Historically, a vagabond was a vagrant: someone who didn’t have a home and was impoverished. I have certainly felt that way at times, but words have a way of evolving the same way people do. In the 19th century, the word vagabond became synonymous with bohemianism, a term that Arthur Compton-Rickett defined as “with a vagrant strain in the blood, a natural inquisitiveness about the world beyond their doors.”
That definition certainly comes closer to my lifestyle.
As a child, I moved a lot. My family changed homes, I changed school, I changed friends on a pretty regular basis. So when I joined the Navy in 1987, traveling and moving seemed a pretty natural thing. I was fortunately enough to spend my military service as a photojournalist, and I was able to develop a sense of people as I spent my youth telling their stories.
Now that I have retired from the military, I am still working as a writer and a photographer. Nevertheless, I don’t get to do the one thing that I love most: tell the simple stories about people. In the palm of a child playing in the park just outside Anytown, USA, could be a story that speaks the the meaning of our lives. Behind the Easter Island face of the county D.A. might be hiding the soul of a stand-up comic.
I want to tell those stories. And so I will.
What is more, I spend most of my day writing non-fiction. Many, if not all of my stories will be based on real people I have met, but I am not going to say that all of my stories are absolutely true. Each one of these stories has full literary license to go where they want on my whim.
I hope you enjoy each story as much as I loved writing them.
Joshua “Sumitta” Hudson
www.pittsburghbuddhistcenter.org
www.dragonflydigitalmedia.com
www.camerachronicle.com
www.podcastpatriot.com
A good idea to post such articles. Great job indeed! Cheering thumbs up for your every step.