I’ve been writing this newsletter for a little over a year. I figure maybe it’s time to introduce myself: my status, my credentials, my philosophy of life.
My friend Thoreau expects every writer to give an account of themselves. He says at the very beginning of his famous book Walden published in 1854: “Moreover, I, on my side, require of every writer, first or last, a simple and sincere account of his own life, and not merely what he has heard of other men’s lives; some such account as he would send to his kindred from a distant land; for if he has lived sincerely, it must have been in a distant land to me.”
Ha ha. A bit of Thoreauian humor there, but the point is taken. Introduce yourself or remain a stranger.
On the other hand, my mentor don Juan strongly suggests not divulging personal information about yourself because you will make yourself vulnerable to other people’s expectations and machinations. Remaining aloof is a protective barrier against losing your power by diluting it with other people’s intentions.
I’ll split the difference and reveal what only what suits my purposes. Ha ha, a bit of Bayesian humor there.
When I was born, I was given the name Ronald. I don’t know why. I never asked. I wish I had. Both my parents have passed on now and the immediate family has been thinned by attrition so I think the secret is lost.
I did mold Ronald to my own purposes, I spelled it Rohn, shortening it and absorbing the h from my father John and continuing on. I just never felt like a Ronald.
My name is Rohn and I live in San Antonio, Texas. I’m seventy one years old. This is shocking to me but also a good thing. Simple logic informs us that we will grow older unless we die first.
I am neither Republican nor Democrat, though I will say to anyone who might vote for the Republican party, the party of Trump - you must be crazy. Well maybe a little deluded atleast, but aren’t we all these days. It’s just a matter of degree.
My main point at this point in my life is riding my bicycle and writing my newsletter. Riding my bike is how I get adventures, the endorphin high and spontaneous ideas (I call it hearing the angels singing). Writing my newsletter is how I get to be famous, influential and invited to televised conversations about important things.
So far I’m mostly successful with the bike riding, although as I mentioned, I have been writing this newsletter every week for over a year so that’s something.
In addition to the newsletter I have a manuscript waiting to be published. Actually it’s been waiting for a long time. Actually it may never be published. Maybe I published it to myself. I sure had alot of fun researching it and writing it over the last six years. That won’t get me on any television conversations with important people though.
The manuscript is about human beings. What are human beings after all? Since we are ones, we would be the ones to know but we seem to be strangely confused about it, like our own nature is foreign to us.
I notice that cats do not have this problem, neither do dogs or any other animal as far as I can tell. They seem perfectly comfortable being who they are. Humans are always going thru identity crises, doubts and fake ego trips, anticipations and projections based on our unstable identity.
Anywhos, that’s what the book is about. What is human. I ask you good reader just in case my book is never published - what is human?
So that should tell you something. My father, presumably the one who gave me the name Ronald, was a Baptist preacher and used to hold forth every Sunday morning with the sermon of the week. I release my sermon every Thursday online. That’s the only difference.
Although I have left the comforts and certitude of religion, I feel confident that my father would feel no less exhilarated (or atleast validated) after his sermon than I feel after mine. The passing of the plate was preliminary to the main event, my father’s sermon, and must have inspired him to bring it. That was bread and butter, sustenance for a growing family with six kids. I seek to enlist subscribers. Same thing basically.
I am the caretaker and curator of an urban nature preserve (it would be a garden if there was more intentionality). Here I get to observe and applaud the natural energies of life as they manifest in their myriad forms.
The mega-fauna include one or two opossums, an owl (which accounts for the uncertainty of the opossum population), four cats, 10,000 fish, an occasional racoon or two, various birds including a cardinal couple, a sparrow family in the eaves, numerous mourning doves (of which Kybo the cat harvests the slow and stupid).
What’s not visible but equally vital are the microbes. Microbes made this place. Fungi make soil from rotting debris. Microbes in the bog filter, attached to the fish pond, digest the waste products and turn them into plant food. Everything in our biosphere rests on the foundation of microbes and it has been that way since the beginning.
Maybe these days we are thinking about them more, although it’s uncertain whether viruses are actually alive. It may be just a gene transcribing machine, like a copier, making copies of itself using resources requisitioned and commandeered from existing cells. But then they do mutate and adapt as if they had some kind of intelligence. They are smart enough to invade a cell and break into its DNA. Hmmm.
And let us not forget that it was microscopic blue-green algae that first learned how to eat sunlight (which was plentiful in the primordial oceans before there was a food chain) and liberate oxygen. Thank the blue-green algae for the oxygen atmosphere that we breathe today.
But all that is not about me. I guess don Juan was right.
I am a human being living on planet Earth. In fact I am made of earth, with an intellect on top. That enables me to ask who am I, along with many other questions. How did I get here? Where am I going next? The critters don’t seem bothered with such pursuits. They live their life. If they have a higher calling it’s not apparent. If they have fun or experience joy it is each in their own way.
I am alive and living on planet Earth. I am a human being with all my dreams, desires and aspirations. I am a human being with all my disappointments, disasters and shortcomings. What else do you need to know.
Look at yourself. I am the same as you. Variations on a theme.
We are both alive on planet Earth. We are human beings, whatever that is. Maybe someone who can turn the magic on (according to Cold Play).
‘I feel my heart beating. I feel my heart underneath my skin.’ they sing ‘cause you make me feel like I’m alive again’.
Maybe that’s who I am. Someone who feels alive.
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music for this newsletter :: Izzamuzzic - Adventure (Original Mix)
Who am I?