & Healing, consciousness, What is an Art Farm | Tags: , , , | 2 Comments

Civilization began, it is widely believed, with the advent of agriculture.  The time was around 10,000 BC and the place was the Fertile Crescent, which is the present day Middle East.  Sheep and pigs were first domesticated, followed by plants such as flax, wheat, barley and lentils.  The nomadic hunter-gatherers settled into agricultural communities, developed irrigation systems and established permanent settlements.  

It should be noted that this definition of “civilization” speaks to the cultures of the Abrahamic religions (Muslim, Judaism and Christianity).  The Clovis culture, however, were precursors to the Indigenous peoples of the America’s, and between 15,000 to 20,000 years ago developed stone tools, as well as agriculture, engineering, astronomy, trade, civic and monumental architecture.  Some established permanent or urban settlements, but all did not forsake their nomadic lifestyle.  There is not one civilization, but many co-inhabiting this planet.  

However civilization may be defined, the plain fact is long before we worked the soil to plant seeds, the hunter gatherers were digging to get clay and earth based pigments for painting the caves at Altamira and Lascaux; art making predates agriculture, which is to say it predates civilization, which speaks to its fundamental role in shaping human life.  Mark making is meaning making, hard-wired in our DNA, the act of making is a core means of problem-solving, both utilitarian and ideational.

Ellen Dissanayake is an ethno-anthropologist whose writings synthesize disciplines ranging from evolutionary biology to cognitive and developmental psychology.  She lived for fifteen years in non-Western countries (Sri Lanka, Papua New Guinea, India and Nigeria) among indigenous pre-literate peoples and found that all shared the trait of embellishing their tools in non-utilitarian ways; the act of “making pretty” is consistent across the globe.  This lead her to develop “…a unique perspective that considers the arts to be normal, natural, and necessary components of our evolved nature as humans.”

Far more than practical, the act of making is healing.  Art therapy is based upon this insight, which, since the 1940s, has been used in conjunction with traditional psychotherapy, to provide a non-verbal avenue for exploring emotions and experiences. The simple act of making can help treat a wide range of mental health issues and support emotional well-being, based upon the interconnectedness of mind, body, and spirit. 

Works of art such as the Sistine Chapel, a human achievement of extraordinary scale, can be overwhelming and lead most of us to cower, and say “I can’t draw.”  But that seems ego-driven, as we are schooled in a comparative and competitive paradigm, which blocks the fact that art making is biologically and psychologically at the core of everyone’s individual life.  Art, and the act of making, become the great equalizer.  

One of the lessons of carpentry – which is to say making in the practical sense – is that adverbs and adjectives do not pertain; the wall is plumb or it is not, the corner square or it is not, the house will long endure or it will not.  There is something exquisitely liberating in that plain fact.  More “sophisticated” professions do not fall under this simple truth, for example, politics and the law are based upon argumentation and persuasion rather than objective truth.  The word “sophisticated” is derived from the Sophists, in Ancient Greece, who excelled in clever deception, using rhetoric to win arguments regardless of the truth.   

In a world that is increasingly argumentative, clever and AI-interconnected, the simple act of making can become a grounding and centering force.  Let us proclaim there are four necessities in life: food, clothing, shelter and beauty; “making pretty” creates beauty while making becomes the means to achieve all the former. And all of which become an act of healing. 

___________________________

Plants push up, fruit trees blossom, and pollinators abound!

Ice Cream Revelations

Posted: May 2, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Child Centered Activities, Chronicles of a First Time Parent, consciousness, What is an Art Farm | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

I recently went driving at night with my children to go eat ice cream. Pope Francis having died, my daughter mentioned Tik Tok talk of the prophecy of Saint Malachy.  As it were, I’m familiar with those prophecies, having heard about them almost 30 years ago.

Saint Malachy lived in Northern Ireland in the 1100s.  Born Máel Máedóc, he served as Archbishop of Armagh and was the Primate of All Ireland – the highest ranking position in the Catholic and Episcopalian Church of Ireland.  His predecessor was no less than Saint Patrick, known as the “Apostle of Ireland,” venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church, the Lutheran Church, the Church of Ireland, and in the Eastern Orthodox Church.  ‘Tis no small role to be the Primate of All Ireland.  

Malachy’s prophecy presaged 112 more popes before the Last Judgment.  Pope Francis happens to be that 112th pope.  The prophecy is widely debunked, but on social media it seems to be generating great interest.    

My daughter explained the conventional view, that following the last Pope will come the rapture, when the dead and living believers will be lifted up in the air, ascending to heaven at the Second Coming of Christ.  My son, a deep thinking Sagittarean, questioned, “what about the others?”  I clarified, “…the Buddhist, the Muslim, the child of Indigenous parents…?” 

My son questioned more deeply, “How can a God of love exclude half of the world’s population?”  My daughter repeated the factual statement that the faithful believe theirs alone shall be redemption.  When she spoke of the risen Christ, I queried about John 14:12 “These and greater deeds ye shall do” which means to raise the dead, to walk on water, to feed loaves and fishes to the masses…come one come all – he says – we the people all have that power.  Who among us shall believe, and act?    

And so we drove, into the dark night, eating our ice cream.  

I reminded them that the world in fact came to an end on 12/12/12, just over 12 years ago.  Such was the popular view, pre-Tik Tok.  I spoke of the Mayan Long Count calendar, the end of a 5,126 year-long cycle.  250-950 AD was the Mayans’ Classic period, the peak of their large-scale construction, urbanism, monumental inscriptions, and significant intellectual and artistic development.  Their flowering has been likened to that of Renaissance Italy or Classical Greece.  Everyone reading this essay today knows that the world did not end on 12/12/12; the Mayan calendar’s end marked only a new beginning.  In Hindu terms, this is Shiva’s cosmic dance, his never ending destruction creation cycle.  

