Profile

Computers, writing, playing music, seeking ultimate truth, and trying to understand what this life is all about.

• Married Anna Bilbro in June, 1975. That will be 27 years this June.  We bought a house on Panola Rd. in DeKalb County where we lived for about 10 years.

• Having a child. The ultimate life-changing expeerience! Whatever you had in mind changes after the birth of your child. It was a truly exciting, almost spiritual experience. When Amanda was born, I was 36 and Anna was 38.  That means that now, in our almost senior-citizen years - we have a 16 year old!

• I worked for years in Atlanta as sales rep for commercial and industrial pipe, valves, fittings, and plumbing supplies. Moving from an artistic environment to being "Mr. Businessman" as I used to call those in the "straight" world was difficult for me, and the uncreative atmosphere of most of the companies I worked for stifled me. It was no surprise, though. I always knew it would suck to have to work in that environment.

• In 1987, when Amanda was just over a year old, we moved to Vancouver, WA, which is just across the Columbia River from Portland, Oregon. Anna works for Delta Air Lines, and they offered to move employees to the west coast where they were basing their new flights to Japan, Korea, and other Oriental destinations. We needed a change of scene, so we made the move. It was very different there than in the South. The thing that you hear about the Northwest - that it "Rains all the time" - well, it's true! It was a good experience, though, and we saw a lot of the country that we wouldn't otherwise have seen.

• In August, 1999, we moved to Virginia - Anna's home state. We were tired of the rain in the Northwest, and missed the grace of living here in the South, so, when I was laid-off as Purchasing Manager for a Mechanical contractor in Vancouver, we decided to go ahead and move.

• My father - Easy Eston, as we used to call him - passed away in February, 2000; the result of complications of diabetes and heart trouble. Those of you who knew him know that he was a good guy - a genuinely nice and sincere person. When he passed away, the reality of the brevity of this life realy hit home to me. We really are on "borrowed time" here, and we need to focus on what's important and on those we love.

I still play my old LP's and cassettes; folk, Joni Mitchell, CSNY, Bob DYl an (of course!). I like what they call "Fusion Jazz" in the Northwest, some traditional jazz.  Newer groups I like include The Wallflowers, Blink 182, Lifehouse, Sarah Brightman, most of Don Henley's work. Like most of you, I cannot stomach - or even understand - rap music.

One of my mentors, the late Carl G. Jung, warned about taking what appears to be the "Sure road" in life. He wrote: " . . . when one lives one's own life, one must take mistakes into the bargain; life would not be complete without them. There is no guarantee - not for a single moment - that we will not fall into error or stumble into deadly peril. We may think that there is a sure road. But that would be the road of death. Then nothing happens any longer - at any rate, not the right things. Anyone who takes the sure road is as good as dead." This is a great statement that engenders confidence in those of us for whom the "Sure Road" has not appeared. It encourages us to continue to seek our own path that will eventually lead us to our true selves.