Emilio Lizardo's Channel

I am an aging American Irish-Catholic man who gave up on the Catholic part a long, long time ago ... I have a great deal of formal education, and almost no money. I also have a wife whom I'm pretty sure loves me, when she's not beating me up for doing things she doesn't approve of ... I met her about a year after I gave up on life here in the US, sold my house, and moved to a nice little town in Uttaranchal, India.

There I stayed in caves, smoked chillams with saddhus, and tried to learn some yoga and some Sanscrit. Spent a lot more time in Varansi than I probably should have. Put 18,000 km on a souped-up little honda motorcyle designed for the average Indian person who is much smaller than me ... riding around on bad Himalayan roads and swimming in the Ganges at remote locations, living on vegetarian macro-biotic food, one day, much to my suprise I discovered I had turned into Tarzan ... it was amazing ... I was actually enjoying life again ...

About a year after we met I was broke, so we had to leave old Mother India, we got married in her home town of Istanbul, and I returned back here to find work ...

That was a few years ago, and now I'm the same out of shape, desk jockey, computer engineer I was before I left, living on bad American food, and smoking too many cigarettes ...

But things are somehow better for me these days. Maybe it's because my wife is a lot younger than me and she keeps me on my toes. Technical work is basically completely unfulfilling for me, but it's all I know, so I keep trying to do it.

I buy a lotto ticket or two whenever I manage to think of it - hope springs eternal, they say ...

The world is a great big place, and I am lucky to have seen some of it. I am glad of having had the opportunity to look back at the fishbowl from the outside, so to speak ... the change in perspective can be very instructive for anyone who is prepared to face the stark and terrifying facts ...

Based on my own experience, I wish a lot more folks would have had a chance and the interest to 'look in from the outside' , maybe things would not be as far gone now as they seem to be ...

Anyway, that's kind of who I am. Thanks very much for stopping by.

I wish you well.