My Bio Brief

I was born and raised in an affluent American suburb, schooled at the neighborhood Catholic and public schools, summered at the local exclusive country clubs, played all the typical country club sports, and could barely be kept indoors because of the amazing backyard we had. Whatever the season and sport, our backyard played host to multiple daily neighborhood events, be it ice hockey on our home-made 90’ x 20’ rink, climbing trees to pelt neighbors and passersby with apples or crab apples, soccer, baseball, wiffle ball, football, badminton, “scrub,” kick the can, numerous variations of tag, superheroes, basketball, tennis, snowball wars, fort building, obstacle course, leaf raking, gathering and burning, hide and seek, playing “spy” in the neighbors’ yards, etc., etc. Later, a northern “summer cottage” appeared and eventually turned into my family’s year round home. Spiritually, the woods and waters of Northern Michigan became home very easily for me as Nature and Her Beauty nurtured my soul much more than concrete and steel; no matter where I traveled, what I studied, or whomever I hooked up with, my heart always remained firmly anchored there.
My first twenty years were spent traveling pathways that were both prescribed and expected among my family’s social strata: I was an ‘A’ student, exhibited compliant school behaviors, was an above average athlete, played my part as an integral family member, respectfully dated girls of equal social standing, willingly worked at nominal, minimum wage paying summer jobs, jumped right into a pre-med major at an exclusive liberal arts college right out of high school, enthusiastically joined in on the stereotypic college social scene. I was the model of innocent naïveté, blissful ignorance, and unconscious conformity.
At twenty, while on a train in France, all by myself, I experienced “an awakening”: the sudden realization that I was my own person with my own talents, interests, and desires; that I didn’t have to live the programmed life that society had ordained for me or that my parents wanted for me; that I was free to make choices for my self based upon my own values and beliefs, my personal likes and dislikes, my unique interests and curiosities.
I quickly recognized that the path I was on—the course of study and career choice I had “chosen” for myself—were not my own but from a kind of set of brainless defaults. People born into the same class that I was were traveling the doctor, lawyer, PhD or business routes. Though I did not realize it at that time, this was my first brush as an “adult” with the feeling that school was an artificial, unnatural—even surreal—and definitely unhealthy holding place for normally capable and vibrant human adults. Where elementary and high schools are veritable prisons designed to keep young humans out of the mainstream while indoctrinating them to certain thought and behavior patterns, colleges and universities are more akin to theme parks intended specifically to provide a diversion or an escape from fully functional participation in real life activity.
The ensuing years were spent pursuing learning, knowledge, and social situations of my own interest and curiosity while trying to discover and deprogram the conditioned patterns in my life (e.g. alcoholism, codependency, and addiction, escapism, materialism, xenocentric pride and prejudice, dissociative personality traits, child-like dependencies and the Peter Pan Principle).
I think that the significant point here is that it took me the occasion of being alone, being totally out of my zones of comfort and familiarity, to provoke—or, perhaps, more like, allow—an internal conflict and confrontation to occur with my self so that I might wake up, come to life, take my power back into my own hands. Career choices revolving around children and control over others followed while I myself became unwittingly subjugated and “enslaved” to contracts, “bosses” and other “superiors” in hierarchical settings. All of this forced me to carry on reflecting, seeking out the source of my anxieties and insecurities—which, of course, served to make possible my continued growth in self-awareness and, ultimately, to help me reclaim more and more control of my own life.
An art and beauty lover as well as a naturally solitary and introspective person, I was able to learn to find “my people” through and in music, literature, film, holistic health, education, and spirituality. In my twenties I had the privilege of experiencing the presence, input, inspiration, and support of many, many artistic “muses.” In my thirties I had the honor and good fortune of connecting with the mother of the two girls who would chose me as their father. In my forties I had the unexpected and incredibly humbling experience of being reunited with my twin soul, my cosmic partner, my “other.” Now, in my fifties, I am blessed with the amazing opportunity of the rediscovery of my own voice, my own thoughts and opinions, and the means for their expression. With this voice I aspire to help provoke thinking in others, to raise awareness and consciousness as so many have done for me. I may not say anything that you have not already heard—and most certainly will not say anything that you don’t already know—but, still, it is my sincerest hope that my words may serve to help you illumine small tidbits of your own Truth, to bring to your own conscious awareness more of the Beauty and Joy that is your authentic self.

Time is a wastin'--HERE I AM!

Hello Cyberconsciousness, welcome to my world!

I've been thinking about things. For about forty years. And when I finally decide to try to express some of my opinions--to try to get published--I find the road too long, too barred with obstacles, too oppressed with other people's time lines, too designed to thwart my voice, to edit my thoughts. So, rather than play by any one else's rules, HERE I AM! Live. Any time I wish (or that you wish). Thank you for tuning in--for giving me a chance. I hope you find my words and perspectives intriguing if not provocative. My goal is to get people to think, to wake up from the malaise of the brainwashing they've been subjected to.

Wondering about my name? Some of you will remember the news anchor from the 1976 movie, Network, played by actor Peter Finch. Tired of the bullshit he was subjected to and forced to report, he went on a live rampage on television saying he was "mad as hell" and that he was "not going to take it anymore." In reverence and deference to the spirit of that powerful role, here I am: The Peter Finch Network. RAGE HARD!

My main targets are "education" (state-enforced compulsory schooling), capitalism ("capitalizing on the compliance of the brainwashed masses"), consumerism, two-party politics, fear-based thinking, anti-democracy, government and media propaganda, Pragmatism, the soul-less society, etc., etc. etc. Look for my first entries soon.