From Curation to Creation: The Idea Behind This Newsletter
I’m fond of pointing out to people that all of us are nobody, and nobody is anyone.
With over seven billion of us walking the planet, individuals are, generally speaking, too unimportant to occupy a single second’s worth of our time or interest.
Like ants awash in a sea of our own kind, we are tiny beings. Honestly, even within your own inner circle of friends, family and co-workers, how much do you really know about each of them individually, their experiences, or their unique perspectives on life?
And yet something, somewhere on the internet led you here, reading this, and asking
“Who is this guy I’ve never heard of?”
“Why should I read anything he has to say?”
That fact alone both honors and humbles me. It’s also a little frightening. This will probably be our once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to tune out the din of all those billions of voices just long enough to have a fleeting, if indirect, personal encounter.
When I first researched writing on Substack, one comment I noticed from authors and readers alike was the repeated idea that the newsletter format is much more personal. Not a like blog side-hustle, or the chaos of a social media page, but they talk more about it creating an honest to goodness personal encounter between both parties.
When I look at it that way I certainly feel a heavier sense of responsibility with the time that you’ve given me.
Thank you for letting me share a little of my memories & flawed perspectives here.
I say flawed because none of us are simply who we think we are. I'm certainly no exception. At times in my life I've been completely different people, and sometimes even simultaneously and in direct conflict with myself.
That's not mental illness, it's just how life works.
Our views on the world are crafted largely from the combined ingredients of our geography and our exposure to new experiences. If we change either of those factors with any regularity they will change us in return with fresh, new perspectives from which to learn and grow. They give us flavor.
And there’s no rule that says those flavors cannot coexist in conflict. Many of us are certainly sweet AND sour at the same time!
This recipe of thought expands our ability to comprehend not only the world around us, but through the dark arts of Hindsight and Humility we can better understand who we've been in the past, who we are now, or even who we might become tomorrow.
By reflecting new light on what we've seen and done from unique perspectives we tap into the truest source of wisdom we have: ourselves.
Like facets in a gem, each of these ideas of "self" is a viewpoint, that when joined together, represent a fuller prism of our life.
I originally wrote this as the introduction to a collection of autobiographical essays I’m working on for exactly that purpose - to better understand my “whole self” from new angles.
In future issues of The Curious Curator I’ll occasionally share some of these facets from my own life and things that I’ve discovered about both myself and the world.
But we won’t be taking the direct approach, because, what fun would that be?
This gem-like composite of perspectives applies every bit as much to the topics we study, interests we pursue, and the media we consume.
I’ve been saving online content about my own personal interests into Flipboard magazines since that platform first launched a decade ago. I was mostly just saving articles for myself, or to share with my wife. It’s only been these last two years since Covid started that I really began to develop a distinct identity in the way I curate these magazines for others.
That’s when my following started rising steadily from under 10k to over 75k people in just about a year.
Now, as one of the most prolific curators on Flipboard, I review tens of thousands of news headlines, videos, podcasts and other content sources each week. From these I curate around 50 topical magazines:
Regional news and human interest stories in magazines like “Putin’s Playground”, “Asiatic Times”, “European Spectrum”, “American Ballyhoo”, and “Northern Exposure”.
Big issue topical magazines about environment, climate, sustainable living, equity and human rights in magazines like “Rising, Burning Tides”, “A Hopeful World”, and “The Exception”.
Science, space, animals, and nature in magazines like “Thinking Ape”, “Before Us”, “It’s Their World”, and “The High Frontier”.
Plus tons more topics: art, music, cooking, geek hobbies, combat sports, tech, paranormal, writing -the list goes on.
But as a Flipboard curator only, not being an original publisher really limits my voice. I can share a pithy sentence or two with each article I flip, but beyond that it’s hard to do something with it. I’d love to be able to put more of myself into my curation work, but it’s hard to establish much of a voice in such a limited environment.
