I was enrolled in the Advanced Science and Math classes, plus Latin and French training in high school. I was pushed to become a doctor or lawyer by my parents, but lost much interest when I saw the insensitive way the lab animals were treated.

I did put this training to use toward a lifelong study of how to stay healthy with traditional herbs and essential nutrients — but without the rigors and discipline required to earn some educational credentials, which didn’t seem like my cup of tea.

Instead, I’ve always enjoyed learning about the subjects I was drawn to, confident that somehow I might use what I learned to start small businesses or use in employment opportunities including writing articles, selling new and used cars, rental real estate investing, and eventually, Chamber of Commerce/ economic development work, where I learned grant writing, involving helping an Oregon timber community find grant funding and a new reputation as a destination in the tourism industry through this round-about life experience.

All this diverse employment allowed me to pursue my central interest of cultivating personal health from an early age — impressed by the damage my father inflicted on himself with cigarette smoking, and my mother’s poorly treated depression and what appeared to be fibromyalgia. At age 15, I lost my father to heart attack and when I was 30, I was assigned legal guardianship of my mother. I learned how precious health in advanced age is — and I didn’t want my parents’ sad fate to happen to me — or anyone else, if I could help it!

Seeing how my temperate, hard working intelligent parents were mistreated by the medical industry showed me the importance of finding my own path to a healthy, active long life like my mother’s father, a logging enterprise owner who lived independently in retirement into his 90’s.

This very unconventional life path led me to learning about this fascinating herb from the Orient — Kratom — and writing about how wrong it seemed for it to be attacked as “possibly dangerous”, when it seemed so promising in the help it was giving me and others.

My many articles alerting others to this amazing botanical (when few others were praising it) led Susan Ash to invite me to be a Board Member of the American Kratom Association she was forming to keep the plant legal. We both viewed Kratom as a useful aid that many were using to overcome opioid addiction, PTSD, and a variety of other discomforts, as well as to increase alertness, stamina, and general wellbeing.

With little hesitation, I accept this invitation to help protect our access to important botanicals, because it is a perfect opportunity where I can contribute to the historical role that botanicals have played in human health, philosophical, and spiritual development.