CURRENT MISSION

l'm working at being at peace with myself and the world.

ABOUT ME

In my senior years I have become too Sedimentary. My primary activities are going out to eat, watching films, music events, potluck meals, conversation or video with friends. Mostly a group/social type. I am a recovering compulsive repair, improve, and build junky. I love design, building, landscaping, surveying and making maps. I have traveled around the world, studied in Mexico, lived & worked in Germany and Italy.
I might describe myself as a generous, talkative, social, sometimes silly, post-radical environmentalist, conversationalist, way-left-of-center semi-spiritual feminist-leaning atheist pseudo-intellectual, interested in socio-political-economic issues, personal health and fun. I love my two grown children, music, and the earth, cherish my family and friends. I like nature, natural food stores, novels, architecture, outdoor cafes and swimming in mountain lakes. I speak Spanish. I am never seen in a suit or even with a tie. Jeans, sandals and T-shirt are me.

PHILOSOPHY

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."
-- Dwight D. Eisenhower, 4/16/53

"So keep fightin' for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't you forget to have fun doin' it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce."
-- Molly Ivins

"It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages."
-- Friedrich Nietzsche

"You're not supposed to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or who says it."
--Malcolm X

"I'd put my money on solar energy... I hope we don't have to wait 'til oil and coal run out before we tackle that."
-- Thomas Edison, in conversation with Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone, March 1931

"So often what prevents us from living an admirable life is the chattering of our minds, which perturb us with long outdated doubts and despair. Our minds are truly one of the greatest creations in God's world, but they are so easily disoriented and set spinning. ...learning to cultivate our consciousness through understanding and relearning serves as the key for our emancipation."
--B.K.S. Iyengar

"They must find it difficult... Those who have taken authority as the truth, rather than truth as the authority."
--Gerald Massey

"When the last living thing has died on account of us, how poetical it would be if Earth could say, in a voice floating up perhaps from the floor of the Grand Canyon,
"It is done."
People did not like it here."
--Kurt Vonnegut 1922-2007

"I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country."
-- Thomas Jefferson, 1812.

Pourquoi je suis sur Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I've hosted many delightful guests but have only surf'd a few others' couches. Some of my best experiences in traveling were facilitated by somebody local who shared their world with me. I enjoy having the opportunity to return the favor.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I've been invited into homes, dorm rooms, or to pitch my tent in somebody's back yard in Australia, Indonesia, Nepal, Germany, Spain, Mexico, Canada and the United States, and cherish the cultural exchange and memories. Some years ago I had opportunity to be hosted in a campus sorority. Interesting.

Centres d'intérêt

bicycling, birds, Burning Man, camping, Cascade lakes and streams, celebrations, clean air, clean water, company, computers, construction, creativity, cuddling, curry, dancing, dirt (earth), engineering, extended family, flirting, forests, friends, gardening, giving, good wine, health, hearts, hiking, honesty, hot springs, hot tubs, kissing, landscaping, laughing, literature, lizards, maps, networks of all sorts, non-violent protest, occasional trips to the desert, Oregon Country Fair, outdoor cooking and sharing meals, peaceful people, photography, pinot gris, pleasure, pulling together, pushing limits, quirkyness, redefining boundaries, retreats, rivers, road trips, rocks, salmon, seeking happiness, silence, singing, smelling, swimming in fresh water, the earth, touching, travel, & waterfalls among other things.

• cats
• birds
• culture
• literature
• singing
• architecture
• design
• photography
• dancing
• dining
• cooking
• wine
• potluck
• gardening
• movies
• traveling
• music
• outdoor activities
• camping
• atheism
• swimming
• cartography
• engineering
• geography
• road trips
• lakes
• rivers

Morceaux de musique, films et livres

A few books I've read in relatively recent history:
Albert Brooks, "2030"
Nick Reding, "Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town"
Ryan & Jethá, "Sex at Dawn"
Kelly Bryson, "Don't be Nice, Be Real"
Rob Hopkins, "The Transition Handbook"
Neale Donald Walsch, "Tomorrow's God"
David Korten, "The Great Turning"
Dan Brown, "Da Vinci Code"
Most interesting recent films:
"Chasing Ice" Jeff Orlowski
"The Sessions" Ben Lewin
"Reign Over Me" Mike Binder
"Deep Green" Matt Briggs
Liked "What the #$@&^ Do I Know?"

Une aventure extraordinaire que j'ai vécue

In my youth, I took 8 months to travel around the globe. I circumnavigated the Annapurna Range in a 3-week trek. I've been to the top of Mt. Shasta, Mt. Hood, and a few lesser peaks. I traveled through Iran in 1979 after the Shaw was ousted but before the American embassy was taken hostage. I've looked up the barrel of a rifle from my sleeping bag on the ground in Afghanistan.

Enseignez, apprenez, partagez

Teach: Geography of the Pacific Northwest and Western Oregon in particular.
Share: Non-violent communication
Learn: About you, your country or region and/or culture and/or language, your take on life, and fears/hopes of the future. How to cook something you like.

Pays que j'ai visités

Afghanistan, Australia, Austria, Belize, Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Iran, Italy, Mexico, Morocco, Nepal, Pakistan, Spain, Thailand, Turkey

Pays dans lesquels j'ai vécu

Germany, Italy, Mexico, United States

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