Husband, Grandpa, Veteran, Systems Analyst, Entrepreneur, Businessman, Activist, Writer, Poet.

Independent thinking is the process of making sense of the world based on your observations and experiences rather than depending on the words of others. It is the ability to trust your judgments, even if they are not in agreement with what others might say or believe. A Freethinker is a person who forms opinions independently of tradition, authority, or established Belief. No one can be a freethinker who naively conforms to another’s creed.

I believe enlightenment is best achieved when wee explore and engage alternative points of view, form opinions and convictions empirically, and tender our perspectives without apology. They are merely what we believe to be true at a given point in time, and subject to change. That’s how it works when we continue to grow.

Early in 2016, as Donald Trump's shenanigans were unfolding, long-dormant emotions and sensibilities awakened in me, and I felt compelled to engage. But I lacked the confidence to voice my opinions, afraid of asserting my ignorance, I guess.

I needed to figure out exactly where my give-a-shit factor was on stuff. Writing about that "stuff" forced me to scrutinize it, and the process gave me a better understanding of myself. I found I have broad empathy and abiding regard for embracing diversity and inclusion, the import of the phrase “you do you”, a practical appreciation for the premise “I’m Ok, You’re Ok”, and the precepts “Do No Harm” and “Leave No Trace”.

My poems are profoundly personal expressions, asking only to be perceived without bias or critique. I have no illusions about my significance or the impact of my work. I neither apologize for the tenor of my work nor fret over how others might judge it or me for it. To do otherwise would inhibit free expression, and a reticent, self-conscious writer, is doomed to an uncreative and unproductive melancholy.

I don’t pigeon-hole myself as Democrat or Republican, but merely a 60s-era free-thinker who realizes that health is fundamental to both life and the pursuit of happiness, that liberty should be color-blind, and that big business can never be trusted to put our country’s best interest ahead of their bottom line. So, I guess that makes me a woke progressive liberal.

Naively, I wish my writings might foster just an iota of awareness for the innocent, an ounce of enlightenment for the ignorant, and a wee bit of clarity of conscience for the culpable.

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!