Wild cattle that wander off huge grazing ranges of the Australian outback roam free among the harsh, remote scrublands and overgraze, crush native plants underfoot, leave the soil exposed to erosion and the spread of invasive weeds. They're environmental hazards too wild and dangerous to be returned to the herd, so they're hunted for sport. These are the scrub bulls.

Abstracting dangerous animals characterisics and applying them to humans as complimentary, even heroic, is a common practice. For scrub bulls I chose their will carve their own paths and forge their own lives as representative of humans of this species.

They refuse to adapt to how the world perceives them or what it expects of them. They engage themselves in a relentless search for clear insights into what's real and what's not, what's worth believing and whats not . They never give up reflecting on their own perceptions and experiences, refining their understanding and vision of how to forge their own lives within a culture in constant flux.

I chose to identify as a scrub bull because I refuse to conform to the common perception of what it means to be old, which is why I didn't believe it odd to take up Muay Thai at 77 as therapy for recovering from a debilitating injury.

These photos are of me as an amateur soccer player at 40 years old, me at 77 after 2 1/2 years of forced inactivity from a fractured vetebrae, and me when I was 79 after 1 1/2 years of training in Muay Thai. It was the most grueling activity I ever undertook so I made a firm commitment to never give up, and began wearing a cheap black bracelet 24/7 as a symbol of my self esteem; so if I quit for any reason other than dying on the mat I would have to remove the bracelet and admit I'm nothing but a blow-hard, all talk and no guts.

The firm commitment to regain my health and the thought of shaming myself with less than 100% effort 100% of the time carried me through the hard work that renewed my life and inspired me to continue the search for clarity in a rapdily devolving culture where meaning shapes perception and perception shapes reality, which is a colloquial way of expressing philosopher-theologian, Bernard Lonergan's major insight in his book, Method in Theology, written in 1983 that "The World is Mediated by Meaning."

His stress on the need for a "Continuous pursuit of deeper and more comprehensive meaning" is based on his view of that insight: "The world is mediated by meaning... and in this larger world we live out our lives. To it we refer when we speak of the real world. But because it is mediated by meaning, because meaning can go astray, because there is myth as well as science, fiction as well as fact, deceit as well as honesty, error as well as truth, that larger real world is insecure.

Having witnessed enough deceit, fiction, and error at a young age I decided Lonergan's insight would be the source of a scrub bull's will to forge ahead by constantly question meanings and intent when deciding who and what to believe, whether it's as complicated as uncovering propaganda, navigating a multitude of diet plans, or just deciding what foods are fit to eat and what are not.

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