With Y2K and the end of the world bearing down, suddenly I had the urge to taste and touch / and to feel as much as a man can, before the world collapsed in a Y2K apocalypse.

From the perspective of the outside world, I went a little crazy. I ditched the ties, quit my job, sold the car, grew a beard, let my hair flow, donned a kaftan and found myself wandering through the desert in Cairo (among other places).

I went through a Jesus phase, and thought deeply about what it means to die in order that you may live again, as I retraced his steps on the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem.

I was reminded of all of this the other day at Bukowski's by the quote on the menu, over an afternoon beer as I pondered another such discontinuity in my life