Lecture: The Road Less Traveled

Many people talk about thinking outside the box.
What is it like to live outside the box?

I left home in 1970 at the age of 16 and became immersed in a world outside the mainstream...and haven't been the same sense.

I have lived without personal money for 12 years on the world's largest hippie commune.

I've climbed volcanoes by moonlight in Guatemala, and gone white water rafting in the Amazon of Ecuador.

I've installed national communications systems for Sprint and satellite dishes in Nigeria.

I've been inside an African Emir's Palace during Ramadan and in the steam saunas with big wigs in Belarus.

I've shot video inside a former KGB facility, in New Orleans after Katrina, and the nuptials at a $10 million dollar wedding in New Zealand...

No doubt about it...It has been an interesting ride.

In my late twenties, my wife and our two children went to serve as volunteers in Guatemala with The Farm's nonprofit Plenty to help rebuild after a devastating earthquake. I worked in communications and kept our volunteers in touch with their families back in the United States and Canada.

Coming face to face with real poverty was a life changing experience. I was in awe of the humble integrity of indigenous people and their resilience to the impact of colonialism.

Below: A Mayan family waits to speak to a family member who we had brought to the U.S. for additional education and training.

Above: Building an antenna for a radio link to the first responders and ambulance stationed in the town at the bottom of the mountain.

During my time in Guatemala, I did the electrical wiring for a nutrition facility we built, introducing high protein soy products into the local diet.

Below: I returned in 1990 with my video camera to document the production of tofu and soy ice cream. In operation now for over 30 years, our "soy dairy" has become a thriving cottage industry for the village of San Bartolo.

Above: High above the jungle atop one of the pyramids of Tikal.

In the early 90's my wife and I spent three months in Nigeria, where I installed a thirty foot satellite dish for a TV station, and two twenty footers, one for a hotel and and another for a wealthy businessman.

Below: Standing outside the place of the Emir, we don the local attire for the celebration of Ramadan, the most holy of days for the Muslim religion, a week long celebration of music, dance, and ceremony.

In the early 90's I traveled with an American businessman to Belarus to document a former KGB electronic components facility and its transition to become a parts supplier to the global market.

Below: Inside the "clean room," where integrated circuits are produced on micro-thin slices of silicon.

In 2000 Deborah and I spent 7 months in Belize, working again as volunteers with Plenty International. My wife Deborah took on a project funded by UNICEF, providing training to Mayan women from a dozen mountain villages in the skills of natural childbirth and women's health.

Below: Deborah explains the project through a Mayan translator at a women's meeting in a remote village.

I spent my time providing support for Deborah's work, and marketing and promotional assistance to a Mayan village Eco-tourism association.

Above: Sailing off the coast of Belize for a little R & R.
Below: Outside a cave in Belize in an area called Blue Creek.