ABOUT ME

Scott's ABCs

Writing challenge accepted!

Amiable anarchist, anti-arsonist, ardent assonate academic, adoring adjectives, adverbs, apostrophes, accents, and anything architecturally abstract.

Baker. I'm intrigued with the simple process of combining flour, water, and salt with the wild yeast variant found in each baker's environment to produce nourishing loaves of bread unique to their location.

Compulsive. Some say this is only the second half of my label because I can also be 'obsessive.' I prefer 'determined' and 'driven,' but 'D' was already taken by 'diversity.'

Diversity. Throughout my 45-year travel industry career, I developed an appreciation for different peoples, their cultures, languages, food, customs, and accents.

Eclectic. My wide and varying interests, from photography to philosophy, artificial intelligence to astrology, and wine to writing.

Fun. Borrowing a page from Jerry Greenfield, co-founder of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream, my philosophy is "if it's not fun, why do it?"

Generous. If I've got it and you need it, it's yours.

Horst Schulze, my friend and co-founder of The Ritz Carlton Hotel Company, inspires me with his credo, "We're ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen," which resonates throughout my endeavors.

Independence. In ‘Walden’, Henry David Thoreau wrote: "If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer." Think — Art Blakey’s ‘The Drum Thunder Suite.’

Joyful. There is nothing more exciting than living a triumphant and victorious life — a life that ends with, "he lived it well and had an amazingly good time living it."

Kaizen signifies continuous incremental improvement, which describes my approach to life.

Lifelong learner. My pursuit of knowledge stems from an innate curiosity about the world.

Mindmapping is my everyday notetaking style as I need to understand a subject's relationships and connections to other concepts.

Nurturing. I enjoy mentoring others and helping them reach their full potential not because I tell them how but because they want to.

Outlier. I earned this dubious label after producing the 1971 University of Kansas year box rather than a yearbook. I designed the box so it would not fit in the Chancellor's bookcase alongside every yearbook since 1873.

Pacifist. I despise guns, war, and violence. If 400,000 people can gather near Woodstock, NY, to appreciate music, peace, and love in a wet and muddy field, why can we not spread those ideas worldwide?

Qigong coordinates posture, movement, breathing, and meditation to improve my health and spirituality and continue my recovery and healing from microscopic polyangiitis vasculitis.

Rambling. When my 150-word shortform stories become 1,500-word monstrosities.

Senses. Michael Vance, the former dean of Disney University, taught me how to expand my ideas by examining them through the lens of each of our five senses — seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching.

Taylor. I am so proud of his accomplishments, principles, and the life he and Rachel have crafted for my precious granddaughter.

Unconditional love is the aspiration gifted to me by my dogs, Lady, Dhenila, Winnie, Metro, Amber, Nikko, Boris, Zoe, Samantha, Sambuca, and Harley.

Vacuum cleaners kicked off my travel industry career when I photographed and wrote a memory book for a group of Bissell Vacuum salesmen.

Wine. Becoming a certified sommelier was my most challenging yet rewarding academic exam.

X-rated. Papa Scott's memoir of his 1969 trip to the Woodstock Music and Art Fair (aka Woodstock) remains sealed to protect and prolong the innocence of his granddaughter, Olivia.

Yearning — a feeling of intense desire and longing. I'll leave it at that. Enough said.

Zaven Kodjayan, godfather to my son, Taylor, my closest friend and founder of Zaven's Restaurant in Chicago, taught me the importance of family.

This is my response to @Dawn :) and Teresa Morillas's "ABC of Me Challenge."

To keep this party going, I'm challenging Kristina God, Charisse Tyson, Megan Llorente to jump into the alphabet soup and shed some light on themselves.

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