This is the “About Me” page from my blog: “Life, Love and the Human Condition” which can be found at livelovethinkexist.com:

The other day in an e-mail conversation with a friend I commented, “My perfect job would be one where all I had to do was think – about anything and everything.”  Thankfully I do have a day job!      What this blog allows me to do though is to think about all the many facets of life, write down my views and opinions, and allow anyone in the whole world to read them – a pretty amazing concept!  I don’t mind if you don’t agree with my ponderings…we all approach life from a slightly different perspective and that’s what makes us all unique.  I’ll concentrate mostly on the philosophical side of life…the area that most interests me.

Actually, thinking and writing have always been my passion; however, the writing side of it over the years has taken a back seat to the rest of life for a while now.  I was discussing with a friend the other day about how little we both knew about blogs, and she said to me, “Mark, you should write a blog!”  You always know when an idea hits you across the forehead or the little cartoon light bulb goes on above your head – this was just such a moment for me – “serendipity” we call it.  That night I struggled with the software to set this blog up, which is actually very easy for anyone with half a clue, and wrote my first entry – “Welcome To My World!”  It was an exciting moment for me, and an opportunity to write down my thoughts and perhaps have someone actually read them.

Since I was in the 6th grade I had always wanted to be a Veterinarian, and after a challenging year and a half of pre-Veterinary studies at Michigan State University, it became clear that Veterinary Medicine wasn’t in my future.  I had never really traveled much from my home state of Michigan, so I decided to go on a great adventure.  The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings were always my favorite books, and I yearned to wander off down a winding path into a distant forest like Bilbo or Frodo Baggins - so I decided to take a journey and go on a great adventure…and now that I’m reflecting on that decision years later, I’m still living my adventure - and it’s called Life!

Since I didn’t have much cash; didn’t own a car, motorcycle or a horse; and walking would take much too long to get anywhere – I decided to bicycle around the United States.  Everyone thought I was foolish for dropping out of college, but I didn’t care, and I set about planning my trip.  I had maps everywhere in my dorm room as I pondered my upcoming quest – not quite the search for the “Holy Grail” but it was to be my own great adventure regardless.  I talked Bruce, a friend of mine, into going on the trip with me and in the Fall of 1976 - America’s Bi-Centennial Year - we rode on down the highway to start our great adventure.

After almost a year and 8,000 miles of pure adventure, no accidents or major injuries and most of our wits still about us, we ended the trip in Seattle.  We had traveled from Michigan to the east coast; down to Key West, Florida; along the Gulf coast to Texas; on to Colorado; and up to Seattle, Washington.  Bruce returned to Michigan to continue his life, but I never really stopped living my adventure…it only took on many different aspects and filled chapter upon chapter – but it really has never stopped!

Before my bicycle trip I had written some poetry, and had tried without success to write some song lyrics and music.  I knew that I enjoyed writing, and during the bike trip I kept a log book of our travels.  After a few years in Seattle and various adventures in the northwest, including co-piloting a hot air balloon, I left on a Pan Am 747 bound for London, England – with my trusty bicycle but all by myself this time.  Over a few months I rode through England, Scotland, Wales and France and then returned home to Seattle – but my adventures continued on.  After a while I decided to return to college to study Business and earned my diploma in Business Administration.  Pondering what my future life in an office cubicle would be like, I decided instead to choose adventure once again.  I had always wanted to be a fighter pilot and fly jets, so I joined the Air Force and spent 20 years as a Navigator (Weapon Systems Officer) in the fighter world – I couldn’t qualify as a fighter pilot because I wore glasses.

My Air Force adventure took me to Europe again for 16 more years.  I spent 8 years in Germany, where I met and married my wife (of 23 years now), and 8 years living in the quaint English countryside.  I flew jets and lived my dream.  I deployed to the Persian Gulf War - so I really did become a Vet, just a different kind of Vet than I had imagined back in 6th grade – a military Veteran of the United States Armed Forces.  While overseas I was able to travel throughout Europe, Africa and the Middle East…and what an adventure and experience it turned out to be!