A friend has read the Book of Revelations and suggests that the current Commander in Chief is the 8th King of the Roman Empire, Revelation 17, “destined for destruction,” the Antichrist.  Indeed we can read the “two beasts” as representing opposing forces of evil: one from the sea (Manhattan and Florida) is a political power that dominates the world, a healed gash to its head, seeking to establish himself as a pagan deity, while releasing scorpions.   The beast from the earth (Africa), the False Prophet, helps the sea beast gain global control, sends fire from heaven and promotes the worship of the beast from the sea and works to deceive people through signs and wonder. 

Carl Jung came to mind, in Psychology and Alchemy his observation that religions perfectly coopted the archetypes to their narrative.  Scriptural writing to my mind seems symbolic more than a factual narrative.  The end of one narrative is but the beginning of another.  

Talk of the end of the world is not for the faint of heart.  As we drove, as we ate our two scoops of ice cream in waffle cones, the popular song from 40 years ago by the band REM came to mind, “It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine.”  

And so we ate our ice cream. We will figure it out in the light of day. The sun will rise, life will go on, world without end, amen.

__________________________________

Gaia pushes up the Garlic while cold weather starts go into the ground: Kale, Chard, Lettuce, Pac Choy, Snap Peas, Fennel, Shallots, Scallions, Rosemary, Parsley and Thyme.

And most importantly, Eve has come to our garden! A 4-in-1 semi-dwarf apple tree, a gift from Grammy Moana to Becca, with four varieties grafted onto the root stock: Fuji, Pink Lady, Honeycrisp, and Ginger Gold. Something for everyone! She joins our two peach trees and a sour cherry tree. I cannot tell a lie, my son cut down our sweet cherry tree last summer, at my instruction. The trunk had a serious gash and its time was ended. Every end is a new beginning, the circle of life, and Eve has taken its place!

Habeas Corpus, Habeas Vox

Posted: April 11, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Child Centered Activities, Chronicles of a First Time Parent, consciousness | Tags: , , | 2 Comments

One recent morning, my son stood in the kitchen, riveted, listening to the radio.  Briskly he spoke, “Dad, how can the President deport citizens for what they say?  Isn’t this a violation of their First Amendment rights?  When someone enters the country legally, they gain the right of free speech!…upon entry, but they are being deported for saying things the President does not like!  They have the right to speak!  I don’t understand this!!?”  My son’s concern for Free Speech coincides with the right of Due Process. 

Knowing it takes a village, I reached out to his cousin WMMK – my nephew – a young law professor who, as it were, is an expert in habeas corpus, which is to say Due Process.  WMMK has been published, arguing that habeas corpus is the “…Great Writ of Popular Sovereignty — a tool for We the People to insist that when our agents in government exercise our delegated penal powers, they remain faithful to our sovereign will.”  WMMK argues “…the implications for the law of habeas are profound…Paradoxically, shifting from a libertarian to a popular-sovereigntist conception of the writ might yield habeas doctrine more capable of protecting individual liberty.”

My son having raised questions of individual liberty, and given his cousin’s strong clear voice, I decided to create a homeschool Humanities Seminar.  Habeas corpus in Latin means “you should have the body.”  And where there is a body, there is a voice.  Thus we prepare to homeschool “Habeas Corpus, Habeas Vox: Due Process and the 1st Amendment.” 

All roads do not lead to Rome.  Plato and Aristotle taught that justice within the state held civic virtue (“arete”) as its key; they did not teach specific legal mechanisms to protect individual liberties.  

It would take a peasant boy, born in Dardania (present day Balkans) to craft those mechanisms. Justinian – Emperor of the Byzantine Empire – not only built the Hagia Sophia but codified the great Roman jurists; his Corpus Juris Civilis (“Body of Civil Law”) (529-534 AD) endures as the basis of European and International law.  But the heavy lifting came in medieval England.  

King John was arbitrary and autocratic, and so his Barons spoke up and rebelled. They forced him, in 1215, to sign the Magna Carta which guaranteed “No freeman shall be taken or imprisoned or disseised or exiled or in any way destroyed…except upon the lawful judgement of his peers or the law of the land.”  Given habeas vox, so then habeas corpus; the Habeas Corpus Act was codified in 1679 and remains on the statute book to this day: prisoners cannot be held indefinitely without a judicial review of their detention.  

The origins of free speech – in the Western tradition – go back to Athenian democracy, in the late 6th or early 5th century BC.  They had two concepts of free speech; isegoria was “equality of speech” where all freeborn males had a direct voice in debating and passing laws, while parrhesia was “uninhibited speech,” a culture of tolerance and the free exchange of ideas and criticisms.  Erasmus (circa 1500) and Milton (1644) weighed in, but again it was the English Parliament, whose Bill of Rights in 1689 established the constitutional right of freedom of speech.  On that recent weekday morning, my son honored that tradition, arguing on behalf of individual liberty.  

What then shall our seminar entail?  I have begun assembling a reading list to include:

  • In Classical Greece justice was the proper functioning of the state as a whole, with community and mutual respect valued higher than individual liberties.  The greatest punishment was for the intransigent to be exiled, which is to say to have their voice taken away.  
  • Justinian’s reign occurred at a hinge point of history.  Considered among the greatest, and the last, of the Roman Emperors, his achievements marked the apex of Roman expansion, until a flea carrying the bubonic plague brought massive death:  between 25 and 100 Million deaths and the downfall of the empire.  The armies of Mohammad easily ransacked both Rome and Persia, and history moved from late antiquity to the medieval world.  
  • The Magna Carta was foundational to British Common Law, as developed through judicial decisions rather than written codes; “Stare Decisis” means that courts shall follow earlier rulings in similar cases, with precedent as the governing basis.  Stability is a virtue.  The British Bill of Rights built upon this tradition and became the basis for much of American law.  
  • The Judiciary Act of 1789 established the American judiciary – the mechanism of due process – and was followed by Amendment One to the USA Constitution, ratified on December 15, 1791:  “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
  • Abraham Lincoln suspended the right of habeas corpus at his sole discretion when he signed The Habeas Corpus Suspension Act of 1863.  He argued the public safety required it, such as during rebellion or invasion of the Civil War.  
  • And finally, we will come to the present day, to discuss the fundamental meaning of freedom of speech with American habeas as the vindication not of individual physical liberty, but of popular sovereignty.  How does the state protect the voice of “We the People”?  WMMK will lead this discussion.  

