roughly 950 words about your host

My name is Michael. It's the name my Mother gave me one Illinois spring day nearly fifty years ago and I carry it proudly.

I am 48 year old black man living in southern California.

I am 6'2 tall, a strong-willed, sometimes-brooding, occasionally-giddy, very often calm hulk of a man (and a nimble dancer and air guitar whiz to boot.) I have brown eyes and black hair (though I keep my head shaved more often than not.) I don't mind wearing glasses because they make my studied aloofness seem less severe. I have a goatee most of the time. I have more than a few dozen grey hairs.

I write stuff, wake up like a bear, and dance like a fool when nobody's around to see.

I haven't yet accomplished a third of the goals I set for myself when I was 18 but I have done many things I couldn’t have even have conceived of at that age. I'm a procrastinator and a daydreamer and I used to hold silent grudges for unhealthy lengths of time (this last trait has faded as I grew older…life is too short to dwell on such foolishness.)

I have no children of my blood but three children most indelibly of my heart and soul. I'm a good friend, a fair-to-middling storyteller, and a soft touch if you have a really good story. I turned out to be a (surprisingly to me) competent parent and am, I’m told, a pretty good grandfather.

I don't smoke, I only rarely drink alcohol, and I've tried pot twice in my life (it didn't work either time…I was probably not doing it right but then I didn’t have my heart in it and don’t feel like I’m missing anything..) I much prefer tea to coffee (though I quite appreciate the aroma of brewing coffee.)

I don't agree with Jesse Jackson as often as I once might have; I don't disagree with Alan Keyes as often as I sometimes think I probably should. I think Michael Moore and Bill O’Reilly, however passionate their beliefs, are both self-righteous publicity whores. I am a registered Libertarian.

I used to be a left-wing Kennedy liberal.

I like bad jokes, good music, and wonderful books. I admire…and enjoy the company of…wise, honest men who are strong enough to be gentle, smart, honest gently-rounded women who smile with their eyes as well as their mouths, and bright, curious children who grow up open-hearted but not too fast.

I think that “Abbey Road” is the best Beatles album, that disco did indeed sometimes suck but not nearly as much or as often as some would have us believe, and that Bach’s “Air on the G-string” may be the most sublime piece of music yet composed by a human soul.

I probably swear too much.

My heroes are (in more or less random order) Burdette L. Willis, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Maya Angelou, Superman, Morgan Freeman, Willie Nelson, Ntozake Shange, Linda Ellerbee, John McCain, Gilbert Hernandez, Jimmy Carter, Emmylou Harris, Toni Morrison, Andrew Sullivan, Bruce Springsteen, James Earl Jones, Barney Frank, Alice Walker, and Lisa Simpson.

I don't have a lot of friends…true friendship being too precious a gift to give away casually…but I am fiercely loyal to those whom I love and trust. I enjoy nostalgia but am not adverse to closing doors when a portion of my life has run its appointed course. I believe that looking back in anger…or longing for long gone “better days”…is a waste of time and energy that would best utilized in the here and now.

I have secrets most of you will never be privy to and emotional barriers that I'm diligently working on to breaking down from the inside.

I don't like Mondays. Or driving, beets, liver as food, and red-headed prop comics named after root vegetables.

I will probably always enjoy comic books, chocolate chip cookies, Joseph Wambaugh books, cherry vanilla ice cream, and Paul Simon songs. I think that “Star Trek: The Next Generation”, “The Godfather, Part 2”, and “The Empire Strikes Back” are all better, to one extent or another, than their predecessors.

I am an American who has lived in California for most of his life. I find the political process bitterly amusing. I think that voting is an inexact science but it beats the hell out of the alternatives. I have voted in eight Presidential elections (all that I have been eligible for thus far) and have cast my vote for the eventual winner three times. I think that the national anthem should be changed to "America the Beautiful".

I think that God is in each of us and each of us is in God (and thus connected with soar or fall together in the expansive universe.) I believe that faith is a very fine thing but that active, selfless caring, charity, responsibility, and honesty are much more important. I think that organized religion is much more adept at fostering divisiveness than it is at fostering unity (but I have absolutely no problem with those who find comfort in places of worship of their choice as long as they leave me be to believe…or not believe…what is right for me.)

I used to be a born-again Christian.

This then is a rambling description of me. It tells you a great deal about who I really am. It tells you nothing at all about who I really am. (It doubtlessly tells you more than you cared to know either way…but you read this far anyway and I appreciate that.) We are each of us many aspects making up a complex, unfathomable whole (some of our private aspects aren't consciously known even to ourselves.)

Namaste, y’all.