Cooking

I have been cooking since I was in third grade. I aspired to become a chef and then I got a rather rude awaking in college when I cooked at a few restaurants and realized just how brutal the work can be. I cook now only for family and friends. During COVID I built my wife an above ground enclosed garden that we have since expanded. She grows a variety of fruits and vegetables, however I have a well loved recipe for Italian tomato sauce (aka 'gravy') that she grows the tomatoes, basil, garlic, onions and oregano for. I love to grill meats, cook Italian, Asian and traditional Eastern European Jewish delicacies.

“Food is love” – Unknown

“Life is short and the world is wide” – Unknown

Traveling

Some of my most profound moments have come during my travels. My first truly spiritual experience occurred when I was just ten years old in the summer of 1978. My father was a federal employee who had planned for a few years a six-week trip around the country (22 states) in a faux wood paneled station wagon (Ford Fairmont) that had no air conditioning. But we visited a dozen national parks, and it was in Sequoia National Park looking up at a 300 foot tree that was over 2,000 years old I realized that there must be a God to have created this and I was just a tiny element in a wonderful universe.