We need pay heed to the fact that for every minute we ponder such noble thoughts, in El Salvador, Kilmar Abrego Garcia is detained wrongfully, without due process, by an administration driven not by justice but reptilian id, anger and revenge for its own gratification; how frail is the law to those who shall not heed its calling.  The Magna Carta is but words on paper in the face of any regime that abuses human rights, and these rights must belong not to the privileged few, but to all people created equal.  

We study the past to inform our future; patterns of discrimination are the reality against which this philosophy need be understood, in order to raise my son with both an intellectual understanding and the emotional intelligence of a 21st Century global citizen.

______________________

Persephone returns…

A Wily Problem Solver

Posted: March 28, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Art & Healing, Chronicles of a First Time Parent, consciousness | Tags: , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The desire of the Tech Oligarchs to fight and break things is widely known, clearly displayed.  Among this rogue band of Billionaires the intellectual appears to be Marc Andreessen, co-creator of the Mosaic web-browser and co-founder of a Silicon Valley venture capital fund.  

On Substack, Mr. Andreessen has written, “I was asked what I think of Mark Zuckerberg’s recent Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) training, Elon Musk’s challenge to a cage fight, and public reports that a Zuckerberg/Musk MMA fight may well happen…perhaps in the actual Roman Colosseum.  I said, “I think it’s all great.  …it’s important to understand how important – how primal – MMA is in the story of our civilization.”

He proceeds to tell the origin of the sport, “…it was introduced to the actual Greek Olympic Games in 648 BC (!).  The Greeks called it “pankration” (παγκράτιον), but it is the same thing – a combination of boxing and wrestling.”  Trying to impress us by using the Greek letters – Google Translate is free – in fact Mr. Andreessen is showing his lack of understanding.  

The rape and abduction of Helen is central to Greek culture; masculine strength and dominance were key, and the Iliad tells the story of the ten-year fight against the Trojans.  Helen’s beauty was so great, her “face that launched one thousand ships” when Menelaus, her husband, the King of Sparta, rallied the Greeks to settle the score for her infidelity.  

The Iliad sings the praise of manly heroes skilled in fighting and warfare.  But the greatest among the heroes was Odysseus, whose skill was not warfare but resourcefulness, his wily, cunning ability to solve problems.  

Of Homer’s two epic poems the Iliad is an ensemble story, while the Odyssey sings of Odysseus, alone, his ten-year homecoming after the Trojan War, his return to Penelope and their marriage bed.  

During the War, Odysseus was one of the most trusted counselors and advisors.  A voice of reason, renowned for self-restraint and diplomacy, he served as a counter balance to the pugilism among the heroes.  His homecoming was filled with travail, the hero’s journey in the most archetypal sense.  Consider the challenges he overcame:

  • When Achilles’ beloved Patroclus was slain, Odysseus negotiated with Achilles to let the men eat and rest, rather than resume the fight.  Funeral games were held and Odysseus wrestled with Ajax “The Greater” and raced with Ajax “The Lesser.”  He drew the wrestling match, and with the help of Athena, won the foot race.  His manliness well-equaled that of other heroes.  
  • Odysseus devised the Trojan Horse, and lead the siege within the walls of Troy.  This brought the defeat of the Trojans, and the end of the war.  
  • Homebound from Troy, his ships were driven off course and captured by the Cyclops Polyphemus.  He and the Cyclops drank much wine, which allowed Odysseus to blind him and then escape.
  • Aeolus, the master of the winds, gifted a leather bag containing all of the winds except the west wind, to ensure his safe trip home.  But his sailors opened the bag while Odysseus slept, releasing the winds to create a major storm, driving them off course, when his homeland was within sight.  
  • They re-embarked and encountered the Laestrygonians – man eating giants – which only Odysseus’ ship escaped.  Circe the witch-goddess turned half of his men into swine, then Odysseus and his remaining crew spent one year with her enjoying feast and drink.  
  • He set sail to the western edge of the world, summoned the spirit of the prophet Tiresias and learned of Penelope threatened by suitors.  He sailed onward, past the land of the Sirens, through the dire straits of the Scylla and Charybdis, after which his crew hunted down the sacred cattle of the sun god Helios.  A shipwreck followed, in which everyone except Odysseus drowned.  He washed ashore, whereupon Calypso, a sea nymph, compelled him to remain her lover for seven years.  
  • He escaped, set sail, shipwrecked again but befriended the Phaeacians, whose King agreed to deliver Odysseus home, to a hidden harbor on Ithaca, his home island.  
  • Home after 20-years, he sleuthed the island to learn the status quo.  His son Telemachus, now a grown man, also returned from the Trojan War, theirs was a grand reunion, of secrecy.  
  • His wife Penelope, having held at bay her suitors for decades, announced that whoever could string Odysseus’ rigid bow and shoot an arrow through twelve axe shafts should have her hand in marriage.  Dressed as a wandering beggar, Odysseus alone strung the bow and won Penelope’s hand, once again.  He and Telemachus, his son, easily slayed the suitors. 
  • Penelope still could not believe her husband had returned, and so tested him with a ruse: she ordered her servant to move the bed in their wedding chamber.  Odysseus protested, knowing this could not be done as he himself had built their wedding bed and knew that one of its legs was a living olive tree.  Rooted deeply into the ground, such was the union of Penelope and Odysseus, which survived 20 years of separation.  
  • To avenge the killing of the Suitors, the citizens of Ithaca rose up, but Athena and Zeus intervened and both sides made peace; after 20 years’ destruction the Odyssey ends with peace and reunion.  

