Introducing Tom Byers
Writer for ILLUMINATION and Spiritual Tree
I am a grandfather. I meditate. I write.
To honor the Western tradition, I embody the wisdom of Narcissus and the physical beauty of Socrates.
My life is best told in pictures, so expect more photographs than paragraphs below.
I met my wife, Carmelita, in Buffalo in a class called “The Moral Order” taught by the late Raoul Naroll. Carmelita was attracted to my clipboard because it had a secret compartment. I learned to speak Tagalog so she would have a harder time keeping secrets from me.
When she played hard-to-get, I followed her across the ocean to the University of the Philippines. We defied their rules with a forbidden student-professor romance.
Our lives pinballed for years among Buffalo, the Philippines, Hawaii and Pennsylvania with multiple stops in each. I caught malaria, typhoid and dengue fever. In case somebody gives you a choice, dengue is the worst. Take the malaria.
My fieldwork took me to a hamlet where communist rebels killed the barangay captain (head of the local council). Carmelita’s fieldwork took her to a village where Moro National Liberation Front rebels sporting automatic weapons surrounded the home of the barangay captain. He and his family fled. Others in nearby villages were not so fortunate.
We married like hippies in a gazebo in 1987. Born again Christians danced while playing flute and guitar. Carmelita and I exchanged leis. The money we saved by going ringless allowed us to buy an Amstrad word processor.
Then we grew up.
Carmelita supported me through depression back when I made more money. Now she supports me by making more money. She is not so fond of my new “New Age” leanings and my belief in “healing energy of the heart” but hey, that’s what you guys are here for. Who is game for a remote spiritual love affair?
Our daughter (above) was born in Hawaii, but we moved to Pennsylvania for the long term to be near family. We spend lots of time with two of our grandchildren. They sleep over. They help with chores.
Amaya loves painting, writing and cheer-leading.
Malik loves deck hockey, football and Lego.
They both enjoy reading and wasting time on YouTube. Amaya got a little spooked when Carmelita talked me into a dramatic reading of The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe. Malik laughed.
I recently read parts of H. G. Wells’ short autobiography. He used the words shame and humiliation 37 times (in one form or another). I could outdo him, but I would rather just share the good stuff here.
Family life is fulfilling.
I will turn sixty this year, God-willing. I have wisely saved enough money to retire by 2040. Not that I want to retire. I love my job. I stand at a kiosk in a big store asking people if they need information about heating and cooling. I exchange hundreds of smiles a day. Often I feel a rush of well-being, even after standing for eight hours. It is wonderful.
I earned a doctorate in Anthropology and worked at various positions in Sales and Marketing. My commitment to excellence had a good side but my priority of feeding my ego rather than my heart was bad. The three-minute autobiography below starts with a childhood nightmare that I really dreamed. It then features a near-miss with a decision to kill my inner child.
My best poem on Medium is a Pythagorean offering. Can you see Carmelita in the photo?
The most important non-fiction I have shared on Medium is the article below. It lays out a plan to avoid screwing up the future. It draws on my expertise in ethnic relations. My fieldwork was among Agta, Bicolano, Cebuano, Tagalog and other folks in the hamlet of Tamala in the Philippines. More about my career appears in About the Author where I try to sound important in case Elon Musk reads it.
That’s all folks!
Love,
Tom