I grew up in two countries and have lived in seven. I'm lucky to have had a loving, funny mother in the travel business before smartphones and Airbnbs. I appreciate having experienced various cultures before "The Great Homogenization" via neocolonial neoliberalism and all the other noise without love or meaning.

I listen to nature; therefore, I am—my existence is part and parcel.

I am constantly learning about our circumstances and how they arose. I hope we wake up and focus on celebrating the health found in nature's balance.

(We aregue to discover, knowing we can't injure ourselves.)

I enjoy learning from people who don't argue with reality but still have the presence of mind to have their heads in the clouds.

It is what it is, was what it was, and shall be what it shall be by having been, and yet I feel my random, determined, stochastically stumbling acts still matter. That's a scary thought.

It is a movement and a rest.

The hero I envision is a humorous, friendly traveler, craftsman, family man, and storyteller who helps during the harvest, participates in village projects, sings and dances at festivals, consoles the grieving, eventually becomes a wise village elder, and has a happy death with friends and family nearby. It doesn't get any better than that.

I am no hero.