CURRENT MISSION

I am pursing a small quavering beam of light, 'Not of the sunlight, Not of the moonlight, Not of the starlight! O young Mariner, Down to the haven, Launch your vessel, And crowd your canvas, Ere it vanishes Over the margin, After it, Follow the Gleam.'

ABOUT ME

I am suspended between the dazzlingly clear shaft of the truth's light--shaken as to whether I should follow--and drawn by the intuitive passion of the beautiful. In this rolling violet storm lined with silver, where shall I find my good?

PHILOSOPHY

I am living my life to make it more than merely living.

My philosophy is simply that: to love wisdom. Feelings are grand, but they are not divine. A dog has no malice, true, but it still bites the one it loves if it senses its food is in danger. Emotionally based convictons have led to literary, artistic, academic, (rightwind and leftwing) political, and moral disaster. Passion wedded with Faith and alloyed with Reason is Man's only answer.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Do you want to talk? About anything that really matters to you? Every genuine question is worthwhile, especially over a pint of beer or a cup of coffee. The deeper the better!

Interests

Philosophy, Theology, History, Art, Literature, Mathematics, Hiking, Sketching, Writing, Symbology, Philology, Babies, Trains, Dancing, Cooking, etc., etc.

• dogs
• arts
• writing
• literature
• sketching
• dancing
• dining
• cooking
• beer
• coffee
• hiking
• divinity
• history
• mathematics

Music, Movies, and Books

Music
Classical: Beethoven, Mozart (sometimes), Tzaichosky, Berlioz
Opera: Gounod, Bizet, Wagner, Mozart, Puccini, Tzaichosky
Celtic: Enya, Loreena McKennitt, Old Bling Dogs, Gaelic Storm, Anuna, John McDermott, The Chieftains, Natalie MacMaster, Great Big Sea
Other Folk: Johnny Cash, Nancy Griffith, Joan Baez, Joannie Mitchell
Easy Listening: Dido, Andrea Bocelli, Josh Groban
Rock: Aerosmith, The Cranberries, Evanescence, Queen (some of it), The Yes, The Who
Religious: Corsican Chant, Arvo Part, Palestrina, Anuna
Soundtrack: Michael Collins, Braveheart, Lord of the Rings, The Perfect Storm, Henry V, Gladiator, The Age of Innocence, A Little Princess (the one conducted by Patrick Doyle), The Merchant Of Venice

Movies

Nicholas and Alexandra, Gettysburg, Babette's Feast, Brideshead Revisited (starring Jeremy Irons), The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Henry V, Star Wars (Classic only, please), Amazing Grace, A Man for All Seasons, Howard's End, Conflict, Batman Begins, Wives and Daughters, Padre Pio, St. Anthony of Padua, and The Passion of the Christ

Books

The Top Ten (in no real order): 1. The Holy Bible: Genesis, Judith, Tobit, Isaiah, Kings I and II, Maccabees, Daniel, and the Psalms, the Gospels of Luke and John, Hebrews, James, and Revelations
2. Dante's Divine Comedy: Paradiso
3. The Emily of New Moon Chronicles
4. Windswept House
5. The History of the Kings of Britain
6. Dune
7. Ivanhoe
8. Orthodoxy
9. A Wizard of Earthsea
10. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Poems: The Odyssey, The Iliad, The Aeneid, The Princess, Maud, In Memoriam, The Ballad of the White Horse
Literature: Don Quixote, Middlemarch, Dracula, Tales of the O'Hara Family
Non-Fiction: The Keys of this Blood, The Jesuits, Isabella: The Last Crusader, Plutarch's Lives, Tacitus's History of Rome, Thucydides's Peloponesian Wars, The Nichomachean Ethics, The Republic, The Flight from Woman, Fear and Trembling
Sci-Fi: Dune Messiah, Chapterhouse: Dune, Timothy Zahn's SW Trilogy
Fantasy: The Silmarillon, W.B. Yeat's Collection of Irish Folktales, Grimm's, Hans Christian Anderson's, The Lord of the Rings, The Tombs of Atuan
Thrillers: The Relic, Dance of Death, The Book of the Dead
Romance: Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion, The End of the Affair, North and South
Religious: The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, Eve and Mary, My Other Self, The Confessions of St. Augustine, On the Incarnation

Countries I’ve Visited

Bahamas, Canada

Countries I’ve Lived In

Poland, South Korea, United States