CURRENT MISSION

To play great piano and accordion, to be eccentric.

ABOUT ME

I'm independent and unconventional; I aspire to eccentricity in the English Victorian tradition. I dress the way I feel, act the way I feel, do pretty much what I want to within the bounds of necessity, which can mean impromptu public bopping when the music is good. I dance a lot.

My favorite thing is hearing from people about their lives. I believe that people are always doing the best they can, even when it might not look like that--I believe in the essential goodness of people. I have wonderful conversations at craft shows.

I am a bricoleur, an improvisor, in music, and in life. I am a ferocious learner when I grab onto a subject. When I see a reason to change, I change. Immediately.

I'm lazy, at least about things that I'm "supposed" to do. My house needs painting, and it could use a good scrubbing (my daughters sometimes come and do that). I have too much stuff, mostly junk.

I am definitely an old fart, but a fairly lively one. I want to reclaim the word "old"--hey guys, it doesn't mean stupid or decrepit! It's a great ancient English word that means "been around a long time".

PHILOSOPHY

Life is change. If you haven't changed recently, better check your pulse. You might be dead.

Life will be the way you see it. The things you didn't want to happen have lessons for you. The only thing about you that no one can control is your thinking.

Live as fully as you can, with as little impact as you can manage. Don't take more than your share.

Keep learning, especially learning how to live.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Right now I'm offering my home. I hope to travel some eventually.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Nothing yet; I can't wait.

Interests

I'm a person that makes things, and always have been. I make my living as a wood turner, making and selling salad bowls, and I love meeting people at craft shows (these short interactions are often profound). If I need something for myself, my first impulse is to make it myself, which of course is not always a good idea, but I still try. I just came upon a wonderful word for what I do--bricolage, which is French for doing things with what you've got.

I'm an amateur musician--piano (jazz improv, small but growing repertoire of standards, might be good some day) and accordion (not very good, but I like it). Are you traveling with an instrument? Wanna jam?

I'm a good animal, love using my body, did karate for many years, just took up line dancing (intricate and fun), currently trying to remember my tai chi, dance in my kitchen.

I'm a reader. My house is full of books, every room I live in, even the kitchen (the refrigerator had to go somewhere else). When I get interested in something I read everything I can get my hands on.

I make homemade sauerkraut. And my own bread. Mostly whole wheat.

• animals
• books
• folklore
• concerts
• dancing
• meditation
• traveling
• socializing
• painting
• music
• jazz
• piano
• blues
• kayaking
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

Three books that have changed my life for the better:

Loving What Is, by Byron Katie. Simple and amazingly effective ways to deal with past and present stuff in your life. You do it yourself, nothing else to buy...

The China Study, by Colin Campbell. The biggest study ever of diet and its impact on health. Why I avoid animal protein and don't fear cancer.

I Can Make You Sleep, by Paul McKenna. He did, and I hadn't even realized I was having problems.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Seeing/hearing Billy Taylor at a concert (Ithaca College, Enduring Master series, Taylor in his early 80s), seeing the gentleness with which this old man put his hand on the keyboard, the ease with which the music was drawn out of the instrument.

Paddling back from an island in Lake Champlain, farther than we had thought, exhausted and quiet, dusk falling, aiming for a barely distinguishable landfall, and the fading light reflecting on the ripples around the kayak as it nosed its way home, the water surface so beautiful, almost metallic in its soft sheen.

It is the small details of the world that continue to amaze and awe me, even those that people think of as ugly, like the look of Atlantic Avenue on the far edges of Brooklyn, everything shabby and repurposed, a time capsule of the 1950s...the careful organization of tarp-covered shelters and useful found objects in the homeless peoples' campsite in The Jungle in Ithaca...looking at the hills across the lake as I drive the final mile home in the evening.

Teach, Learn, Share

How to live. That's what we're about here, right? And we all have things to teach, and things to learn.

I can show you how to make sauerkraut and bread, how to see what's holding up your house, how to play the blues, how to fix the squishy steps on your stairs, how to peel garlic easily, how to build a simple meditation stool. And too many other things to list.

Countries I’ve Visited

Costa Rica, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

France, Morocco, Spain, United States