The SF Journal 1986

Contd... When I was living in SF I was not married after being divorced from my first wife who then resided with my number one son in Berlin Germany. My son spent fifteen years of his life growing up in germany and on the inside of the cover of the journal was also stuck a letter he wrote to me while on a safari with his mother in Kenya. My son is now 32 years of age and is an Airline pilot for an American airline flying out of Detroit. What is so great about the letter? It was a letter written by a thirteen or fourteen year old to his father telling me of things he had done and yet to do but the beauty of the letter toady is the fact that both my son and I could today relfect upon where we have been since or what we have each become over the years as we barely see each other. Keeping some form of journal or diary about one's past has great merits I am slowly discovering as i picked randomly each journal and browsed through what was written when and why. I always advised student artists to keep an ongoing journal or scrap book of their works, their thoughts and aspirations, to make a collection of items that they feel has an impact or captured their attention at the moment in time.



Some of our human frailties are revealed over a period of time through the reflections of our past journals, what needed changes or call for improvement can be assesed and changes made to better oneself. The journals I have been keeping now numbers about sixty books in all and they contain every bit of information that come my way from bus tickets to cards telling me of a departed friend or family. They contained sketches and drawings spontaneously done on scene or randoms thoughts and ideas captured while in altered state of mind due to one form of drug or another. Every line was printed into the pages without fear or favor and with all the aggressive and creative passion of an artist, a father, a Yard Boss or a meat cutter, a rpoduce buyer or an art teacher, an environmentalist of a traveler, a struggling Muslim or a Zen master wanna be; I was at one time or another all of these.
I invite you to become a aprt of my journal with your comments and creative thoughts as I go along rambling my mind away, if nothing else I hope you enjoy reading what I am laying out for you, your questions and criticism is fully appreciated.