In 431 BC, Sparta attacked and defeated Athens, with the justification that “might makes right.”  And now, Mr. Andreessen praises the primal, “If it was good enough for Heracles and Theseus, it’s good enough for us.  Fight!”

But the apex of Classical Greece – the birthplace of democracy – was the Athenians’ understanding of virtue. From Socrates, to Plato, to his student Aristotle, civic virtue – “arete” – emphasized justice, courage, and moderation for the benefit of the community, rather than the individual.  To the Greeks, the most enduring heroic quality was not skill in warfare, but cunning command to solve problems for the civic good.  

Elon Musk, called “the smartest 15-year old on the planet,” holds now the keys to the American kingdom.   For better or worse, our House seems reduced to Animal House.  The tech bros – the puer aeternus – shine in their moment to break and destroy with libertarian glee.  But this moment of breaking shall pass – all things pass – and great then shall be our collective need to problem solve.  

We the people must rise to the coming moment.  

______________________________

Senior Chairman of the Board; lunch in lower Manhattan; Dakota’s Coda

Posted: March 14, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Chronicles of a First Time Parent, consciousness, Portfolio - David's work, What is an Art Farm | 2 Comments

Fred Turner was a titan in American commerce.  1956, in Des Plaines, Illinois, Fred started flipping hamburgers for Ray Kroc; while other young men were hustling to become a corporate Vice President, Turner saw his future: Kroc had a limitless vision, and Turner had the skill and drive to pragmatize the operation, globally.  38 years later, he was the Senior Chairman of the Board of Directors but I knew him as a neighbor, the father of classmates at Holy Cross School, I played the drums in his wife Patty’s jug band. 

I wrote a letter requesting a meeting, and mentioned that I had lived off-grid recently.  Douglas excoriated me, leaning in slowly, he spoke, “You…can…not…write…that….David! this is…the Chairman of the Board…of McDonald’s!!!”  Brazen, I mailed the letter to the headquarters office, but then called Patty at their home.  

Cautious at first, Patty happily arranged our meeting.  Over a breakfast of eggs and hash browns, I explained my business concept.  Fred listened politely, then replied, “If you are going to quote me, say ‘I don’t get it.’”  

I always found that phrasing of interest.  Having spent a career on quarterly earnings calls, convincing skeptical bankers and financiers of the promise that McDonald’s held, he had been quoted regularly in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, any paper reporting the news.  Although it was just him and me, he still used that lens, “…if you are going to quote me…”

Having made his fortune selling hamburgers, the digital future was less clear. It was hard, then, to envision Google + You Tube + Starbucks, which essentially is what GDC encompassed.  The power behind Global Data was less the media offerings and more the back-end data; with a growing user base the scope would become transformational, as proven in the real world financial success of Facebook and Google.  But imagine all profits redounding not to stockholders but to the peoples of this planet, whereby “dignity credit” could be extended based upon local civic participation.  GDC was an arbitrage of money and information. 

Having met with Fred, it was arranged that I would speak to Edward R. Stavitsky.  I had been told that his Uncle had financed Samuel “Goldfish” Goldwyn, Adolph Zukor, Marcus Low, as well as Cecil B. DeMille; with Chase Manhattan Bank, he had financed 100% of 20th Century and 25% for Universal and United Artists studios; had structured the financing of McDonalds Corporation in 1954, “invented” the  trilogy structure: operations-franchisee-real estate holding company, which launched the venture.  As of 2025, McDonald’s is believed to be the third largest holder of real estate in the world.  Bill Gates owns nearly 270,000 acres, while the Catholic Church owns 177,000,000 acres of land.

We spoke on the phone and I was invited to fly out to Los Angeles, to meet in a hotel lobby just off Rodeo Drive.  The meeting went well, he was quite friendly and supportive, but “others people money” would be the key.  A moment of significance, I stood on the edge of the abyss: I needed to raise $38 Million USD.  

My challenge was great.  The absolute condition of the Information Alliance was no venture capital, which meant no equity sold.  Debt was no option – negative cash flow can service no debt – so the model needed to be an endowment, the academic approach, an asset base generating yield to fund the venture.  Progress was slow, very slow, as the calendar turned from 1994 into 1995.  

Laurie’s star was ascendent.  Employed as a business librarian at Altschuler, Melvoin and Glasser, an accounting and tax-audit firm on Chicago’s Wacker Drive, she was offered a job at Spencer Stuart, a leading global executive search firm.  Laurie was lured to London, and so too Douglas, where he enrolled in the London School of Business, a globally respected MBA program, ranked higher than the Business schools of Harvard and the University of Chicago.  

The transition was hard.  The change complete.  Douglas had gone global, on the road, again. 

CODA

Our blessings can be our curse.  The brilliant mind one wild tiger hard to tame.  Douglas was mercurial, like quicksilver: when we were together, he was focused and present, but once apart, he was gone, completely gone.  Years passed when we rarely spoke.  

I recall standing, after the London move, on a beach in Rogers Park, Chicago, gazing out at the horizon.  He spoke of his dream of becoming a college professor.  I suspended disbelief until a few years later he was hired to teach at the Kelley School of Business at the University of Indiana.  His was the gift of manifestation.  Not surprisingly, he became a favorite of the students, annually ranked among the top professors.  His light would fill any room, whether a small kitchen or a university lecture hall.  

I pursued the endowment for another ten years.  Like Sisyphus in an ice storm I struggled to climb that hill.  I did deliver funds to Ed Stavitsky and we flew to Wall Street for meetings and meals with the banker, fine red wine not white with fish; contracts were signed but he failed to perform.  Whether a potemkin or the real-deal remains an unknown.  Ed died in July 1999.  I attended his funeral, among many, laid a spadeful of dirt upon his casket. 

