Title: Dreamer

Gender: Male

Age: 60

Sun Sign: Libra

Chinese Sign: Earth Ox

Location: Waukesha, WI

My profile:

Bummer, I wrote this up off the top of my head when I first signed up and then when I went to submit it Zaadz said I was already signed on, so I lost everything I wrote and it was pretty good too.  Damn, now I will never feel like what I write will be as good as that one was : ) OH, WELL. 

So, who am I?  Man, that is a good question, catch me on the right day and I'm one thing and the next something else.  I make my living as a sociology professor at a small quasi liberal arts college.  My current interests revolve around post-modernity, the role sex plays in the human project, transforming institutions, and I suppose a variety of other aspects of human existence but that should do for now.  I think of myself as what I might call an existential sociosopher.  That is, one who is concerned about personal existence as well as social life and who tends more toward the philosophical than scientific examination there of.  For a large part of my life I think it would be fair to say I was a new age type - I have practiced various forms of meditation, yoga, chi gong, as well as spending many years carrying out a form of shamanic practice.  In none of these cases would I say that I was a doctrinaire practitioner, or believer, however.  My path has been an amalgam of all of these things and more.  My honest understanding of myself is that I am an older white guy living in the 21^st century who is trying to figure out what life is all about and how to be content and happy here and now.  Once in a while I think I'm getting there and then at other times, not so much. 

I have a small cottage/farmette that I go to on the weekends.  I enjoy the physical labor and blue collar perspective of the place.  It seems to help keep me sane or at least what passes for sanity in this insane society.  I have been captivated by consumerism, even though I actively dislike the dominant capitalist consumerist order.  Having been socialized in the U.S., I think it is just in my veins (what I call the default program), so I get my consumer fix by going to auctions.  At least this way I can kid myself into thinking that I'm not doing anything too bad because I am recycling and reusing other peoples stuff.  Ya, I know, mainly just a rationalization, but it works to keep the self recrimination down to a livable level.  I own way too much stuff and am now becoming very aware of the old adage: “everything you own, owns you”. 

Even though I am coming to the end of my professional career I see my future as opening up into something new and different.  I'd like to continue to transform myself and my lifestyle, into what I'm not exactly sure but I know I am not satisfied with who and what I am now. 

Well that should give you all something to chew on for a while.  I'll try to add and subtract as time goes on.        

Member Since: Thursday, January 11 2007

Last Visit: 861 days ago.

Profile Viewed: 512 times (last viewed less than a minute ago)