Vanilla and Linearity?  No Way.

Over the years, I've taken numerous, "sabbaticals" from the craft of creating marketing concepts for profit.

I guess you could say I was filling the well.

It's really nothing new. I've always explored the circuitous routes and enjoyed the journeys immensely. I grew up in Brockton, Massachusetts and when I was 13, I snapped the rag and daubed the sole dressing for an old Greek named Harry who owned the shoeshine stand, variety store and hat blocking concern next to the Genova Cafe and underneath Crescent Alleys where I bowled candlepin. The stand was the last vestige of another era that was crumbling away with the rest of the downtown that surrounded it.  Its proximity to the bar assured me a steady stream of colorful characters to get to know. And as an added bonus, Harry would let us smoke cigarettes and read the girlie magazines we sold in the shop. A year later, I worked as a carnival barker and shill for the Crazy Ball game at the Brockton fair. I loved the stench, cacophony, detritus and hustle of the carny.  I was a great barker, too, honed my own patter and can still huckster on demand to enthrall friends, family and colleagues. My first trip to Manhattan on a job hunt evoked that midway of my memories and I knew that I would have to move there. I did.

Linearity has only served me well when I bomb a ski run. I was a half-assed ski bum for four years with occassional freelance jobs to keep it going and then the money ran out. I have also worked as an addiction recovery counselor/clinician in a couple of county jails facilitating groups, creating programming and counseling incacerated clients one on one. My brainstorming facilitation skills really came in handy and served my clients well to boot.

I worked in a day reporting program in Newburyport for folks on probation, doing clinical work and facilitating groups. I've also worked in a "wet" (meaning, "under the influence") homeless shelter in Lawrence, MA, a women's safe-house in the same city and as a laboring greenskeeper at an old, affluent country club in a very nice North Shore coastal community.

There have been countless, "aha" moments in all of that work that have permanently changed my perspective and made me a more understanding human being. The work opened me, annealed me and provided me with remarkable insight into the human condition (including my own). I guess I was ready for it. I've met brilliant, compassionate and talented human beings from all walks of life and from all stratas of society. I hope that I had given them gifts because every one of them had bestowed an abundance on me.

I guess I'm learning that we're really all the same and that fear is bullshit. 

I guess I'm growing up a bit. 

And, without the intense fear looming over my life like it used to, I've been able to mature a tad as an understanding human being.

And, my creative life has flourished as a result. The paths enriched me in ways that working in a straight line could not. My select clients certainly profit from it. I even have loads of fun in the process today as an added bonus..

My work is imbued with fun. And builds businesses. See for yourself.

Thanks.