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 ultimately spiritual questions of life were even more interesting. To me it was a much more significant use of my youth to serve others ultimate needs rather than become a footnote in a physics research journal. In college I became a member of the non-denominational "church of Christ" and did missions work in Glasgow, Scotland, on the campus of The University of Arizona, and in Tomsk, Siberia. I became a Roman Catholic in 2004 primarily because I kept studying history and became disenchanted with the whole sola scriptura hermeneutic. I also was very impressed by the focus on holiness and the incredible theology of suffering developed by the Catholic Church. regard sola scriptura to be a dangerous, divisive heresy. As an Investment Advisor starting at Smith Barney in 1997 and then with a broker dealer that is part of AIG I worked for a little over a decade. The chance to serve people by helping them with their money and retirement is a privilege. It is also a great burden and very difficult and stressful for me. I cared very much about my clients in a situation in which we have little control (financial markets). I'm happy to have passed through that phase of my life and music and artistic expression have always been calling to me. I'm married to a wonderful woman named Stephanie who is a fantastic musician and my best friend. I am a musician in Tucson, Arizona. I am the Pipe Major of the Seven Pipers Scottish Society Pipe Band. I teach the bag pipes and really enjoy my students. I also play fiddle and sing. I'm a Tenor which may be why I appear in some photos to have almost no neck. I've sung opera and classical music with Arizona Opera, Catalina Chamber Orchestra, and in Rome, Italy. I've sung Scots/Irish music in some fun places not nearly so glamorous. Getting to do a lot of folk music would satisfy the most curious person with any sort of voyeuristic tendencies...I've been a "fly on the wall" observing and participating in many special and dramatic moments in people's lives through music that otherwise would have been unknown to me. That has been really great. Those are some of my happiest memories. I like to write. 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 theorectical musician or writer.

It is my hope to live a life without guile and not let events, people, or circumstances harden my heart for long. I also try to not let myself get stuck while waiting for a response from others. Life is lived by doing what you love in the now.

I have enough faith to believe that it really pays to take risks and take control of one's own life in some sense. I also recognize that we have very little control over ultimate endings, unintended consequences and that the saying is true that life is what happens to you while you are making other plans. So we are watching the wheel go round and round like John Lennon sang.

I am convinced that my relationships with animals are supposed to forge me into a better human being, but that relationships with people are not only very undervalued but something that you truly can "take with you" from this life. I think that if you believe the words of Jesus that say "when you did it to the least of them you did it to Me" that the biggest measure of my success or failure in life is how I treated the people all around me. That is a measure of my own personal evolution.

I believe that suffering has meaning and often a purpose. I believe that the decision to be joyful, grateful and an optimist belongs to me. 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."

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.

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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