Entrepreneur, Explorer, Angel.
Sometimes all at Once.
10TH November 2022
Miles Spencer Art - Miles Spencer Painting - Miles Spencer Watercolor - Timeless
Miles Spencer Watercolor Summer ‘22.05
Note; I began painting watercolors during lockdown, when a special friend gave me a set of Kai paints. I’ve painted nearly every day since. Recently someone else said they liked them because “it was like going to the south of France, for a moment”. We all need a little more of that, I think. These two people, basically my entire fanclub, encouraged me to share with others. Why not, I thought? If you find the little faults like I do, just squint your eyes or look away. Tennis. Cap d’Antibes. Yes, there are clay courts in this insane compound in Cap d’Antibes. Everyone’s a winner. Hose, Cap d’Antibes I don’t know. Not everything has to be a fancy building. Like this. […]
15TH October 2021
Fatherhood - Leadership - Timeless - Uncategorized
The Curve of Fatherhood
I recently had the profound pleasure of an open water reef dive with my 10 year old son. It was his birthday request, and after he passed his pool cert, we were out on a reef in Key West together doing something I’ve long loved and he recently discovered. It was, along with perhaps birth, first words, first steps and potty training one of the best parenting days of the decade together. Which got me to thinking of my father and the adventures we shared. I looked up to him, until I didn’t. And then I did again. I call it the fatherhood curve. In the early days, my dad was larger than life. He was a car mechanic who flipped Model-As for profit when he won a drag race. […]
14TH May 2021
Choate - Friends - Good Story - Legends and tales - Timeless - Uncategorized
Choate Football ’80 Hall of Fame Benediction
Welcome Judges. Forty years ago, we played for a warrior, poet, and coach. So with apologies to Kipling, Shelly, & Keat, here’s a verse, while you lace your cleats. Halftime had been all despair. 24 minutes left to bear. Down 14 at the break A perfect record still at stake We had not come this far For close again, but miss the bar So Forte’s tiptoes made a play Plus three more from the foot of Bray. As time ticked down the defense held We’d get the ball for one last spell 11 Young men, most in their prime Seventy yards before the final chime Long shadows revealed shortness of breath As we chewed up time, chalk and grass Until three yards and ten ticks […]
24TH January 2021
Creative problem Solving - Family and Friends - Legends and tales - Timeless - Uncategorized
The greatest risk is taking no risk at all.
You can ski in any number of safe trails to the bottom. So why would anyone choose to ski down on the difficult black diamond run instead? Most passionate skiers would ask the question differently: why wouldn’t you? The point of skiing isn’t to get to the bottom. The point is how it feels on your way there. I grew up scaring myself half to death, and was a VIP at my local ER. And this despite my upbringing which basically discouraged medical treatment and put prayer as the first choice in healing. We had nothing against doctors, mind you. We just thought that 80% of our so called “medical issues” were mostly in our heads, included the risk and the fear that came with it. In retrospect, perhaps I […]
27TH December 2020
Adventure - Family and Friends - Friends - Timeless - Uncategorized
Adieu 2020
Egyptians wrote about passing, as if someone got off the Nile and passed into the reeds. The Nile was life. Anything afield was not. They lived within a mile of the water, and what was beyond the reeds remained a mystery to most. The Romans called it alleysium, as in Gladiator before battle “if you find yourself alone, riding in green fields, with the sun on your face, do not be troubled, for you are in Alysium, and already dead”. Even in a movie, chilling words. Homer referred to it as the Elysian plain…where life is easiest for men. No snow is there, nor heavy storm, nor ever rain, but ever does Ocean send up blasts of the shrill-blowing West Wind that they may give cooling to men. If death […]
17TH September 2020
Family and Friends - Friends - Good Story - Legends and tales - Timeless
Five Fantastic Qualities of Mark Von Kreuter
My eulogy for a friend, Mark von Kreuter
23TH April 2020
Adventure - Cuba - Culture - Geopolitical - Timeless - Timely
Back to Havana – wrapping up
So that was 32,000 words about visiting Havana, for those that may not have seen it yet. The Table of Contents is here, BTW. In the time I was there, I met a lot of memorable people. I also learned a lot of the amazing history of the Island; some from my friend and partner John Caulfield, some from the seminal book Havana Nocturna, and plenty from just casually observing the place that hasn’t changed much in 60 years. It is as close to the “Land that Time Forgot” as anything I have ever visited. The idea for time travel came from a lunch at 304 O’Reilly. While everyone at the table wanted to imagine what the future of Cuba held, we all agreed that it would be much more […]
21TH April 2020
Cuba - Havana Culture - Timeless - Timely
Shelter(ed) Day 18 – Back to Havana
Chapter 18- Before the Music Stops Illustration – view from the house above of tanks in a tobacco field, rebels streaming out of barns, the Batista surrender. Ermitas Blanco. Havana. The roar of a half dozen Harleys turning off the Malecon and into the Riviera porte cochère was unmistakable. Esteban tossed his keys to the attendant and strode over the terrazo entry into the main lobby. Marlon was just behind him. The others hung back, being just mechanics from the garage hired to bring the [hogs to the party]. Since losing his bet on the Malecon race, Esteban had been hankering to get even. Actually, it was nearly a necessity: his acting career in New York wasn’t all that lucrative. He was caught up in the macho moment, and […]
20TH April 2020
Cuba - Havana Culture - Timeless - Timely
Shelter(ed) Day 17 – Back to Havana
Chapter 17- Boss, It works. Illustration – Sal Explains iPhones to Meyer in Riviera Lobby- Ermitas Blanco “It works. Whatever the f*ck it is, it works,” Sal began, hardly able to contain his amazement. “How do you know for sure?,” asked Lansky. “Well, here’s a picture of me, on one of those held-held phone computers, with a newspaper dated 2017, by the way. The headline has something about trouble at the American Embassy on the Malecon, which doesn’t exist now, but it sure as hell does in 2017.” “Is the Riviera still there?” “Yes, Meyer. I saw it from afar, but I didn’t have the chance to go in.” “Where was Jorge and the girl at the time?” “We split up, so I could get my papers renewed, and they […]
18TH April 2020
Cuba - Havana Culture - Legends and tales - Timeless - Timely
Shelter(ed) Day 16 – Back to Havana
Chapter 16 – Jorge …no mas Illustration- Brech bursts into the Miami garage. Ermitas Blanco- Havana. Women often smoked cigars in Havana. Its naughty, sexy and decadent… And that suited Nina just fine. Jorge walked both Sal and Nina through the Humidor Process, omitting a few key steps that he’d already explained to Nina. This gave Sal the impression he had the full download, without really knowing that his Time Travel Tutorial lacked more than a few pages. They all lit up, the room filling with blue cigar smoke much quicker with the three of them puffing away. Jorge held a duffel bag of cash in his lap. The timer went off with a “ding.” They waited for the smoke to clear. When they looked out the window toward the […]
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