Originally, I had planned on offering on Fridays bits and pieces from the memory of a mid-century American, both people and places. In part, this was because the generation after mine [and the next] has been so poorly educated about religious, literary, or social history that it's as if they're an alien culture come to our planet with only vague understandings of our world gleaned through the partial information included on board space probes.
So, I started to think of those from whom I draw some form of inspiration. These are people I know, have known, or of whom I have heard. As I started to write of them, I was surprised to discover how interconnected they all are, despite whatever discipline may have served as their medium.
I intend on putting together a list of fifty such folks during of the year. I appreciate that these people are probably of limited interest to those who read this; but I will be keeping this discipline as part of a weekly spiritual exercise.
Here's the list so far:
Bruce McLaren
Art Pepper
Jim Steranko
Barbara Crafton
Lou Kallie
Raimundo Panikkar
Rell Sunn
Thomas Merton
Charlie Parker
Alan Watts
Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky
James Harold Flye [and James Agee]
Maxwell Perkins
Paul Bigsby
Jane Scott
William Augustus Muelenberg
Duke Kahanamoku
Jacques Cousteau
Yukio Mishima
Robert Manry
Howlin' Wolf