Not to mention, in the age of influencers, streamers, and the burgeoning “creator economy” having that many followers is the kind of exposure that anyone would relish and try to monetize - if they were on any other platform.
And that’s where this newsletter comes in, and where I begin incorporating my own original content into the mix. It’s time to let the Curator’s voice be heard!
I’ll be writing about many of these eclectic subjects and interesting sources, which, just like our different selves, don’t always appear to be directly connected. Yet the events that unfold around us in the headlines always have context to us, someone we know, an issue we care for, or they impact one of those billions of voices out in the world that we know so little about.
We’ll explore and compare all those facets of context together.
If I've done my the job well, you might even be a little entertained along the way.
It’s my greatest hope that this and future newsletters inspire you to examine your own life, to break it down into facets from your own experiences, and then to share your gem with others.
So, with that introduction out of the way, let’s get acquainted.
Who am I?
Am I Greater Than the Sum of My Parts?
I struggled a bit when I was told I needed to write a biography post to introduce myself to readers. I think that's because we all tend to simplify answering the question of who we are to one extent or another.
Our sense of identity is what gives us legitimacy with others, after all. It's psychological importance is the very reason we have a raging culture war.
But who we are is not a simple question to truly answer for any of us:
We are the relationships that we’ve shared in. But also…
We are the interests & experiences we’ve had. And yet…
We are the geography & cultures we’ve touched. Plus…
We are the jobs we’ve held & skills we’ve learned. And…
We are the art we create, the books we read. And, and, and…
So who are we really, then, a List of Lists?
As of this writing I’m just past my fifty-second birthday. In a half century I’ve managed to cram a lot into my “List of Lists”.
These are some highlights from my own experiences by way of introduction. Let them be a peek into the the stories and perspectives I plan on sharing with you here in future issues of the newsletter:
I am creative.
I’ve hand-painted an award-winning ceramic plate, had a pen & ink illustration published in the newspaper, cross-stitched a pillow, whittled a whistle, made a 3D CGI movie, produced the CD cover art for a band, made a stained glass window, tagged a bridge, written an endlessly unfinished novel, silk screened a T-shirt, painted a mural, and used a typeset printing press to print a book of original poetry.
Leave any piece of paper unattended around me and it will be covered in doodles - my hands always need something to do.
I am musical.
I play keyboard & piano, sing, played violin in grade-school, and have been playing guitar for 39 years - including as a session musician on a Nammy Award nominated album. I cannot read music, am self-taught, playing by ear and instinct. I was in a hair metal rock band, was a worship leader in church, put out a demo album, and I have been inside Eddie Van Halen’s personal recording studio in his Lake Tahoe home.
I am spiritual.
I’ve been a Christian, an atheist, a humanist, a naturalist, and an agnostic. Today my spiritual beliefs are informed by all these philosophies and others, and by rejecting their exclusive hold on ideas of “truth” I've never been more at peace with my own place in the Universe.
I am open to political experimentation.
I've voted at various times for Democrats, Republicans, and independent elected officials. I've embroiled myself in liberal, conservative, libertarian, voluntaryist, and anarchist political ideologies. None of the "isms" and "ists" work for me. Political choice is a long-con, shell game, so why play along?
Or as my dad would say,
“If you play with shit, you’re gonna get it on you.”
I believe in serving a community purpose. Doubly so if it comes with a cool uniform.
I’ve been a Cub Scout, a Webelo, a Boy Scout, a Non-Commissioned Officer, and a member of a benevolent “secret society”.
I earn my keep.
I’ve been a paperboy, a janitor, a preacher, a dishwasher, a publisher, an archivist, a soldier, a stereo salesman, an HR specialist, a security guard, a computer programmer, a regulator, a video store clerk, a government consultant, a hardware store clerk, a convenience store clerk, a day laborer, a casino executive, a fry cook, and a failed chicken farmer.