Eventually I found my way to Maine, to build furniture for Thos Moser Cabinetmakers.  I worked the A-shift.  It was grounding.  I collaborated with my sister on a pair of essays about heirloom furniture – my story was the making, hers the receiving – published in the Chicago Tribune’s Sunday edition.  Tom flew me to Chicago to give a demonstration on chair making, then asked me to write an essay about his Customer-in-Residence program.  I arranged for Tom to fly to his hometown, Chicago, for a tour of the estate of John Bryan, a major collector of American furniture.

At no one’s request I recruited the Head of the Art History Department at Yale University to create a course on three generations of New England/New York chair making: Hitchcock in the 1800s, Stickley in the 1900s, and Thos Moser into the future.  And then on 9 January 2009, after the financial collapse which brought the Great Recession, I was laid off along with half the Thos Moser work force.  Profits before collaboration.  Money the measure of the man.  

I found my way, working as a carpenter, fabricating public art and now, managing the plant and property at the Friends School of Portland.  

On 21 December, this past solstice, I called Douglas and we picked up where we left off.  We were immediately in synch, as though no time had passed.  As our conversation ended, Doug laughed and said, “Hey man, let’s keep in touch more often!”

An opportunity presented itself.  I have been thinking about launching a new community project, to teach furniture making to recovering addicts and former convicts.  The act of making is at once both practical and therapeutic.  My wife is a registered Art Therapist and a Licensed Therapeutic Counselor.  I have an idea, she has the credentials, and a woodworker friend is getting a degree in counseling; the elements seem in place.

On 7 January 2025, just before the dawn, as the light returned over the horizon, I found myself thinking about Douglas.  There is no one here with his energy, his spark, his purifying flame, and so I thought to reach out, to ask “can we rekindle our flame, chart a new path, ride together, again?”

Five hours later I received the call that he had died.  

Bereft, I sat down to write this festschrift “celebration writing” for a deep true friend.    

Would that he ride shotgun once again, in spirit, this time.  

Rogue Hollywood; from the Library of Alexandria to Carnegie Libraries

Posted: March 7, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Chronicles of a First Time Parent, consciousness, Portfolio - David's work, What is an Art Farm | Tags: , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Douglas was attending classes in History and Theology at Loyola University but his most serious work was done at the RMG office.  He and I were joined at the hip, constant conversation, swapping ideas at a fever pitch.

RMG formed the Information Alliance among leaders in library automation:

  • Robert F. Asleson, Esq, had decades of experience as President of five library and information industry companies: University Microfilms International, R.R. Bowker, Information Handling Services, International Thomson Information, Inc., and The Library Corporation.  He was thoroughly versed in all issues of copyright clearance.  
  • Brower Murphy, a self-described “information egalitarian” had pioneered the use of CD-ROM technology for data storage.  He then developed NlightN®, a hypermedia universal network allowing a single search across the entire world of published electronic information.  This was google before Google, except, created in 1991, it was not designed for the internet.  
  • Vinod Chachra, President and sole owner of VTLS, Inc. oversaw a staff of 70 with customers in 18 countries, requiring 16 difference languages and multiple character sets and scripts.  His software provided a turn-key solution to all library functions.
  • Rob McGee and Howard Harris, another RMG Consultant, formed the alliance and Rob acted as editor of the “Concept & Vision” and the business plan.  

Our approach to the Worlds Digital Library was direct: “Empowering the individual by access through libraries to the world’s information, ‘anyplace, anytime.’”  The philosophy was broad and inclusive, the battle plan was specific and precise.  A holding company, the DLC would operate through subsidiaries, each business creating a component of the whole.  The first subsidiary was The Index Company, which would:

  • digitize book images from collections of widely-used library materials
  • compile collections of machine-readable tables-of-contents and back-of-the-book-indexes for subject oriented sets and collections of books
  • create and distribute merged collections of the indexed records to provide access to Digital Libraries.

The DLC was the economic engine driving GDC.  On paper, the DLC projected a Year 1 loss of ($4.08 M) but turned positive in Year 3 and by Year 5 was in the black at a profit of $6.3 Million USD.  At the end of the 20th century, “hockey stick” projections were not uncommon, but questioned by conservative bankers.  

On 7 May 1994 the “Concept & Vision” paper was finished, and letters of support were received from:

  • Chair of the Virginia State Library Board
  • Librarian of Harvard College
  • Executive Director of CAVAL (Co-operative Action by Victorian Academic Libraries [Australia])
  • President Council on Library Resources
  • Deputy Director General, National Library of Australia
  • President of the Council of the European Information Industry Association
  • Executive Director off the United States National Commission on Libraries and Information Science

It is worth noting some of their comments:

  • The Librarian of Harvard College wrote, “There are going to be a number of modest efforts to build the digital library.  Yours could be the one most likely to succeed on a large scale.”
  • Deputy Director-General of the National Library of Australia wrote, “The approach envisaged in this paper is sensible and shows the appropriate understanding of the current state of the industry which is needed for success to be likely.”
  • The President of the Council, European Information Industry Association, “…we shall have no hesitation in bringing this proposal to the attention of our members and examining ways in which we can lay a supportive role in Europe.”

While writing the “Global Data” plan, the landscape in Hollywood was changing.  Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and David Geffen announced they were going rogue, to create their own live-action and animation film studio.  This meant Hollywood’s studio model was being revolutionized, and the financier with whom I was hoping to meet had deep roots – I was told – in that old model.  If the paradigm was changing, then I needed to write my own version.  

One spring evening at the Chase Street house, Douglas and I sat down at the kitchen table to write “Top-Down meets Bottom-Up” which compared Paramount Communications and Global Dakota Corporation, a $10 Billion colossus versus our $38 Million start up. I was David out to slay Goliath.  Working deep into the night, we laid out the categories and filled in the blanks, referencing medieval history through the Internet.  Laurie, who is quite savvy in the C-suite, told us it was sheer hubris.  

