Nondualism

I was reading Part One of Errol Morris’ new essay, What’s in a Name, when I paused to look something up. I Googled the name of the street I grew up on, Dart Hill Road, wondering if there may be some information about its naming. Though I did not find what I was looking for, what I did discover was that the street name is nearly unique. I also read a little history of the town I grew up in- South Windsor. I’m not terribly interested in what New England was like around the time of the Revolution- much more so in what it was like there before Europeans. But I thought it of note that the small farming town sent two hundred men to fight and that it housed a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Not that any of that shocked me- as a kid I took many a field trip to Old Main Street by the Connecticut River. There was a shock lurking on that wikipedia page.

The brothers Porcaro hailed from South Windsor and are by far the most noteworthy folk to come from my town. Its an unsung point of pride that I wish I knew about earlier in life. When I first arrived in Chicago I could have boasted of the fact to new friends. Steve, Jeff, and Mike- the keyboardist, drummer and bassist, respectively, in the classic rock band Toto- are from where I’m from. In fact, it goes much further. Steve was a pioneer of Polyfusion systems building a giant analog synthesizer he named DAMIUS to record the sounds of Toto IV- including the keyboard solo on “Africa.” He blessed the rains. Steve left Toto fulltime in the mid eighties to pursue songwriting and composing- he composed the song “Human Nature” for Michael Jackson’s album Thriller.

That’s where I’m from.