William Don Carlos person biography and blog My Life So Far...

My Life So Far...

Under construction!
You might call it a work in progress.

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BACKGROUND: I was born in Des Moines, Iowa in 1965. I grew up on a farm near a small town. We moved to Scottsdale, Arizona in my seventh grade year. I attended college at the University of Arizona. I have a BA in Economics and a BS in Physics. I liked physics and became a member of Sigma Pi Sigma, but the existential and spiritual questions of life were even more interesting. To me it was more significant use of time to serve others rather than labor to leave a legacy of research footnotes in a physics journal. In college I became a member of the non-denominational "church of Christ." That fellowship is filled with a lot of truly sincere, wonderful people. It blessed my life to get to participate in missions work in Glasgow, Scotland, on the campus of The University of Arizona, and in Tomsk, Siberia.

I became a Roman Catholic in 2004 because I kept studying history and became disenchanted with the hermeneutical approach called sola scriptura. Sola scriptura is the foundation of anti-catholicism. It is an idea that is demonstrably unbiblical, unhistorical, illogical, inconsistent, and the fruit of it is the confusion of more than 20,000 different Christian sects who believe that their interpretations are correct. And thus for me, it became an issue of authority and I could not subscribe to the notion of what is called the absolute right of private interpretation -- that each one of us is our own little pope, so-to-speak, when in historical fact, Christ established a teaching-authoritative church that later produced an authoritative book, not the other way around.

I got this bumper sticker from this blog. After having experienced anti-catholic bigotry first-hand, you still have to at least maintain a sense of humor and encourage people to continue to think. I spent previous chapters of my life in dialogue with people who did not agree with me. It is OK to disagree, just keep thinking and learning!

I also was very impressed by the focus on holiness and the incredible theology of suffering, the concept of social justice and the respect for life at all stages developed and defended by the Catholic Church.

If you like to think about such things and can't embrace a position of theism -- believe in a god at all, then you might as well consider the notion of Possibilianism because the certain blind faith of Atheism seems to be insufficient and even foolish in light of what we know now about the cosmos. "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy." Hamlet, Act I, Scene V.

One of those notions is the Ultra-Deep.

For a decade I served clients by working as an Investment Advisor starting at Smith Barney in 1997 and then with another broker dealer. Now I'm focused on music and writing. I'm married to a wonderful woman named Stephanie who is a fantastic musician and my best friend. We live in Tucson, Arizona. I am the Pipe Major of the Seven Pipers Band. I teach the bag pipes and really enjoy my students. I also play fiddle and sing. I'm a Tenor. I've sung opera and classical music with Arizona Opera, Catalina Chamber Orchestra, and in Rome, Italy.

I do freelance copyediting of novels and nonfiction. I like to write and have published some short fiction stories. I'm working on some new ideas both on and off paper...the music of life rolls on. Fortuna's wheel just keeps spinning.

SOME NOTIONS I THINK ABOUT OFTEN.

I believe very much that this is an imperfect world filled with flawed people...and that if you expect frustrations every five minutes or so you'll never be disappointed.

I'm striving in life in my own imperfect way to steer clear of the things, behaviors, thoughts, and people that diminish my spirit and lead me in the direction of being only a theoretical musician or writer. In other words, there is no such thing as a theoretical musician.

In dealing with negative people and other elements in life I think of a mantra that I heard in a lecture while in New York undergoing some training in the brokerage business:

"Rejection turns me on."
"Hostile people amuse me."
"Negative feedback jumpstarts my brain."
"Try to remain persistently kind."
(persistent is what any child knows how to be in trying to obtain what it wants, whereas kindness is a mark of adulthood)

I believe that the decision to be joyful and grateful belongs to me, so I try to stayed focused on what's working. I remember an old man on his deathbed in hospital in Glasgow who loved the expression: "life may not be all you want but it's all you got...so stick a geranium in your hat and be happy."

Sometimes I blog about and you can see that by clicking my picture above...

SOME CHESTNUTS FROM THE PAST:

View some pictures from some of our travels to London and Scotland with my pipe band to compete in the World Pipe Band Championships, August, 1999.

I've been hired to pipe at some interesting venues all over Southern Arizona. I piped at the Main Library downtown, in the shadow of that big red sculpture, to promote the local Celtic festival.

tuneup.jpg (25060 bytes)

Photo by David Sanders, The Arizona Daily Star, Wednesday, 11/3/1999

Remembering my piping teacher in Glasgow, the beloved Duncan Johnstone, King of Musical Piping, who passed away on Saturday, November 13, 1999.

Visit an Online Memorial
for Bill and Pauline Don Carlos