Husband ~ PopPop ~ Veteran ~ Poet ~ Activist

A freethinker forms opinions independently of tradition, authority, or established belief. A freethinker makes sense of the world based on their observations and experiences rather than depending on the words of others. No one can be a freethinker who naively conforms to another’s creed.

Author Bio

Ridge is known for his distinctive writing style, characterized by his economy of words, frankness, and dry, understated humor. In the 1980s, while working for the Defense Department, Ridge wrote a weekly newspaper column called “Golf Straight Talk”, but it wasn't until the late 1990s, when he owned Magee Golf Company, a golf retail, repair, and PGA-accredited teaching facility, that he was compelled to write a book.

Golf was in Ridge’s blood. As a second-generation teaching pro, he wrote about what he knew best: how to help golfers improve their ball striking. That first book was titled “Golf’s Brutal Truth: If You Suck At It Now, You Probably Always Will”. Later, in a more mellow mood, Ridge reworked the book and retitled it, “Golf's Simple Truths: Guaranteed Better Ball Striking,”. Much better, don’t you think?

Many of Ridge’s inspirational and motivational essays, published previously on various international platforms, have been collected and published in “Gimmes, Mulligans & Preferred Lies, One Bloke’s Biased Opinions On Damn Near Everything.” A pragmatic, humorous, and at times, pontifical perspective on life, piety and politics.

In early 2020, during the COVID-19 lockdown, Ridge developed a taste for poetry as a more enlightened way to express himself, and went on to compile a series of poetry books he refers to as “Frank, Relevant, and Relatable Rhymes, Depicting the Condition of Our Condition, In the Raw and Artless Tenor of The Times.”

Ridge’s op-eds, essays, and poetry that were too politically charged for “Gimmes, Mulligans & Preferred Lies” were assembled chronologically, and published in “When The Plundering Is Done,” a freethinker’s perspective on the reign of the 45th and 47th president.

Ridge’s books are available for purchase on Amazon, Audible, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, and 7Windows Publishing.

Managing Editor, 7Windows Publishing

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Author’s note

I believe enlightenment is best achieved if we aren’t averse to engaging and exploring alternative points of view, that opinions and convictions are best formed empirically, and that we should be bold enough to tender our perspectives without apology. They are merely what we believe to be true at a given point in time, and subject to change as we evolve. That’s how it works if we continue to grow.

Early in 2016, as the Trump-era shenanigans were unfolding, dormant emotions and sensibilities awakened in me, and I was compelled to engage. But I lacked the confidence to voice my opinions, afraid of asserting my ignorance, I guess. I first needed to figure out what and where my give-a-shit factor was on stuff. So I began writing about the stuff that was pokin’ at me.

Writing forced me to scrutinize my "stuff”, and I learned a lot about myself. I found I have a broad and abiding empathy and regard for embracing diversity and inclusion, the import of the concepts: You Do You, I’m Ok, You’re Ok, Do No Harm, and Leave No Trace.

I don’t pigeon-hole myself politically. I’m merely a woke, free thinking, 60s-era poet who realizes that health is fundamental to life and the pursuit of happiness, that liberty should be color-blind, and that big business will never prioritize our, or our country’s best interest over their bottom line.

My poetry is profoundly personal, as are all forms of art, and asks only to be perceived with an open mind. I have no illusions about the impact of my work or my significance. Nor do I apologize for its tenor, or fret over how others judge it, or me for it. For to do otherwise would inhibit free expression, and a reticent, self-conscious poet is doomed to an uncreative and unproductive melancholy.

I write vulnerable and tender poetry, born of passion, empathy, and sentimentality. But, on occasion, I’m compelled to write damning and pontifical prose and poetry, born of anger, angst, and sorrow.

But in the final analysis, poeting Ridge has this daft and naive belief that if he can effect just an iota of awareness in the innocent, impart an ounce of enlightenment in the ignorant, or foster a scintilla of clarity of conscience in the culpable, that then his passion, sentimentality, empathy, anger, angst, and sorrow would have mattered.

Ridge



Being old is a condition no one's ever outgrown That my body would someday betray, I knew That my intellect was in neglect, I’ve known That I have any left to resurrect, Yahoo!