Dante DeAmicis, Lake County, CA

I was born the same day as Jack London, January 12th, but in the year televisions appeared in 50% of households, 1954. I ride a bicycle everywhere except for brief periods where I’ll buy a cheap motorcycle and run it into the ground. My marginal lifestyle is focused around my 40 foot cargo container full of books on a small knoll.  Although I’m a hopeless armchair philosopher, I love taking my “thought children” into the community through my videos, plays, slam poems, and performance art projects. For what it’s worth, I have degrees in Economics and Education, although they never got me a job.  Some people say I’m smart. Some people say I’m pompous.  Both conditions have helped me in writing and speaking against local injustices.

I don’t measure success by money or titles.  Personal progress should be weighed by  how far you have expanded your mind and spirit through searching, experience, experiment, and making connection.  A good benchmark of a life’s journey is the number of your friends and the quality of your enemies.

I have no use for religious, racial, sexual, or class bigots, although I’m a bigot against fat people. Our bodies and our minds are our only real tools for life.  Why let them rust?