I guess I would have to say, I am still a living, breathing human being.  That is number 1 at this time in my life. About 20 years ago, I took a course in writing for children.  Then I found, that writing for children is much like writing for adults.  In effect, keep it simple.  Define the senses without getting bogged down.  Don’t use big words that no one understands.  Keep the flow.  There are probably many more journalistic tricks that I have yet to learn, but now I have to go with what I know.

My past life is a patchwork quilt, all pieced together by the choices God gave me.  I made plans.  From the time I was very  young I wanted to be an archaeologist, since I had a passionate interest in history.  Instead, I got married young, had two daughters, divorced and raised the daughters alone.  After that, I drew maps, worked as a bookkeeper, then junior and senior accountant, purchasing agent, and finally as an oilfield equipment broker, oil and gas producer and operator, going broke in the ’80s recession.

After a very hard time in my life, I developed diabetes.  Somehow, I killed my pancreas.  There are several kinds of diabetes, the prominent ones being a Type 1 and Type 2.  They are two very different kinds of disease.  Type 2 is most common; it means that your body makes insulin but your cells won’t accept the insulin. Type 1 is what they call “juvenile diabetes” (although it can be developed at any age) and it just means that the pancreas won’t make any or little insulin.  For years, doctors treated me for Type 2 diabetes with drugs that did not work.  Finally, I found an endocrinologist that started giving me insulin, which immediately helped all my problems.  Diabetes and learning to live with it, gave me a passion for trying to stay healthy; hence, the path of research into what works for me.  I also learned that many drugs interact with insulin therapies, which turned my interests to alternative sources.  For many symptoms, I found that the alternatives provided relief where conventional drugs would not.

One path leads to another.  In 1999, I filed for disability social security.  I was turned down five times, even though I could not effectively hold down a job due to the diabetes.  Strange as it may seem, this experience with the courts and bureaucracy took me down a road full of twists and turns leading to the politics that determine everything we experience in our lives, with the spectrum getting wider all the time.  There is a lot to learn, sometimes I get it right.  Sometimes I get it wrong.  The thing about getting it wrong is that generally there is someone around to tell me about it and I get to benefit.

So here goes a new experiment……..