The Skinny

I’ll be brief. Here are seven things to consider if you want to know me better:

1. I was born in industrial Cape Breton—in Glace Bay, to be specific—in 1964. The culture there is Appalachian and gothic. My birthday, 17 December, makes me a late Jones-er or an early X’er.
2. I’m a hybrid. My ancestry is Polish (Galician on my father’s side) and Irish (Margaree-an on my mother’s).
3. I’ve always felt alienated. I don’t belong in any one place, but I can adapt to just about any environment: abiding nowhere, I can go anywhere. That’s not a bad deal.
4. I suffer from PTSD. I spent the better part of the mid-eighties in psychiatric wards.
5. I was blessed to find my humanity living among the chronically mentally ill and other misérables.
6. I’m a scholar by trade, a doctoral candidate in the study of Atlantic Canadian history at UNB. (Note: being brainy cuts both ways—scholars tend to be neurotic and generally have poor social skills; they possess more prestige and power than they deserve in our credential-crazed society.)
7. I love my wife Tracey, my cat Sparky, my family and my friends more than they can ever know.

That’s it. Any questions? I'm all ears.