After a year of continually editing this front page I realized each edit better reflects how I express my knowledge and beliefs. I imagine this will be a never-ending task.

These are the scrub bulls:
Wild cattle that wander off huge grazing ranges of the Australian outback where they roam free among the harsh, remote scrublands and overgraze, crush native plants underfoot, leave the soil exposed to erosion and the spread of invasive weeds. They are environmental hazards too wild and dangerous to be returned to the herd, so they're hunted for sport. These are the scrub bulls.

These are the humans of the species:
Anthropomorphic perceptions of dangerous animals are common abstractions of characteristics that when applied to humans are complimentary, even heroic. When I compared scrub bulls' defiant drive to be free and independent to the compliant, emasculated, and submissive herd they left, scrub bulls emerge as a symbol for humans perceived to have the same defiant drive to be free to forge their own lives.

They refuse to adapt to how the world perceives them or what it expects of them. They engage themselves in a relentless search for clear insights into what's real and what's not, what's worth believing and whats not in the constant flow of information they're subjected to. They never give up reflecting on their own perceptions and experiences, refining their understanding and vision of how to forge their own lives within a culture in constant flux. The old bulls of this human species are especially admired for their capacity to persist beyond all expectations

As for this website, it was a random comment from an Aussie friend on my physical condtion, which doesn't fit the common perception of what it means to be old. I never thought of myself as old, which is why I didn't believe it odd to take up Muay Thai at 77 as therapy for recovering from a debilitating injury.

These photos are of me as an amateur soccer player at 40 years old, me at 77 after 2 1/2 years of forced inactivity from a fractured vetebrae, and me when I was 79 after 1 1/2 years of training in Muay Thai. It was the most grueling activity I ever undertook so I made a firm commitment to never give up, and began wearing a cheap black bracelet 24/7 as a symbol of my self esteem; so if I quit for any reason other than dying on the mat I would have to remove the bracelet and admit I'm nothing but a blow-hard, all talk and no guts.

The firm commitment to regain my health and the thought of shaming myself with less than 100% effort 100% of the time carried me through the hard work that renewed my life and inspired me to continue the search for clarity in a rapdily devolving culture.

I built the foundation of my world view and vision of scrub bulls on the critical need to question, interpret, and judge over 12 years of studying theologian and philosopher Bernard Lonergan's book, Method in Theology, written in 1983. It's critical because his major insight describes the real world and culture that confronts us: "The world is mediated by meaning... and in this larger world we live out our lives. To it we refer when we speak of the real world. But because it is mediated by meaning, because meaning can go astray, because there is myth as well as science, fiction as well as fact, deceit as well as honesty, error as well as truth, that larger real world is insecure."

I use the term, "Meaning shapes perception and perception shapes reality" instead of Lonergan's scholarly usage, which he himself defines as Realms of Meaning: scholarly versus ordinary, or colloquial" speech where one is not necessarily better than the other. When I refer to my colloquuial verson, which I believe is more easily understood, I mean, "The world is mediated by meaning."

In my 86 years, born and raised in an immigrant community, I witnessed enough deceit, fiction, and error at a young age to recognize in Lonergan's view that a scrub bull must be aware of the need to constantly question meanings and intent when deciding who and what to believe, whether it's as complicated as uncovering propaganda, navigating a multitude of diet plans, or just deciding what foods are fit to eat and what are not.

My curiosity has no boundary; it includes critical thinking, introspection, imagination and intellect, persistence, religion and everything downstream, and especially the challenges of mitigating the normal deterioration of aging, nutrition and exercise, injuries, and my own dumb mistakes.

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