Over all those years I continued to write.  I kept a logbook of my European bicycle adventure, wrote my autobiography back in 1994, penned about 200 copyrighted songs (music and lyrics), and finished an adventure novel called “Jonathan’s Dream.”  The problem is that none of them have ever been published and they are all currently stored away in boxes.  I know that my life has been unique, and that I have experienced many things and have seen many places in this world, however, I never stopped thinking or viewing life as a great adventure.  It is those thoughts that I’d like to share with you in this blog, if you like, and expound on the truth about life as I know it to be.  If anything that I write in this blog is of assistance to you as you contemplate your own adventures in life, then the entire process will have been worth it for me!  I’ll try to add a little something every day, and eventually I’ll post my previous writings as well.

I’m staying close to home these days, but my adventures still continue… only now they’re more philosophical in nature – instead of on a bicycle or strapped into a jet.  I’m content with that…after all, adventures are hard work!  Now I can just sit down at the computer! 

As for other interests of mine, my favorite music is Progressive Rock:  Genesis; Yes; Rush; Pink Floyd; Emerson, Lake & Palmer; King Crimson; etc.; followed by Classic Rock, Contemporary Christian and Christian Rock as well.  My favorite book to study is the Bible and as for pleasure reading:  any newspaper or web site, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.  My favorite movies are The Lord of the Rings series and any good Romantic Comedy.  My favorite colors are soft pastels of any shade.  My favorite holiday is Christmas along with the entire Advent Season.

Thanks for stopping by - enjoy your day and come around for another visit sometime!  If you want to contact me directly one of these days you can email me at:  mark.d.jones  @cox.net (close the gap when sending an email to me), or write to me at:

Mark D. Jones

”Life, Love and the Human Condition”

P.O. Box 27785

Tucson, AZ 85726

U.S.A.

Until then – Cheers, :)

Mark

At first I thought, that’s an awkward site address to use – no one will find it on the internet!  The more I thought about it the more I actually liked it – and here’s why.  First of all, most people will find this site from a simple Google search, which is one of the most amazing wonders of the modern world.  To query Google for a piece of information and get hundreds of thousands of results instantly is beyond my ability to even fathom.  Secondly, once someone finds this blog all they have to do is save it under their favorites or email the link to someone.

So the fact that my blog has a long site address doesn’t concern me in the least.  What I actually think about it is that anyone who is interested in what I discuss here will appreciate the thought behind the site address.  My readers have to be Thinkers and Ponderers, or what I discuss won’t interest them at all.  They also have to be Dreamers, Adventurers, Poets, Readers and Children at Heart - otherwise they wouldn’t enjoy the many future Sam the Tugboat stories that I will write and post here or read the chapters of Jonathan’s Dream, which takes place in a far different world than what he was expecting.  My readers have to be Musicians or they wouldn’t be interested in the 200 original and copyrighted songs that I’ll soon start posting online.  Folks who read this blog will be interested in topics I call From the Heart, concerning Love and Passion – but from a spiritual and cerebral sense, not physical - so everything posted here will be friendly for all ages and backgrounds.  My readers will have an interest in Community and Personal Fulfillment - topics concerning both the individual and the greater social fabric that surrounds us.  My blog will attract people who are interested in Business and Organizational Theory – how to nurture organizations into a more productive common effort.  There is no limit to the variety of topics that I’ll post here, usually something new every day or every other day, that will allow them to check in with a cup of coffee or tea and spend a moment reflecting on the world around them with me! 

In a word my readers will be a lot like me…(now that’s a scary thought!)…Inquisitive, Open Minded, Practical, Common Sensical, Folksy, Good Hearted, Spiritual, Dependable, Reliable, Free Thinkers, and Community Minded.  But if you discover this site and don’t think that you are any of these things, fear not – everyone is welcome!  You may just discover something new about life or about yourself or about me that will give you too a chance to pause and ponder, to look out at the distant horizon and wonder what is on the other side, to smell a flower or return a smile, or decide to read a children’s story to a young child.  In the end this blog is for you – my readers.  It is also for me as it is very therapeutic and provides an “official” excuse for my many ponderings.  Years ago in school my mind was often a million miles away as I gazed out of the window into the far corner of my imagination.  Now I can share those thoughts with you also.

