Mikeology

Twenty years after moving to the nation’s capital…

three years after leaving Washington, D.C., in 2005 for more affordable and less sprawling urban surroundings…

and after two years of living in a converted textile mill in suburban Hartford, Connecticut…

in the summer of 2008 I moved to a similar loft apartment in downtown Providence, Rhode Island. I liked Providence because it was close to the historic neighborhoods and Ivy League communities of Boston, surrounded by rivers and inlets of Narragansett Bay, located just 40 minutes from the ocean, smaller than cities such as Washington, much livelier than Hartford, more artistic and affordable than Beantown, and warmer than New Hampshire or Maine. Providence and the surrounding cities had also preserved, for better or worse, much of the brick 19th-century industrial architecture which have evolved into fun, practical, 21st-century loft living.

Pictures of my now-former Providence apartment

After settling in for a chilly winter and learning my way around Providence, for the first half of 2009 I decided to get to know the locals by volunteering for WaterFire Providence, the city’s bimonthly premiere evening arts and entertainment festival. Then in June I became briefly embroiled in an international mini-scandal involving antigay Rhode Island Catholics and the Tim Hortons doughnut chain. In no time I was an almost-famous celebrity among some Providence equality activists, and I joined the Providence Equality Action Committee.

In May, I took my first trip back to D.C. in two years, stayed at the Kensington home of my friends Bill and Lisa, and caught up on the lives of my old friends Walter, Sheena, Evelyn, Lou, David, Georganne, Pat, Steve, and many more.

Around this time, my Hartford friend Peterson Toscano came to town for a Quaker conference, and we enjoyed an all-too-healthy Quaker-style lunch at Bryant University.

By summertime, after nearly one year of paying $1,500 per month for a (very nice) one-bedroom apartment in Providence, I was more than ready to take advantage of New England’s depressed housing market, buy a loft that I could call my own, and reduce my monthly housing costs by 30 percent.

My very experienced and likable Realtor Peter Dandurand found me a near-perfect choice: A spacious converted loft condominium located just a couple miles from Providence that, thanks to a short sale, was priced 30 percent below its 2006 appraised value.

Pictures of my condominium before move-in

In October, I moved into my new home. Sadly, I discovered at the same time — belatedly — that a former Takoma Park, Md., housemate whom I cared deeply about had died back in late April of brain cancer. Our other housemate, Akili Tyson, had died in 1996 from AIDS complications; I’m now the sole survivor of that household.

Thanks to the generosity of my New York friend Wayne Besen, his partner Jamie, and cat Critter, I was able to spend an early-autumn week in Manhattan for free and catch up with friends Aura and Joanna.

I also had the pleasure of hosting my very first houseguests, L.A. friends Rob and Pat, who offered tips for making my barely-lived-in loft a bit more home-like.

In November, I traveled to south Florida for the first time since I was three years old, and caught up with countless friends (especially Anthony, Ken, and Patrick) at an equality and anti-prejudice conference.

As the year ends, I plan to spend New Year’s Eve volunteering on the fire-tending boats of WaterFire Providence during the event’s 15-year anniversary. In the new year, I plan to continue working for my current employer, a content-syndication company; tend to my ailing parents; renovate my condo; locate a compatible religious community; and lead the volunteer writing team of Truth Wins Out.

Happy new year to you and your loved ones!

If you like, you may stay in touch with me on a day-to-day basis via Facebook or Twitter.

Apologies to my few readers for my inactivity on this web site.

You may catch glimpses of my recent activities here:

WaterFire Providence
Providence Equality Action Committee
Truth Wins Out

It’s a challenge to live sustainably if one owns an arable plot of land — growing one’s own food, generating as little trash as possible, recycling every shred or drop of waste, developing home-grown energy sources. On Amazon.com the other day, I found several books that help struggling landowners take strides toward sustainability.

But what constitutes sustainability when one lives in a yardless loft that is built atop brownfields?

That’s my predicament at the moment. I moved to the city this summer to conserve fuel and land, to get some exercise, and to refrain from contributing to sprawl and the destruction of farmland, wetlands, and forest. (OK, I moved here to be within an easy walk to Starbucks, a Mongolian grille, and a Cheesecake Factory, too.)

Sure, I can recycle, I can join the Sierra Club, I can attend hearings in support of public transit, I can draw neighbors’ attention to the polluted river out front, and I can wean myself off of bottled beverages.

But what then?

From The Huffington Post:

Obama’s Minister Committed “Treason” But When My Father Said the Same Thing He Was a Republican Hero

Excerpt:

When Senator Obama’s preacher thundered about racism and injustice Obama suffered smear-by-association. But when my late father — Religious Right leader Francis Schaeffer — denounced America and even called for the violent overthrow of the US government, he was invited to lunch with presidents Ford, Reagan and Bush, Sr.

Every Sunday thousands of right wing white preachers (following in my father’s footsteps) rail against America’s sins from tens of thousands of pulpits. They tell us that America is complicit in the “murder of the unborn,” has become “Sodom” by coddling gays, and that our public schools are sinful places full of evolutionists and sex educators hell-bent on corrupting children. They say, as my dad often did, that we are, “under the judgment of God.” They call America evil and warn of immanent destruction. By comparison Obama’s minister’s shouted “controversial” comments were mild. All he said was that God should damn America for our racism and violence and that no one had ever used the N-word about Hillary Clinton.