Novelist and Storyteller
There is a Chinese Zen kōan, a teaching story about a pilgrimage that I won’t share with you today. If Zen teachers were lawyers, Zen practitioners would be required to sign a release which states that whenever a teacher says they will not do something, it means the opposite, especially if they use words that …
Recently, I rediscovered posts on Facebook about my travels seven months after my partner René Valdes died in February 2012. While I have preserved much of the immediacy of the record, I have used them to explore the universality of grief. desire and wonder that we feel daily in the pandemic. Oh, and that includes …
The title of this essay uses a phrase from Hunter S. Thompson, the self pro-claimed gonzo journalist from the 1960’s and 70’s who wrote about the 1972 Nixon campaign in his book entitled Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail. On the day before election day 2020, we have our own version of fear and …
If you were locked down over the last months with your partner or partners, intimacy has likely been a key part of quarantine survival. But for those of us that are single or in non-monogamous relationships, our ability to attend to our emotional and sexual health needs was severely diminished. Abstinence or pleasuring ourselves with …
Continue reading "Six Questions to Ask Before Having Sex in the Time of Corona"
Shu-jō mu-hen sei-gan-dō Bon-nō mu-jin sei-gan-dan Ho-mon mu-ryō sei-gan-gaku Butsu-do mu-jō sei-gan-jō Beings are numberless; I vow to save them. Delusions are inexhaustible; I vow to end them. Dharma gates are boundless; I vow to enter them. Buddha’s way is unsurpassable; I vow to become it. The first time I chanted these lines 12 years …
Continue reading "Beings are numberless, I vow to save them: The 4 Boddhisattva Vows"
This piece was published in the Bay Area Reporter on 3 September 2020 under the title of Six Questions to Ask Before Having Sex Again. If you were locked down over the last months with your partner or partners, intimacy has likely been a key part of quarantine survival. But for those of us that …
Continue reading "Six Questions to Ask Before Having Sex in the Time of Corona"
Welcome as we are in another day of our collective sesshin in Northern California. It’s a very special time because we have never tried to have a sesshin with all of the population of Northern California. But with all of us sheltering-in-place in response to the corona virus, here we are. Sesshin is a Zen …
Continue reading "Welcome to Our Collective Retreat (Sesshin)"
In 1996, I had the honor of interviewing the major players who engineered the inclusion of sexual orientation in the South African constitution. Simon Nkoli, Zackie Achmat, Edwin Cameroun and David Botha were among the leaders that I interviewed, each having their own crucial role to play. As I was pulling up the articles I …
Continue reading "Remembering Simon Nkoli: The White-washing of LGBT History in South Africa"
In 1995, I entered this essay in the "Greatest Moments of Pride" Contest in S.F. Frontiers Newsmagazine and was awarded 1st Place. Unfortunately, there are no on-line archives of the magazine from this period. The room fell silent as I slowly walked up to the podium. When I reached the front, I too fell silent …
Continue reading "Speaking Truth to Power–S.F. Frontiers Newsmagazine, June 8, 1995"
I wrote this article for the San Francisco Bay Guardian in 1996 after four trips to South Africa. I had the great fortune to interview the major players in the movement to include sexual orientation in the new constitution. Unfortunately, this article is not currently on-line. The Bay Guardian plans to open up archives of …
Continue reading "South Africa’s Gay Rights–San Francisco Bay Guardian, May 22, 1996"