I know first-hand as a child what it is to go without electricity, running water, or "normal” food while wearing second-hand school clothes that don’t quite fit. I know what “government cheese” is and how to horse-trade the hell out of an elementary school lunch room.
I also know first-hand how easy it is for a sustained six-figure salary to blind one to the realities of poverty - even after having experienced it. I know how making good money made me feel falsely self-important - as if I’d somehow “risen above my roots” - because the human mind is stubbornly & willfully blind by nature.
I've lived a life full of unique physical adventure.
I cannot swim, yet have competed in a triathlon. I've thrown a pitch at a Major League Baseball game. I entered a 25 mile bicycle race, riding a rusty 10-speed with no rear brakes and broken pedals, and I won the prize for the Youngest Rider to Finish.
I have road-marched a hundred miles across Europe over four days carrying a sixty pound rucksack. I've rafted a Class IV river. I've climbed the second highest of the German Alps in an afternoon, on a dare, with no route, plan, or equipment. I've done push-ups on a fire ant mound, run into a burning building, pulled a man from under a moving semi-truck, and jumped aboard a moving train.
I win fun stuff playing 9-ball billiards, like free food, a brand new pair of freshly shined jungle boots from an Army private, a kiss from a beautiful Bavarian barmaid, a weekend pass, and the last laugh on a jarhead comedian.
I think food is the gateway to making new friends.
I've had breakfast with a herd of elk, lunch with a hobo, and dinner with Kobe Bryant. I drank real Irish coffee in Shannon, Ireland and ate pork schnitzel in Frankfurt, Germany on the same day.
I'm a dabbler in brain chemistry.
I've been addicted to nicotine, caffeine, work, all disciplines of science, metaphors, hidden patterns, and online role-playing games. I love sativa weed, but you can keep your sleepy indica. I've tried speed, downers, shrooms, acid, and PCP. The PCP was an accident - don't ever make that mistake, unless you like being chased across town by lifelike monsters straight out of an episode of The X-Files!
I have witnessed humanity's penchant for war and violence.
I’ve slept inside an armored vehicle, fired a machine gun, and lobbed a live grenade. I was personally inspected by the last Soviet general in Eastern Europe. I sat inside the open door of a Blackhawk helicopter while taking high speed evasive maneuvers at telephone pole elevation. I've sent and received a tactical fax, held a Top Secret security clearance, wired and detonated a claymore mine, and hit my target 39 out of 40 shots. I have been shot at by Serbian soldiers, and a target of Red Brigade terrorist attacks. My wife and kids shopped for an hour within 20 feet of a live terrorist bomb in a department store in Nuremberg, Germany.
During a family Sunday drive we were trapped on an overpass between two guns-drawn, police roadblocks making a felony stop after a chase. We were caught in the crosshairs, staring down gun barrels from two different directions - right along with the bad guys.
I love interacting with animals.
I’ve butchered a turkey, rescued a pregnant goat, castrated a pig, been chased by a skunk (twice!), canoed with an eagle, tipped a cow, eaten a rattlesnake, sketched a muskrat, smoked a salmon, and been stalked by a bear. I’ve kept dogs, cats, hamsters, fish, turtles and a hermit crab as pets. Darwin, our aptly named 14 year old Beagle, is the most legitimate human being I’ve ever met.
The future fascinates me.
In the early 2000s I ran the second largest website about space and space-related technologies on the internet, called SpaceKnowledge.net. I was a one-man show, generating hundreds of pages of new content weekly, while holding down a full time day-job as a software developer. At it's high point it received an average of 20,000 unique visitors daily.
I’ve interviewed an actual rocket scientist about real force-field technology. I was invited to spend 30 days locked inside a Mars "bio-dome" simulation above the Arctic Circle and to write about the experience. I was sent an unsolicited press pass from NASA to cover the very first Space Elevator Games.
The past fascinates me even more than the future.
