Nine months, 36 Blogs, Two Big Questions
What is This Blog Really About? And How Best to Reinvent Yourself?
This blog offers you a review of my blog posts since launching in July, 2025, reveals some secrets I discovered along the way, and explores how best to reinvent yourself.
The main question is whether to dream big and follow your imagination, or to follow a careful, logical course of action, as prescribed by the experts, to minimize the risk of failure.
My Answer: Screw it, do it. Live life. Learn as you go. History favors the bold and all that. According to my lawyers, you should follow expert advice, and not listen to me.
As you can guess, I don’t listen to my lawyers, because I don’t actually have any.
I don’t want you to do anything foolish, like losing your life savings or making yourself even more miserable. But if you already are miserable, and if you hate your life, I’d say that it’s time for a change. How long do you want to wait before taking action?
The bottom line up front, as they say in the military, is that my life reinvented me, without asking me for my permission. A voice spoke to me (and I never hear voices) and told me to hit the road. Although it has not made me rich, I am quite happy now.
If you’d like to be happy rather than secure, it might be worth considering. Read on.
An aside.
Before we proceed to other amazing, life-altering insights, think about subscribing.
Like most people, you may be busy with a lot of demands on your time. You might be one of the millions who rapidly skim content on their phones and then quickly move on.
Be forewarned, this blog does not cater to skimmers and skippers, but to the people who still have the patience and curiosity to become intrigued and to read the article.
You can walk out of the movie after the first five minutes, but you’ll miss the ending.
You may say, "What does my blog offer that makes it worth the trouble of reading?”
For that, read on.
This May Be the Most Humorous, Insightful Blog That You Will Ever Read.
Or not. How the hell would I know?
Sometimes I think it is, but then again, I write it. Maybe I’m just full of myself. And sometimes I re-read it, and I go, “What idiot wrote this? It’s not funny or insightful.”
I do ask AI to review drafts, in case I am about to make an idiot of myself. According to AI, I do that about 99% of the time in the first draft, which you will never see.
While drafting, I have many heated arguments with AI. It offers to rewrite my copy. In response, I tell it to do something sensible, like, “How about if you go to hell instead?”
What will you get if you subscribe? What do my subscribers like most?
People really like my amazing rescue dog, Mr. Bones. They tell me he is very cute. They never tell me that I am cute. Then again, I don’t have big, brown puppy eyes.
Readers enjoy it when I have near-death experiences. Some of them say that it would be much more dramatic if I actually died, which I find just a little bit disconcerting.
Some readers tell me my blogs make them laugh out loud, and others never say a word. A few say they like my writing, but would like it more if I just wrote less.
Some readers ask, “What the hell are you doing getting into van life at 60?”
Well! The impertinence!
How did I wind up at the age of 67 as a nomad in Mexico who writes a weekly blog? What can I offer you, in the event that you are thinking about reinventing yourself?
There are two schools of thought. The expert approach, or the “just do it” plan.
One, You Can Plan Reinvention, or Two, It Can Take You Totally By Surprise
My imaginary lawyers said to tell you to consult the experts first. Not that the experts would give you better advice, but at least that way, you would sue them, not me.
Let’s start with me, so you can see what a mess I got myself into, and avoid doing that.
Beginning in June 2022, I completely reinvented myself, mostly by accident. However, I actually planned and accomplished two major goals, of which I remain quite proud:
- I self-published my first book, My Two Centuries in Africa
- I conducted my own national book tour to the lower 48 states in just six months
That I set and accomplished these goals amazed me and others as well. This was textbook reinvention: planned, deliberate, methodical, and executed on schedule.
Then, even more amazing things happened, things that I did not plan or expect.
- At 62, the book tour allowed me to explore the entirety of the lower 48 states
- After I spent six months on the road, my inner nomad re-awakened
Who, you may ask, was my inner nomad? Where did he come from? He replaced the old, anxious me with a much happier, more satisfied, and fulfilled version of myself.
I asked my inner nomad what happened and how he did it. Here is what he told me:
- He has been inside me all of my life, quietly waiting for a chance to emerge
- He no longer wanted to live in a home; he just wanted us to continue to roam
That might sound crazy, until you ask the experts. Most of our DNA comes from a time when we were nomads, which we were for 95% of human history.
(The newest DNA helps us cope with the challenges of modern, sedentary life, fighting infectious diseases, which spread quickly in crowded cities, digesting the many starches modern humans consume, and reducing our melanin levels.)
If you listen to your DNA and do what it tells you, you might become a nomad too. So, what did we do, once I had an epiphany that I was a nomad? We kept on traveling.
- In the campervan, in four years of van life, we visited the US, Canada, and Mexico
- I discovered a more mobile life suited me better than staying home did
Imagine me, a funny-looking kid from Indiana, becoming a nomadic Indiana Jones.
This was life reinventing me, without asking my permission, taking me by surprise. A lot of people think I’m crazy, but I am happy, and I am doing what I want to do for a change.
If you’re miserable, think about making a change.
I wanted to offer you some astounding nuggets of wisdom and leave you marveling at my wisdom, and regale you with some of my intrepid van life accomplishments.
I coined a couple of clever sayings that wouldn’t occur to me if I weren’t a nomad.
- If you live in a box, you can’t think outside the box
(People who still live in houses generally cannot imagine living a nomadic life. You are surrounded by four walls and a ceiling. You probably cannot imagine living outside.)
- If you change everything, everything changes. Nomadic life resets your inner clock.
(I used to struggle with anxiety and depression. For me, both are largely the result of living sedentarily, which is not natural for humans. Once I got out of the house, on the road, and embraced nomadism, my anxiety and depression largely disappeared.)
But in another way, I’m just a guy in a campervan. What do I know?
I know what some of you will say, because hundreds of you have already said it to me. Go ahead, recite the classic line from Saturday Night Live, “…Down by the river!” Laugh.*
Many of us laugh at dreamers and ridicule them if they do not succeed. Sure, you can play it safe, do like everyone else, and spare yourself any embarrassment.
But is that how you want to live your entire life? Don’t you ever want to take a chance?
I found a new dream late in life, and have given it all I’ve got. No regrets. I have not become rich or famous (yet), but I still enjoy the dream and am living my best life.
What are you doing?
Here is a link to my first nine months
(9) Editing “Round-Up of My Blog Posts to Date (April, 2026)” - Substack
*Virtually everyone my age recalls a SNL skit from 1993 about success and failure, making a laughingstock of the unfortunate Chris Farley as a guy who tries and fails. To me, that symbolizes how potent the fear of failure is in our sad, neurotic society.