I've been a lot of things: teenage California hippy, punker, Alaskan commercial fisherman, Combat Engineer, paratrooper, Squad Leader, Drill Sergeant, college professor, writer, online entrepreneur, prostate cancer survivor.

Now I'm retired and back to being a hippy—wandering between Europe and the high desert in the Sequoias. Armed not with an M203, but with a camera, a metal detector, and no particular schedule.

The road wasn't easy, and nearing seven decades - it wasn't short - but that's where the learning happened. Per aspera discimus: through hardships we learn. This is what I've kept from the journey.