beauty is truth, truth beauty,
that is all / Ye know on earth,
and all ye need to know
Those lines from the John Keats poem "Ode on a Grecian Urn" have inspired me for much of my life.
I take them to mean that there is a deep equivalence between beauty and truth and while there is much more we need to know, knowing that symmetry and from Whom it originates is the beginning of wisdom and a meaningful life.
In my paintings I aspire to truth primarily by seeing and responding to beauty as I see it in creation, in the landscape settings where I find myself and in the relationships that make life so precious.
In my writings, I aspire to truth through insight, experience and knowledge and hope that in the presentation the beauty of words also arises.
that is all / Ye know on earth,
and all ye need to know
Those lines from the John Keats poem "Ode on a Grecian Urn" have inspired me for much of my life.
I take them to mean that there is a deep equivalence between beauty and truth and while there is much more we need to know, knowing that symmetry and from Whom it originates is the beginning of wisdom and a meaningful life.
In my paintings I aspire to truth primarily by seeing and responding to beauty as I see it in creation, in the landscape settings where I find myself and in the relationships that make life so precious.
In my writings, I aspire to truth through insight, experience and knowledge and hope that in the presentation the beauty of words also arises.
Two amazing military aviators and the battles they fought
Chief Warrant Officer Terry Crump earned an unprecedented seven Distinguished Flying Crosses in his one year tour in Vietnam. Flying the deadly Cobra gunship, Terry was part of the famed Pink Panthers, the only helicopter unit solely dedicated to support the secret war "across the fence" in Laos and Cambodia. The Special Forces soldiers, best in the business, were sent into forbidden territory in these "neutral" countries to try and stem the flow of material and soldiers down the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Surviving nearly daily life and death battles and the near destruction of his Cobra, Terry and his fellow Panthers saved a great many American lives, including Sgt. Bob Howard, the most decorated American soldier of the war.
It Was My Turn: One of Vietnam's Most Decorated Pilots and America's Secret War is available on Amazon as an Audible book, Kindle and paperback.
The Second Edition of A Fighter Pilot in Buchenwald: The Joe Moser Story, was released July 2025. This edition includes never-before-told details of the Allied airmen's release from Buchenwald that were unknown when the book was initially published in 2008. That book had a profound impact contributing to the award-winning documentary Lost Airmen of Buchenwald, the honors given to New Zealand hero and leader of the Buchenwald airmen, Colonel Philip Lamason. Because of this telling, this little-known story of survival and desperation in the bowels of Hitler's Nazi nightmare, has become an established part of the World War II story. 168 Allied airmen, caught up with the French Underground, were taking on a horrific five-day cattle car ride to Buchenwald, where they faced near starvation, death threats, deadly diseases, and ultimately a death sentence. Just days before they faced being hung in the basement of the crematory, they were rescued by a courageous Luftwaffe officer and ace fighter pilot, Hannes Trautloft. Now, the secret of their escape from the hands of the SS and the furious reaction of the SS chief Heinrich Himmler, is told. This new edition features a Foreword by Marcus Brotherton, New York Times bestselling author whose many books include biographies of many of the Band of Brothers.
A Fighter Pilot in Buchenwald is available on Amazon in Kindle or paperback.
It Was My Turn: One of Vietnam's Most Decorated Pilots and America's Secret War is available on Amazon as an Audible book, Kindle and paperback.
The Second Edition of A Fighter Pilot in Buchenwald: The Joe Moser Story, was released July 2025. This edition includes never-before-told details of the Allied airmen's release from Buchenwald that were unknown when the book was initially published in 2008. That book had a profound impact contributing to the award-winning documentary Lost Airmen of Buchenwald, the honors given to New Zealand hero and leader of the Buchenwald airmen, Colonel Philip Lamason. Because of this telling, this little-known story of survival and desperation in the bowels of Hitler's Nazi nightmare, has become an established part of the World War II story. 168 Allied airmen, caught up with the French Underground, were taking on a horrific five-day cattle car ride to Buchenwald, where they faced near starvation, death threats, deadly diseases, and ultimately a death sentence. Just days before they faced being hung in the basement of the crematory, they were rescued by a courageous Luftwaffe officer and ace fighter pilot, Hannes Trautloft. Now, the secret of their escape from the hands of the SS and the furious reaction of the SS chief Heinrich Himmler, is told. This new edition features a Foreword by Marcus Brotherton, New York Times bestselling author whose many books include biographies of many of the Band of Brothers.
A Fighter Pilot in Buchenwald is available on Amazon in Kindle or paperback.
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The Top Down or Bottom Up Video Series
The questions of the universe, life and meaning are addressed in a series of posts on Medium, but also in this video series. Video 1 introduces the series asking the question of intention. Video 2 traces the beginning of the universe and what that means Video 3 asks how the fine tuning of the initial laws can be best explained. Chance or Design? Either choice requires faith. Find the series under Writings/Top Down or click here. |
The Top-Down vs. Bottom-Up Series
The Top-Down vs. Bottom-Up series of posts on Medium present a question at the heart at today's biggest controversy in science. Does the mind and consciousness emerge from the physical stuff in the brain, following the deterministic laws of matter and forces? Or, is consciousness a form of substrate underlying all physical reality, preceding it, and possibly bringing that reality to existence? The position taken here is that all of science, plus philosophy, plus theology--in other words, the best thinking of human kind through all time and places––should be brought to bear on this important question. What is at stake is our very concept of reality, the world we inhabit and how we interact with it and each other.