In a partnership with my readers, anything that I post on this site is for your reading pleasure.  You can copy it, you can mail it, you can collect it, you can scrapbook it, you can give it to a friend, you can talk about it in school or do anything with it you like.  If you’re a musician and like the song lyrics and chord structures that I post here, you’re free to play the song – however you choose to interpret it - to your heart’s content.  Because, in the end, life is all about a contented heart.  It’s about self satisfaction and self discovery.  It’s about doing your best for yourself and for everyone around you.  It is to Love and Serve God.  The only thing that I ask of you is that if you like something I’ve written here – share it with a friend.  And when you do, simply say that it came from this blog, and don’t profit from it in a monetary sense - only from an intellectual basis.  My life is now an open book for the world to see and read about.  There is no income generated here – just a passion to share with you what I think is important in our world – the Truth as I understand it to be.  So readers, I want you to Live with Passion, Love with Commitment, Think with all of Your Ability, and Exist with an Essence, Vitality and Joy that oozes from every fiber of your being.  Or as Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, offers:  “Cogito, ergo sum“ – “I think, therefore I am” by René Descartes , and “Carpe diem” – “Seize the Day” a phrase from a Latin poem by Horace.

The three terms Life, Love and the Human Condition also set categories or goals for our existence while we are alive.  We desire Life; we desire Love; and we would like to improve our state or quality of living or Human Condition for ourselves and for everyone around us.  So as we think about or contemplate or ponder (I like that word) our existence, almost any subject or situation finds a home in this short phrase.  One thing that I always like to do when pondering, is to go back to the dictionary to define the various terms that I’m pondering about.  In this case I’ll go to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, to define parts of these three terms:

Life – Wikipedia discusses the “organic definitions of life” as well as the ”philosophical question concerning the purpose and significance of human existence.”  I like to think about life in terms of our being alive not from the biological processes that enable this to be so, but from the perspective that we have life within us.  We are a vessel in which life has come to us to live in us – a temple in which it dwells.  It is this vessel of ours through which we nurture and protect this life within us - this most precious gift of ours.

Love – Wikipedia defines love in terms of  ”a number of emotions and experiences related to a sense of strong affection and attachment.”  I think of love as a gift given to us by our creator that at once is supernatural and beyond our understanding, but at the same time it is physical and organic - something we believe in through faith, something emotional that can inspire the entire range of human emotions, and something physical that can actually cause us heartbreak and pain.  Love therefore has three distinct components: supernatural or theological, emotional and physical.  Through faith, we can believe in love as a doctrine of life.

Human Condition - Wikipedia talks about the human condition as “encompassing all of the experience of being human.”  For me I often dwell in the philosophical part of our existence.  I also spend time in the theological and spiritual portions of our experience.  I contemplate the myriad emotions of our individual and cumulative trials and tribulations.  I exist in the physical realmof what is our Human Condition.  Our Human Condition is at once static and fluid; one dimension and multi-dimensional; ethereal and grounded; understandable and unknown. 

The more I contemplate Life, Love and the Human Condition; I have come to understand that this simple phrase represents something that is much more and greater than the individual terms and definitions.  The meaning of this phrase is deeper and more profound than anything else that I know.  It defines everything about where we have come from, why we are here and where we are going.  The answer or key to knowing this simple phrase, Life, Love and the Human Condition – is Jesus.   Jesus is Life.  Jesus is Love.  Through obedience to the Father Jesus was made man.  He lived our existence and experienced our human conditions.  He was both 100% God and 100% man at the same time, in one being - sharing both our world and His.  Through becoming man, Jesus has taken on the experience of our Human Condition.  Jesus knows it and He understands it because He has walked in our shoes, walking the walk, and showing us how to both live and love – simply, purely and perfectly.  On the Cross He reconciled us to the Father by taking our sins upon Himself – giving us the Faith and Hope of being one with Jesus, The Holy Spirit and the Father, three in one,  at the conclusion of our experience that we call - Life, Love and the Human Condition.