For as long as I can remember I have been interested in how to be happy. My parents were continually fighting and I would try to understand each argument as to who was right and who was wrong. It was fairly even as to who was right and I could never understand how two reasonably good people could never get along or seeming be happy. As I grew up I explored Christianity and was very impressed with what Jesus said was the way to be. I thought is would be a good goal to try to be like Jesus. I could never understand why the people of the church seemed to focus on things that had nothing to do with Jesus but instead much of their focus was about power and self interest.

I was very into what science has to say about how things are. I was especially interested in how things began. The big bang? How did that and the events that followed create our world? How did that jib with the bibles version? I had many questions and few answers and the people with those answers deferred one from another.

I did not study too hard in high school. Came out with a B- average and that was fine for me. I was a fairly good athlete and had always been. That was pretty much my world and school was something to do when I couldn't play. When I got a football scholarship to UCLA, I had to go to a Junior College so I could be admitted into UCLA. I took a Into to Philosophy class and it changed the direction of my life. In high school and going into JC I had wanted to be an electrical engineer. Electricity fascinated me. It was both useful and dangerous. However the philosophy class was taught from the point of view of how the various philosophies related to real everyday life. I was in love. I wanted to be a philosophy major. When I got into UCLA I found that they were not philosophically the same. The philosophy classes were not discussing why a philosopher said what he did or how it relate to real life but it was about learning what the various philosophers said and regurgitating it back on the exams. That was pretty much the end of my quest to be a philosophy major.

Then I took an intro to Art class from Mary Homes and I was in 7th heaven. She showed me how all great Art and really ALL Art reflected the philosophy and values of the artist and the society that produced them. What a deal. I had always loved to do art and here I could do art and study the thinking of each time period and see how it evolved through time. This couldn't be any better.

I got into graduate school, finished the year and went to Afghanistan in the Peace Corps. My job was coaching the girls basketball team at Kabul University. A rather easy job compared to many of my friends in the Peace Corps. It was really fun and I got to meet a lot of very cool young Afghans.This was an eye opening adventure in my life. Afghanistan was and still is one of the poorest countries in the world and yet the people were so happy and friendly. It was clear to me by the time I left that money was not the road to happiness. Wanting to see the world, and having saved as much of my pay as possible I took an overland trip from Kabul, through Pakistan and India stopping to see many of the sights. Then flew to Thailand, and from there flew to Hong Kong. When I got out of the Peace Corps, I took a bus from Kabul, through Iran, Turkey, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, to Munich. From there I roamed around europe checking out as many of the great Art Museums as my money allowed.

Back at UCLA my energy went to finishing up my MFA. During my many years there , Zen and meditation came into my life. While still holding Jesus's teachings as an important way of looking at the world, my spiritual life opened up considerably.

My last year in graduate school included a high school art teaching and a football coaching job. Teaching Art from the point of view that anything you do reflects your values has always been my way. While continuing my studies of what makes people happy and what the meaning of life might b,. My goal in teaching was to passed along things that would make my students think and be happier. Time flew by with a wonderful wife and 7 great kids till here we are 45 years later.

2 years into retirement and having had a chance to bring all of this together it seemed like a good idea to do this blog. The following is what I have come up with after my 75 years on this earth.