Libraries have been central to all civilizations, throughout recorded time, our collective repository of knowledge, a storehouse of the written word – cuneiform or bound – a place where scholars gather to share knowledge, to push the vanguard.  The earliest libraries have been discovered in present-day Syria, and in temple rooms in Sumer (present day Iraq), each in the Cradle of Civilization.   The Library of Alexandria, in Cleopatra’s Ptolemaic Egypt reigned among the most significant libraries of the Ancient World, the corpus of Greece and Egypt in one repository, until Julius Caesar’s boys came to town, on military conquest, they burned the library.   Dust to dust, ashes to ashes.  

30,000 clay tablets from the Library of Ashurbanipal have been discovered at Nineveh – the recorded wealth of Mesopotamia – while the University of Chicago holds baked clay tablets, the administrative backbone of the vast territory of Persia, written in Old Persian, Elamite, and Babylonian languages.  The Imperial Library of Constantinople is worthy of mention, authors such as Plato, Aristotle, Demosthenes, Socrates, Thucydides, Homer and Zeno stored and sought.   Themeistius, a pagan philosopher and teacher, hired calligraphers and craftsman to produce the actual codices then created a university-like school centered around the library.  Lao Tzu, author of the Tao Te Ching, was the keeper of books in the earliest library in China.  Into this majestic idea Rob McGee stepped as a young boy, his bike’s basket filled, riding home to 1505 Grace Street with “talking books” for his Grandmother, an armful for himself.  

The Free Public Library is not free financially – it is paid for by taxes – so what is free is the access to information.  Traditionally libraries had been the private domain of Princes and Kings, Bankers or Clergy.  The Renaissance brought an awakening when, in 1444, Cosimo de’Medici created the San Marcos Library, one of the earliest public libraries.  Cosimo combined his own extensive collection with the 800 manuscripts of Niccolo de Niccoli, a humanist who worked as a copyist and collator of ancient manuscripts, and was the creator of cursive script, known today as “italics.”  Niccolo’s humanist vision was inclusive: “…to the common good, to the public service, to a place open to all, so that all eager for education might be able to harvest from it as from a fertile field the rich fruit of learning.”

Pierpont Morgan’s Library, in the grand style of the Italian Renaissance, was opened to scholars and the public in 1924, the gift of J.P. Morgan, the banker of legend, who indirectly was behind the greatest public library building program in history.  In 1901, J.P. Morgan bought the Carnegie Steel Company for $18 Billion (in 2025 dollars), which allowed Andrew Carnegie to vastly expand his brick and mortar ambitions.  Between 1883 and 1929 2,509 Carnegie Libraries were built around the world, free to the public.  By 1929 almost half of the public libraries in the United States were Carnegie Libraries.  

At the end of the 20th Century, many saw change on the horizon, bricks and mortar becoming digital, access universal, which seemed like Archimedes’ fulcrum, upon which we could move the world.  Rational self-interest held no motivation for me; e-commerce and social media pale in comparison to the humanist tradition.  Douglas, though, had that capitalist urge, and his enthusiasm was grounding for me.  He and Rob delivered the Information Alliance which undoubtedly could make the products to drive revenues.  The Digital Library Corporation was the core asset, while the Turtle News Network and the community retail outlets expanded our reach.  

I played the hand I was dealt.  “Top Down Meets Bottom Up” became page 41 of the Global Dakota Business Plan.  On 1 July 1994 the Business Plan, with consolidating Pro-Forma Financial Statements, was complete, weighing in at 12 pounds, almost 1,000 pages printed on 100% post consumer recycled paper.  Having finished the first task, I tackled the second challenge: a meeting with the Senior Chairman of the Board of McDonald’s Corporation. 

top down bottom upDownload

Kennebunkport Patrician, Red-Neck Riveria, Skull Valley

Posted: February 21, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Art & Healing, Chronicles of a First Time Parent, consciousness, Portfolio - David's work, What is an Art Farm | Tags: , , , | 2 Comments

RMG Consultants, Inc. was mission driven, not pursuing rational self interest as conventionally defined.  Rob’s mantra was to remain “ruthlessly objective” and have no conflicts of interest.  We served the library as civic institution of learning and education. 

Douglas became a corporate officer, with increasing responsibilities, was named Vice President of Operations and Treasurer of RMG Consultants, Inc.  He encouraged Rob to pursue the for-profit sector and so they launched Infostrat, Inc., then formed an Australian-based company, RMG/CAVAL to pursue the Austral-Asian market. Douglas became an officer of those entities.  

On the home front, I had left the barrio, moved north to Rogers Park, on the lakefront.  Brian had graduated from Cornell College with a Bachelors of Arts in Economics and Political Science, moved back to Chicago, full-time at RMG, and lived with me. Douglas also moved to Rogers Park, but found a studio apartment off Howard Avenue, at the El terminus.  I believe there was a crack house across the hall, and once he heard gunshots while walking on Howard Avenue.  We were on very opposite sides of Sheridan Road.  

In January 1991, the first patrician from Kennebunkport, Maine announced that Operation Desert Storm – the First Iraq War – would be televised live; we all pulled up chairs around the TV.  Tal Lekberg, my carpenter friend, was in the Coast Guard and had been called to active duty in the Persian Gulf.  Not knowing if he would return home alive, he brought his entire collection of single malt Scotch Whiskey to our apartment – at least two dozen bottles – asking me to safeguard it.  “It’s okay if you drink it.  Maybe some will remain if I return.”  Like a fox guarding the hen house, we heartily imbibed while watching the destruction of the cradle of civilization, in pursuit of the quest for oil.  

December 1991, Douglas and Laurie had decided to get married, and Douglas pined to be wed in Paris, at the Cathedral of Notre Dame, I as their witness.  It made great sense and we all bought tickets, flew across the pond; I arrived first, Douglas and Laurie a day or two later.  A friend arranged an apartment for me, and Laurie knew someone from the U of C who had a flat there.  We met and celebrated love in Paris, when we were young and all life easily opened before us.  But Notre Dame was not so easily scheduled and the wedding did not take place.  We took the train south to Chartres, and beside the Cathedral I ran the table at a bakery beside the nave doors.  I bought one of everything and together we ate pastries, at the foot of Chartres Cathedral.  It was grand.  Essentially they were married then, but officially it took two months more.  

