y father’s sudden death on January 1, 1986 would damage and enrich my life for years. It taught me that all things fall away. It has also infused my life with an urgency that most people never experience. I graduated early from high school that spring and traveled alone to Europe — where I knew no one and spoke nothing but Southern.

Had a hell of a good time in Europe. When the money was low, I’d busk on street corners or con meals out of Arab businessmen. I wrote spectacularly awful poetry. As you could guess, I was a full-fledged bohemian freak by the time I arrived at the University of Georgia that fall.

Unbeknownst to me, Athens, Georgia, was Mecca to bohemian freaks everywhere. I had poetry/performance shows, wrote like a fiend, and met the people who would become my dearest friends to this day. Life was all about art and flamboyant non-conformity. Still is.