I've studied an ancient language, found a Native American pestle and spear point in west Texas, discovered an 800 year old painting of my daughter in a castle in Austria, peered off the deck of Hitler's Eagle's Nest, excavated Takelma arrowheads in southern Oregon, and undergone a five day "ordeal" alone in the forest designed to mimic an ancient rite of passage.
I believe that government can be a positive - if everyone participates.
I have spied a real Russian spy, spying. I've exposed a money-laundering scheme for a Native American tribe and blazed a hiking trail for the Bureau of Land Management. I've testified in court as an expert witness, testified before a Grand Jury as an eye witness, and conducted a forensic fraud investigation for the U.S. Attorney's office.
I hate formal education systems, yet my lust for knowledge is second only to my need for context.
I'm a high school dropout, a beauty school dropout (yes - really!), and only have 9 college credits to my name, yet I've spent most my career very successfully advising people with Bachelor's & Master's degrees on a host of subjects, all of which were self taught. I have an inherent need to constantly learn and incorporate new skills & ideas. I once rode a bike fourteen miles one-way just to check a book out of the library.
I've consulted for the Oregon Broadband Advisory Council and members of the Oregon legislature, Jackson, Josephine, and Polk county governments, and the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde tribal government on technology issues. I helped form a non-profit environmental organization that made state history, and was a guest at a Native American tribal ceremony.
I know there is more to this world than what we can simply explain with empirical reason.
I was cursed by a shaman in Mexico, taunted by ghosts in Colorado & Illinois, heard bigfoot scream in Oregon, saw a UFO in west Texas, and it was once rumored that I & my family were part of a Satanic cabal in a tiny town in Illinois.
I get income from a poker game that occurred forty-four years before I was born. I own land in Texas with no house, and a house in Oregon with no land.
I married my high school sweetheart, and even after thirty-two years of dragging her through all of the above, raising three children, and two grand-daughters, she still loves me almost as much as she loves the dog.
My life has been a blessed tapestry of vivid, vibrant experiences of every shape and size.
I wasn't originally open to expanding my own perspectives, or trying new things. But once I discovered the absolute freedom and liberty that came from not allowing myself to be shoved into any particular box, I was ready to try almost anything - at least once.
I have no expectations of living a particularly long life, but I'll be damned if it isn't going to be a full one!
So Who Am I, Then?
If we are greater than the sum of our List of Lists, then what would you make of this smorgasbord of mine?
Who would you say that I am?
I have absolutely no idea who I am, and that's the most liberating point of this entire introduction.
I am today who I am today, a prism of every me I’ve ever been. Which one shines through at any given moment in time is relative to which facet I’m viewing the world through - not the other way around.
The “journey to who we are" is a mythical metaphor that many writers have doted on over the ages. But if life is a road trip and there were only one Great Truth to define its rules, then I’d say that it’s this: all truths are relative.
That includes who we think we are.
Life is about starting new chapters, blazing new trails, turning new corners, finding travelling companions as we go, sharing a song, a laugh or a memory, overcoming obstacles, and readily leaving the concept of "Self" where it belongs: in the rear view mirror.
Embrace who you’ve been, certainly, but not too tightly. There will always be another new Self ready to be discovered just around the next bend in the road.
I am not famous and certainly don't want to be.
I haven't saved the planet nor invented anything amazing.
I am nobody, just like you, and I am so very pleased to make your acquaintance!
Until next time,
A. W. Ford
Disclaimer:
The stories and essays in this & future publications are based on my own true life experiences per my recollection and point of view at the time, as well as thoughts about what they mean to my life now, after years of recollection and rumination.
I have no desire to hurt people's feelings, haggle over differing memories, drag skeletons out of closets, make anyone feel guilty, nor to share anyone's embarrassments or crimes.
I have taken license to change names, locations, or other specific details when needed in order to respect the privacy of all those who’ve enriched my life with their influence - the good, the bad, and the ugly!