My Dad left Germany on Krystal Nacht when the synagogue he was staying in was barricaded and set alight. A
compassionate German police man broke down the door and let the children out. That was a seminal story I received
as a child ... which colored my approach to humanity to this day. I.e. there's good and badness everywhere. Find the
goodness in all people, races, etc.
In Afghanistan I suffered together in war with brothers weeping over an indescribably beautiful land desecrated by
hate and stupidness. We wept in love for each other, for in the midst of hell there is a spiritual reality so much more
real than the apparent hell all around. The path to loveliness is unbearably painful. Yet, if one chooses to never
relinquish oneself to the laziness of spirit ... instead to encounter vile hate with a heart of humility, then all that is left is
love' and a whole new world opens up to me.
One day at 3 in the morning north of Tromso, Norway, and 50 miles from a village as I bobbed around on a little raft on
a majestic fjord I had a funny feeling that all the salt water could not compare with the tears of God, the mother and
father of all. I remember only weeping through the white night until noon. When I am hateful and selfish, which is
often, I merely add a few more drops to that vast ocean. And yet, such is the sensitivity of that cosmic heart, that
every drop resounds throughout the universe.
I was once in a park with my mother whom I love, in a foreign country. A beggar came up to us ... and looked at us. He
then surprised us ... he started to weep. He said we looked 'so beautiful'. and then it was so weird ... we all began to cry
and hugged each other. This dirty homeless guy, this pampered middle class son of luxury and his well-to-do mother,
held each other and cried. Later I realised, God had said hello.
Born UK
Studied to be art teacher in UK, later USA St.Cloud State, Minn.
1980 escaped academics to travel the USA and work on farms in California;
1982 moved to Germany to love the enemy;
1984 became a news journalist specialising in Afghanistan;
1987 moved to a Norwegian fjord for sanity miles above the Arctic Circle and sold art to lighthouse keepers.
1990 Went to seminary to to do a Masters in World Religions
1992 Moved to St Petersburg Russia to see real pain again and teach/be taught;
1995 Did another silly Masters Degree in Linguistics at Aston University UK
Then moved to Japan with my wife and 2 children.
2000 Presently working on a novel, art and investigating Asia/
Also lived in France, Pakistan, and a few other weird places.
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