About

About me . . .

I’m male, older than I was last year, and feeling it more and more. Some of that feeling is physical but mostly it’s ideological. I’ve become stubborn. Some would say that’s not a change at all, but I don’t listen to them.

This current exposition of random thought and prosaic affectation is a kind of reprise of something I started several years ago and then, for a number of reasons, stopped. I’ve lately felt the void that previously was filled with the pleasures of writing, and so I’m back again. Hope you get something out of what’s to come, and visit often.

About this site . . .

I’ve always had an affinity for the written word. Whether essay, humor, fiction or reportage, expressing my thoughts on a page is just something I like to do. There’s nothing in my educational or professional background to betray the presence of this passion, though, and even I have to admit that that’s a little strange.

I grew up with the admonition that to be successful you had to “be someone”–have a title or something, that is. In response to that imperative I eventually went off in pursuit of a professional identity in a couple of areas I probably should have stayed the hell out of: architecture at first, then law. Trouble is, I loved the architectural stuff but really wasn’t all that good at it, at least the three-dimensional design parts. Turned out to be pretty good at law but didn’t like it all that much. Both these pursuits rely a good deal upon communication underneath it all (most things do) but even that is secondary to the essence of each. That essence, in the case of architecture, is successful execution of design intent, to be advanced and promoted by communication both verbal and graphic. In law it’s mainly argument.

Writing, in contradistinction, is primarily and essentially pure communication, potentially elevating to art depending on the skill of the writer. The most vibrant idea in the cosmos, ploddingly expressed, isn’t really writing, it’s a series of polysyllabic grunts disparately strung together in an attempt to convey some thought. On the other hand true writing, if it’s noteworthy, can and does exist on its own merit, content be damned (see, Raymond Carver, for example).

Going back to the early days of my architectural education, I can remember a sense of renewed wonder at the obvious when, during drawing classes, discussion turned to the notion of the “station point”, otherwise known as the physical spot an observer (“perceiver”)  is located when apprehending a visual experience, in our case at the time–a building.  This all had to do, of course, with perspective and establishing the proper viewing position for an optimal visual (and graphic) experience, but that notwithstanding, the double entendre I attached to the term, and employ here, is something I find immensely satisfying.

Yes, in an effective graphic representation such as an architectural rendering, the station point is critical as the location at which the lines of perspective originate, which in turn determine what you see and how well you see it.  Better still, I think, is the parallel interpretation (no doubt unintended) of the term: that being the idea that we are generally limited in what we see by where we choose our station point to be.  The advantage we have in being mobile humans is that when our viewpoint is limited, we are free to move to a different place in order to see more–or to see more clearly.  As it happens, that ability–or more to the point, the willingness to exercise that ability– makes all the difference.

About what I do . . .

I love to write, and thus will undertake just about any endeavor from short fiction to reportage. To date I’ve had some experience as a monthly columnist for a national magazine focusing on collegiate lacrosse, have done online reporting in the same sport, also at the college level, have done feature writing for the odd local publication here and there. as well as the odd bit of copywriting when the opportunity presents itself.  Currently, and among other things (always) I’m absorbed in some random endeavors within the world of fiction.

I have won an award for essay from the Catholic Spirit in Minnesota,  and am a former sustaining member of the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis as well as a current member of the Chicago Writers Association.