Howdy Cats and Kiddies,

How can I synopsize who I am / will be via this medium of buzzing electrons and behind the scenes binary code? I can't really, since I leave much of the "who" part up to the moment. But I suppose there are always details.


So, what do I do?  If you're asking about work, my primary vocation is providing therapeutic mentorship to at-risk youth.  I'm also on staff at the Jubilee! Community  (an interfaith spiritual community here in Asheville, NC).  I completed my Doctorate in Divinity in 2004, and I'm back in school now for an eventual Masters in either counseling or social work. I've been an ordained minister since '96 working in community ministry.


Which brings me to spirituality; it's strange to say that I'm drawn to all faiths, but I am. There's something about the great panoply of ideas, images and modalities of the experience of the divine, the endless variety of expression and devotion to something  immense and unknowable, that  is the flame to my moth wings. I want to know, I want to feel, I want to understand the human yearning to order the universe into varying degrees of sacredness. Personally, I'm a Panentheist, with a theurgical bent and strong personal attachments to early Christianity, Sufism, Zen, African and Earth-Based systems of knowledge.
 

In 2004 I published my second book, an essay and poetry collection called "Rainbow Over Crossroads." The first book, "Digging the Immaterial," a collection of poems and stories, is selling as well as can be expected without heavy promotion. I have another project for a fictional biography on the backburner for now. I'm not much into tooting my own horn, just playing my music. As you can see, creativity is not just a practice, it's what I live for; to grow within myself and to savor the talent and ideas of our strange band of humanity.
 

Just  to get it out of the way, I'm gay and single. Ta-da. But I'm not stereotypical (though I do own Edith Piaf albums) and I'm rarely flamboyant unless forced to by mitigating circumstances such as liberal  wine consumption or an unbearable lack of campiness. I'm mostly kidding.
 

Nature is my most trusted solace. I love the mountains, rivers  and bioregions of Western North Carolina and get out there whenever I can. Human conversation about God and the Universe is great but nothing compares to watching the meanderings of a crayfish or passing of clouds over the peaks.  The silence of those moments is such pure mysticism, to hear with the soul the miraculous pronouncements of the wind and the birds carried by it teaches me more than I can express with words, more than any collection of human wisdom. Because it's ineffable, it's powerful. Sunsets recharge my batteries and misty mornings are holy communion.
 

You may have guessed by now that I'm a bleeding heart liberal. Well, I am in some senses, but in general I'm weary of the bipolarisms in the American body politic. I'm part of the "all one" crowd, politically, environmentally, spiritually and philosophically. I'm a "common grounder," more interested in making progress than taking sides... though, as a human prone to vacillation and irony, I occasionally do.
 

  I'm a sentimental old fool, known for a few Quixotic jaunts into the Unknown  who prefers the path of the Fool rather than the path of exactitude and foreknowledge (which absolutely has it's place in the world). I'm a helpless romantic, chasing lightening bugs to the tunes of ol' Satchmo. I always cry watching certain films, and laugh when I especially feel the love.  I'm blessed with a great community and strong friendships; you know who you are and I wouldn't be here without ya (wink).  Of course, amongst these wonderful folk I must count my best friend of nearly 20 years, Joshua, and his wife, Robin.
 

But seriously, folks, I can't take it all so seriously. It's all energy, including you, me, all our hopes and dreams, our fears and quibbles. What better reason to live meaningfully than the apparent meaninglessness of it All? What better reason to love the world in your own weird way than for the great flowing of unspeakable love all around us?

As you can see, I'm prone to tangential thinking.

That's enough of me... what about you?

(latest)

June-July 2004: Voiceover work for the Japanese animation series "Miami Guns" at Phoenix Post Sound/Blue Ridge Motion Picture, Asheville, NC

May 2004: Curio/Priest/2nd Officer and Ass't Stage Manager in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night at North Carolina Stage Company.

Apr. 2004: Played Self in the comedy The Complete Word of God (Abridged)

Mar. 2004: Reader's Theater at SART Playwright's Conference (Pound by Sean O'Leary).

Dec. 2003: Played lead Mickey/Lucius in the drama "Greetings." by Tom Dudzick

Sept. 2003: Light and Sound tech in "Asleep on the Wind/Graceland" by Ellen Byron.

July 2003: Writer and Director of children's play "How Long 'til Sunrise?" Script available royalty free to nonprofit theaters or to at-risk youth programs.

1991-1992: Two seasons of improv theater at Delaware Theater Company and improv development work with Danny Peake.