I can point to the King Assassination, my dad going to Vietnam, my living in northern Maine, Nixon’s resigning (try imagining a president resigning when you’re 14 years old; scary stuff), disco, my college years, and first getting into the workplace, which was enlightening because I came out of college with a degree thinking the world would genuflect at my feet and found that wasn’t the case at all.

In my older years I can point to a bad economy twice, going out on my own, traveling to the south for the first time in 4 decades, Michael Jackson passing away and, stupidly, Syracuse winning the national championship the year after my dad passed away, which was the most influential thing in my life to this point. Unfortunately, none of these things have been positive influences other than the basketball championship, thus I work to overcome bad mental trash on almost a daily basis, and that’s a shame.