Being a teenager in the ’50s meant seeing Elvis debut on TV, dancing to “rock and roll” at sock hops, and feeling rather self-conscious in most social situations. But that latter trait may be endemic to adolescence, no matter the time period.
Growing up in Wisconsin provided another situation that I took for granted then – the clear shift of the four seasons, a reliable measure of moving forward.
I do miss that, to some degree, but these days I measure the seasons of my life more by the shifts in what I view as important.
Like so many youngsters on Milwaukee’s south side, I attended Catholic grade school taught by nuns, and later went to a Catholic high school taught by Brothers. Little surprise then that at age eighteen, I knocked on the Brothers’ door and asked to be admitted to their company.
The movement that started then had consequences I could not have imagined. For one, I became a teacher, a profession that had never really crossed my mind before deciding to become a Brother. Eventually that initial decision sent me to a variety of American cities, and across the sea to foreign lands where I sometimes walked in the side corridors of Church power.
What transpired in India and Nepal is described in my memoir, In The Land Of Shiva. In Hinduism, Shiva is the great Destroyer of that which is no longer needed.
Currently I live in Berkeley and spend my work time divided between writing, dream work, and astrology.