I was asked me to write a bio for our class webpage and I thought it would be a good way to let you all know what I have been doing and thinking as well as for my own benefit to reflect a bit on my life.

 

Here is a brief outline of what I have been up to since graduating from Wheatley in 1960.  It is mainly the “crossroads” that stand out.

 

After a few stumbles, I attended Cornell University for two years before transferring to Hofstra where I graduated with a degree in business in 1964 or ’05.  Went on to Columbia and received and MBA – that was a good two years: living in NYC and having some teachers that gave me a sense that I could actually think clearly and use my intelligence.

 

After that; the big question: what to do now?  Now that I felt on top of the world and able to do whatever I decided (that totally felt good to me; I remember it well!).   I applied to join the Peace Corps – I remember being inspired by JFK to be of help to the rest of the world.  I spent about a year and a half or so in Afghanistan, helping to introduce a new accounting system in the government and then doing some teaching of English in grade 6 or 7 or thereabouts in northern Afghanistan.  When our group first arrived in Kabul, and were riding in a bus from the airport to downtown I realized that the place was totally Different – something that I had never even conceived of.  It really opened my mind up.  Afghanistan is rugged and beautiful and its people confidently independent in their own way. I found its people to be curious and hospitable; and very warm and friendly when you got to know them, though we all know there is much suffering there now. (I am certain that in the end they will still be around and in charge when the westerners and the Taliban have left.  I often wonder about my friends there.)  It was very good to be part of the Peace Corps group there; I met a lot of really good people.

 

After returning to the US from Afghanistan in about 1970 I was afloat for awhile – nothing really going on.  Walt Brunner gave me a call one day saying that he had signed a lease to put together and run a restaurant in the West Indies (St. Croix, USVI) and asked if I wanted to jump in and help.  After thinking about it for a day I decided to go.  (My mother had already retired and was living there as well – she also worked in the restaurant – nicknamed “mother superior”).  It was great to help put something together from scratch (a roof covering a pile of sand on rough cement floor) and to operate it - it turned out to be a very successful combination of local bar and restaurant and tourist spot.  It was also a very harmonious group of us that worked there for several years (including Walter, his sister Susan, Jeff Stone and John Bagdon – maybe others from Long Island)  I continued to work in the restaurant and bar industry in St Croix until about 1980.  Finally the original restaurant had been sold, my mother had terminal cancer and needed care, and also the whole of the Virgin Islands was having extreme social unrest – stemming from outsiders (including me, of course) taking over the culture of the small island; there was a lot of extreme and random violence taking place – it seemed like a good time to move on.

 

Over the course of the years between 1970 and 1980 I had visited the States for periods of time.  During that time I happened to come in contact with a Tibetan Buddhist teacher - Trungpa Rinpoche – in Vermont where I had gone to check out a meditation centre that he had founded.  That marks the next crossroad in my journey.

 

I spent some time at the meditation centre (called Karme Coling) but finally returned to L.I. to care for my mother as she was dying and needed help.  After my wise and gentle mother passed away I took care of what needed to be tended to and returned to the Centre in Vermont where I worked as a part of the staff for two years.  It was clear to me that I had connected with “family”.  During my stay there I met Kathleen whom I fell in love with and we married in 1981.  In 1982 we left Vermont and moved to Nova Scotia where the international Shambhala Buddhist organization had relocated to.  We had three great children born in Halifax.

 

For health reasons to be closer to Kathleen’s extended family we moved from Halifax to British Columbia in 1993.  I am still here as are two of our children.  Kathleen passed away in February of 2010.  I still miss her often, as some of you will easily understand.

 

In general my main interests are to practice and teach the Tibetan Buddhist and Shambhala meditation practices that I have learned and to help keep the local meditation centre in Victoria alive and well as well as to appreciate the sky and earth and trees and greenery and all the people on the earth.

 

To earn my financial keep I do bookkeeping and income tax work.

 

Best wishes to you all.

George