One Hundred and One Things About (& by) Me (in no particular order)

1. i was born in '48. 2. i'm amazed and thankful that i've lived this long. 3. radio is much more interesting than tv, but not as interesting as it used to be. 4. i grew up in a home with no tv. 5. "imagination is more important than knowledge" (albert einstein). 6. i love books, birds, and basketball. 7. i'm not as good as i would like to be. 8. i don't like carrot cake or german chocolate cake. 9. i've been to every state except hawaii, mississippi, alabama, and louisiana. 10. "and now the fun begins " (epitaph for a tombstone). 11. i graduated from lancaster mennonite high school in 1966. 12. i would like to join an FOR (fellowship of reconciliation) delegation to iran. 13. i love movies. 14. i read a complete book every day for several years when i was much younger. 15. i especially like art that crosses artistic boundaries or uses two or more art forms, for example, prose poems, concrete or visual poetry, photos with words and/or language, films with poetry or still photos, poetic films, literature with art, poetry with photos, graffiti sculpture (or sculptured graffiti), architecture that is more than just a structure, ie santiago calatrava (http://www.calatrava.com/), etc. 16. i want to visit iceland. 17. i occassionally record my dreams. 18. i am the father of 4 daughters. 19. karen is the mother of the same 4 daughters. 20. "hope is a thing with feathers" (emily dickinson). 21. i frequently check my e-mails. 22. i walked across el paso one day in the late sixties. 23. my mother's maidan name was hershey. 24. i didn't know i was going to live this long, but i took pretty good care of myself. 25. bookstores are my favorite shopping experience. 26. books keep following me home from bookstores. 27. i've donated a couple hundred books to a university library in virginia. 28. my childhood playground was a cemetary. 29. i don't like to use abbreviations. 30. in the past year my exercise program has changed from running and playing basketball to walking and working out at the gym. 31. bird songs and the wind sound better than anything on your ipod. 32. for 3 years i attended a one-room schoolhouse with 6 grades in the same room. 33. at my former employer, st. alphonsus regional medical center in boise, idaho, i had a lot of experience with work-related psychological abuse and the defective management that accompanies it. 34. i've been told that i'm much too trusting. 35. unions are a working person's best friend. 36. i love trains, tracks, and everything about railroads. 37. i'm a vegetarian, but i cheat occassionally. 38. i'm a mennonite, but i cheat occassionally. 39. i love to explore. 40. "the gospel without peace is as lifeless as an ocean without water" (ln). 41. i eat too much. 42. i need to lose about 20 pounds. 43. i was born in pennsylvania, lived in texas and idaho and have also "lived!!" in other places including new mexico, nevada, mexico, ireland, canada, oklahoma, oregon, kansas, colorado, arizona, ...., .... 44. i disliked junior high and high school, but i loved college. 45. i spent 13 years in college. 46. i wish i was older, a wish that, with a little blessing, comes true every minute. 47. i write movie reviews for the boise weekly (http://www.boiseweekly.com/). 48. since i work nights, i have a good reason to take a nap anytime i want to. 49. i've worked the night shift full time for 32 years. 50. i rarely sleep well at nights. 51. karen is my best friend, plus much more. 52. sometimes i tell people that i'm older than i really am. 53. i'm not particularly fond of cats, dogs, horses, or other domesticated animals. 54. i have a well-developed sense of justice. 55. karen and i have been married for 35 years ! 56. "walking is the best way to see the world..., and your neighborhood" (ln) 57. breakfast is my favorite meal and pasta my favorite food; sometimes i mix the two. 58. "a photograph is a secret about a secret; the more it tells you, the less you know" (diane arbus). 59. i love blueberries. 60. children are endlessly entertaining. 61. "there is no way to peace; peace is the way" (a.j. muste). 62. i use my degree in photography and record as a published photographer and writer as an excuse to look at anything containing words or pictures, that i find interesting. 63. weapons, corporations, governments, and miltary organizations should be more strictly regulated and receive a lot less funding. 64. writers, poets, teachers, musicians, film makers, and other artists should be less strictly regulated and receive a lot more funding. 65. a hug from karen makes my day. 66. i have 3 sisters and 1 brother. 67. i love to run. 68. for local commuting i prefer the bus or walking to driving. 69. "there is no such thing as an infallible book written in a fallible language" (ln). 70. i'm old enough to know better. 71. if my hair grew back i wouldn't know what to do with it. 72. i'm an experienced procrastinator. 73. "service is the rent you pay God for the space you occupy on earth" (barbara swaby). 74. cormac mccarthy is currently the finest living fiction writer in the US. 75." most conservative policies have the same effect on people and the planet, that a speeding freight train has on a car parked on the tracks" (ln). 76. i have 2 grandchildren. 77. my favorite little guy is zach. 78. my favorite little gal is mckayla. 79. my favorite daughter is _________!!!! 80. most of the books i read are collections of poetry. 81. "poetry is to the heart as light to the eyes" (ln). 82. "people who drive the speed limit or faster have no reason to complain about high gas prices" (ln). 83. i love new mexico. 84. my favorite film directors are robert altman, michelangelo antonioni, suzanne bier, and errol morris. 85. "cities should be built on only one side of the street." 86. i almost never buy popcorn or anything to eat and drink at the movies. 87. i have several favorite movies, but if i had to pick only one it would probably be antonioni's "the passenger." 88. i create handmade cards using my own photos. 89. i was 24, almost 25 years old when karen, who was 21, and i got married one morning at sunrise on the campus of amarillo college, in amarillo, texas. 90. i have better things to do with my brain than push hair through the top of my head. 91. if you listen, i will tell you about my life, but i also want to hear about yours. 92. sometimes i walk the 5.5 miles to or from work. 93. "war is the sum of all evils, wrapped up in one" (ln). 94. music is too valuable to use as background noise. 95. i'm interested in anything about and by anabaptists. 96. i love the wind. 97. ronald reagan was the seed that sprouted george w. bush. 98. i like long time spans between flights. 99. the biggest threat to families in the world are military organizations, and the idea that inevitably accompanies them; that it's acceptable to kill unlimited numbers of family members if we don't like the government of the country in which they live. 100. it's sad how much the people wearing earphones are missing. 101. i like to receive hand-written personal letters by mail. 102. i've worked in restaurants, hospitals, cemetaries, churches, and farms; i've made travel trailers, foam cups, tv tubes, plastic bags, pipe fittings; i've picked fruit, potatoes, planted and harvested tobacco, written and published book and movie reviews, poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. 102. the most euphoric experiences i've had were climbing mountains. 103. i'm not very good with numbers. 104. thank you, and now it's your turn.