In February 1992 Douglas and Laurie got married.  In April I moved off-grid, to Holmes County, Florida’s “red-neck riviera,” to a swamp along the Choctawhatchee River.  Such was the synchronicity of the times, that even the swamp had a role in library automation.  

In the tradition of eccentric booksellers, Bob Allenson seems worthy of mention.  He is a third-generation bookseller of religious literature but his passion is making bibliographies of rare antiquarian books; his “John Henry Newman, 1801 – 1890: A Preliminary Register of Editions from 1818 to 1890, Together with Original Editions Published Posthumously” is the definitive catalog of Newman’s work.  Sometime in the 1980s he was hired by the American Theological Library Association to select the texts that would be digitized for their online corpus of theological literature. Bob was still working on that when I moved there. 

Alec R. Allenson, Inc., was launched in London, then relocated to Baltimore, Maryland and eventually to Naperville, Illinois.  Bob’s father was a businessman who created a successful company selling textbooks and research materials to Christian seminarians.  Bob is a Quaker, committed to social justice who joined the March to Selma and has little interest in business.  By 1979, he had decided to remove himself from the mainstream culture and purchased acreage along the Choctawhatchee River in rural Westville, Florida, population 261.  Wanting to get away, he found his spot.  A friend and I packed the Naperville bookstore – a most remarkable experience – and shipped five semi-trailers of books to the swamp, where Bob’s son-in-law Caleb had built two pole-barn houses where the books would be stored, for sale.  

I had kept in touch with Bob, and he asked me to help him with the business.  To my mind, at the age of 31, moving off-grid seemed a most sensible thing to do.  In April of 1992, Brian and Douglas drove me to Union Station in Chicago, we said goodbye, then I climbed aboard Amtrak’s “City of New Orleans” southbound, down the Mississippi River to New Orleans.  I spent the night at a hostel, then boarded a Greyhound Bus east, along the Mississippi and Alabama coast.  Somewhere along Florida State Route 20 I got off the bus, then rode my bike north. The Sheriff and his men stopped and questioned me – I stood out like a sore thumb – but let me continue and eventually Bob and his wife Dorothy Ann drove down to pick me up.  

Bob embodied his Quaker ideals by visiting prisoners in the State Penitentiary, and, for honesty and transparency, by wearing no clothes.  I recall Bob in his kitchen, holding a glass of white wine, cooking ratatouille and lamb chops, discussing the Christian mystics Swedenborg and Meister Eckhart, all while standing buck naked in his birthday suit.  To the question, “what’s the recent weather like over there Bob? I’m trying to figure out what to wear?” he replied “Well as far as I’m concerned, you don’t need to wear anything at all.” My guess is he wore clothes to the State Penitentiary.  

There was no work to be done, and neither electricity nor running water, so in the swamp – which was, in fact, an oxygen factory – I mostly sat, listened and read.  Storm clouds would amass over the Gulf of Mexico, then by afternoon would float north overhead.  Almost daily, rain like a typhoon fell, massive amounts of water, relieving the humidity.  Caleb and his family also lived in the swamp and at night we would paddle on the river, I in front with a flashlight, scanning for the green eyes of alligators at the water’s level.  Once found, they would drop beneath the water and silently swim away, even beneath our canoe.  Caleb laughed at his unseasoned passenger from the North.   

Eventually it became clear that life there was not sustainable and so I returned to Deerfield, and then unexpectedly, moved out west to Prescott, Arizona.  I settled into a trailer, at the foot of a butte, near Skull Valley.  By coincidence I had been introduced to an older gentleman, who was active in trading agricultural commodities.  Given my background, he was curious of my interests and offered to introduce me to a financier he knew, who purportedly had helped launch McDonald’s Corporation.  He had two conditions: I needed to write a Business Plan and get the approval of the Senior Chairman of the Board of McDonald’s Corporation.  No small task, although the writing seemed more daunting than the approval, so willing to shovel coal, I was willing to get to work.  

The Chicago Tribune had announced an architecture competition for public housing, to redesign the Cabrini-Green projects.  I entered.  I had met Paolo Soleri, the architect and urban planner – a visionary, widely overlooked – who had built Cosanti and Arcosanti based upon the design of medieval cities of the Italian countryside; he advocated a hyper-dense city surrounded by open space and the natural environment.   Living on the high desert, in a trailer with no phone or TV, I began to ponder the social contract, how design manifests those ideas, and the coming impact of unlimited access to information.  

Truths Held Self Evident

Posted: January 3, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Child Centered Activities, Chronicles of a First Time Parent, consciousness, What is an Art Farm | Tags: , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Among truths held self evident, that healing is the purpose of life must be central. But this view challenges the conventional A-list: asset acquisition, accomplishment, accumulation of wealth, accolade, acclaim, awards, advancement…to name but a few.  

“He who dies with the most toys wins” is the popular path, but life’s hard labors will come to our doorstep, at which time the question is whether we step up or cower. Our future hangs upon the response. 

Easier it is to kick the can down the road.  John Maynard Keynes, the economist of destiny, who structured the post-WW2 financial reconstruction, famously said, “In the long run, we are all dead.”  But life’s grim reaper is one keen accountant, and even if we choose to ignore, intergenerational trauma will settle all accounts going forward.  

“Intergenerational trauma” was a new concept to me until a few years ago when my wife, a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor spoke of it.  Since then the term keeps popping up and it seems to define something of our zeitgeist.  Some among us may claim this is just “a hoax from China” but scientific fact argues against brazen disregard.  

