Hopefully rock n roll great Joe Walsh (or who ever wrote it) will forgive me for stealing the title to one of his songs.

I’m an enigma to many people. I have a lot to say and to complain about in the world around me. I can be cynical to a fault. My sarcasm can at times overreach humor and transform into a bit of meanness. I usually realize that fact after I have published it.  Yet I remain positive and eternally grateful for the blessed life I have been able to live. To me, my life with all its warts, has been a glass that was half full rather than half empty. Any cynic that is like me, might argue in the case against me, that my life actually stinks now, and mostly has.

The cynic might say, hell you’re divorced and have been for 30 years. My view has always been to recognize that I enjoyed being married. I mean, to get divorced you must first be married.

My critic would also say, every relationship you ever had, ended. Where are they now I would be asked. I would reply, somewhere where they are happy I hope. You know, for those times to end, I needed to have them in the first place.

The naysayer would go on to say, hey, didn’t you love horses? He would then mention that you haven’t owned a horse in nearly 20 years. I would reply, yes but I first had horses for 20 years.

Maybe you love and lust for what you don’t have. I love what I did have!

You can lose what you once had, but nobody can take away the fact that you once had it.

Glass half full!

If they really wanted to get me they might say, as a photographer, you wanted to explore the whole world. You wanted to get your pictures published everywhere and be known as well as anybody out there for what you did. Then he would say, you’re no Art Wolfe or Jim Zuckerman.

To this I would say, if I were Wolfe or Zuckerman, then I would not be able to appreciate them the way I now do. Besides, I traveled the Midwest, the south, and especially the west of this great country. I was highly published in some of the world’s most important places, and I was well-known enough to be paid just so others could meet and listen me.

I can’t be Zuckerman or Wolfe, but I can enjoy who I actually was.

It might be said, you have been injured and sick (who hasn’t?). You have had operations and in later years, you have not been that well. Even now, you barely get around ( I do get around). My answer would first be a question. Can you be serious? There are people who are born with diseases. I have known those who battled sickness for all if their lives. I have friends who are now long dead. I have been blessed with health for a good part of my life. I have in fact been blessed, beyond anything I would expect, or ask for.

I appreciate every moment in my life and still do.  For the times that were tough or when I failed, I blame no one.  When you take personal responsibility for the hard times and the failures, and don’t obsess about the role others played, it’s amazing just how sweet life is.

My glass may only be filled half way to the top, but I can assure everyone, it is HALF FULL and has never been half empty.

Have a rich and full day and may God Bless,
Wayne.