Day 108

Today is Saturday June 27, 2020 The pandemic continues with alarming increases in the states of Texas, Florida and Arizona as well as Russia and Mexico.  9.7 million people infected worldwide and closing in on half-a-million deaths.  Today I want to write about a time of freedom and a man who embodied it, Dennis Nagle. Dennis, "lived for today" as a young man in the sixties, embracing psychedelics and free love.  Dennis was a true counter-culture hero living the pagan lifestyle and experiencing all he could. He moved to London in the seventies and made his living selling drugs. He was a real life Easy Rider.  

By the 1980's he had four children from four different women.  As scattered as his life was he was also somewhat of a technical genius.  He was creating light boxes before their time and while living in L.A. he was creating light shows for rock concerts. That is where his son, Alex, found him.  By this time Dennis was upholding his fatherly duties and when his youngest son. Michael, enrolled in M.I.T. Dennis followed him there and found a job on campus in a lab. Amy Smith, the founding director of D-Lab, described Mr. Nagle as “a fiercely loyal mentor to many students over the years and was a staunch supporter of the need to balance creativity and order, fun and work and anarchy and kindness.” Dennis Nagle may have begun his life as a rebel without a cause, but his later life found him a purpose and he filled young minds with inspiration and free thinking.   Dennis Nagle died of complications from the coronavirus on April 24, 2020. He was 78 years old. His story reminds us that it is never too late to reinvent yourself, to keep on keeping on, enjoy life to the fullest and spread your zest for life to those around you.  You never know who you may inspire (Mason Goldberg I am thinking of you) or what may inspire you.