Epigenetics is the science of how environmental and behavioral factors alter gene activity without changing the DNA sequence.  The term “epigenetics” comes from the Greek word epi- which means “on or above.”  Originally introduced in 1942, the field has grown rapidly since 2004, when the genome was fully sequenced.  

Among its findings are that environmental factors can influence the health and traits over three generations through epigenetic change passed down via sperm and egg cells; the “transgenerational” effect impacts grandchildren even though they were not directly exposed to the original environmental factor.  In other words, even the untold family stories shape who we are, and become. 

“Beneath every railroad tie there lies a dead Irishman” is an adage describing the struggles of the Irish emigres.  My father’s ancestors immigrated to the United States circa 1850. We do not have records, but believe the Mahany clan were from the city of Cork, in the County of Munster where the Great Potato Famine raged.  Between 1845 and 1855 more than 1.5 million adults and children – all enduring trauma – left Ireland seeking refuge in America.  

The railroads were major employers of the Irish, and the Mahany family followed that path.  Daniel M Mahany/Mahoney, my great-grandfather, was born in Kentucky in 1860, the era of the Civil War, the Confederate South; intense tension among the Catholics, immigrants and the Protestant natives; machine politics and its rogues’ gallery of gang violence.  As a laborer on the L&N Railroad his work must have been extremely difficult, and how he dealt with those tensions, or even traumas, once home is left unspoken.  

My Father said little, next to nothing, about his family of origin and I can only wonder what traumas lie buried, untold stories of a painful past, but which still shape our gene pool.  I am the third generation of Daniel Mahany’s child D.J. Mahany  

One of five siblings, I process this neither in a vacuum nor by committee.  The path of healing is deeply personal, each of us bringing to bear the untold complexities of our own lived lives.  But plain is the historical record, factual is the science, and now is my moment.

I wonder if the turbulence of our times is not, to some degree, a long overdue reckoning of intergenerational trauma.  There seems a purging of the collective id; the hypermasculine posturing, saber rattling of geo-political Oligarchs, the comic pretensions of World Wrestling Entertainment, all of which seem a masking of unhealed traumas endured and too long accrued.  Mass violence marked the 20th century – the “century of genocide” – and I wonder if now comes the time when accounts need be settled.  

My children are the fourth generation.  My parenting choices have the potential to be liberating.  Nothing can be more important to me now, at this stage of my life, than healing as the only thing that matters, that the future may be made more clear, centered in the light.  

Turning 12

Posted: December 6, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Chronicles of a First Time Parent, consciousness, What is an Art Farm | Tags: , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Our son turns 12 next week and I am mulling over rituals to mark this right of passage as our cherub becomes a young man. 

I was raised in the Roman Catholic Church and its ritual would have been Confirmation. I have little memory of that, but it appears five hours of community service were required.  I do remember wearing white, walking down the aisle and choosing Mark as my name.  I chose that name to honor my best friend, who had just suffered a terrible accident in which both his arms were amputated. My choice was one of solidarity. 

The Catholic tradition seems neither my nor my son’s path; I find Christian dogma limiting although Christ consciousness tremendously expansive.  My faith is a work-in-progress while I am seeking alternatives for raising my son. 

In the Amazon, the Satere-Mawe tribe have young men wear a glove filled with bullet ants for 10 minutes.  Pushing the threshold of pain is not quite the path I seek.  In Ethiopia boys jump over a cow, and in Vanuatu they jump from tall towers with vines tied to their ankles, but manliness, to my mind, is more than a measure of strength and courage. 

In the Hebrew tradition the bar mitzvah marks a boy’s coming of age whereupon he begins to assume responsibility for his actions.  Responsibility tied to manhood appeals to me.  13 is the age of Bar Mitzvah but to my mind, manhood is not just the number of years spent on the planet.  It must be earned through understanding.  This ritual, then, is about values and lessons learned.     

During the summer my son and I volunteered frequently at the South Portland Food Cupboard.  It was an enriching experience, and community service seems relevant in his coming of age.  Construction work such as Habitat for Humanity comes to mind.  I have heard of Church Youth Groups who undertake community service projects.  I am looking for local possibilities.  

The insights of other men should be another aspect of this plan.  My nephew, my son’s cousin, did have a Bar Mitzvah and has agreed to talk with him about the experience, and his own coming of age.  A philosopher/carpenter friend has offered to teach more welding, and we may join with a classmate of my son and his father, for a shared experience; working with tools in the act of making.  Another friend, whose son also is the same age, is loaning us a lathe for turning wood, and that may be another opportunity for input from other men in the community.  My son will benefit from hearing more than my views.  

And then there is the topic of sexuality.  My Father’s coming-of-age speech to me was as comic as it was lacking.  It was haltingly brief, when he simply asked, “Do you have any questions?”  Feeling the tension, of course I replied, “No,” whereupon he handed me a paperback book on Catholic morals.  I recall the author was aghast at a recent 6th grade school field trip, where the girls wore red lipstick and hosiery.  Just blame it on the girls remains the dogmatic view.  What I learned of sexuality came from my older Brother and the locker room, but my son deserves better than that.  

The pious among us claim that traditional morality teaches the male as the leader, with male-female relationships the only acceptable norm.  I regret to inform them that history teaches otherwise.  The Christian era has been relatively brief, while Ancient Greece, Rome and China openly practiced homosexuality and pederasty.  LGBTQ may arguably be the historical norm and reversion to the mean would seem natural. My son will benefit from thinking not in centuries but in millenia. 

The process of writing this has become the means to outline a plan.  Among the core values this DIY ritual should include are:

  • compassion and cooperation are keys to a healthy masculinity
  • no means no, and might does not make right.  
  • emotional intelligence has greater value than sheer intellectual horsepower
  • listen to your heart, not just your head; be curious, ask questions, follow your passion
  • practical problem-solving skills provide a grounded self-confidence
  • making is hard-wired in our DNA; art predates agriculture, and therefore civilization itself
  • Integrity presumes courage; let your word be your bond
  • energy follows thought; actions have consequences
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