Of course it’s all about me, and the first thing to know about me is that I’m not all about me. That’s a lot of ‘me’s,’ already. I prefer everything to be about us, everyone. That’s what feels right to…me. There he is again. 

This is not a resume. It’s a broad snapshot of  my inner self  for anyone that wants to know a little more about me on a personal level.  Moreover , it’s somewhat of a filter, saving anyone else and myself the time of going any further because something here doesn’t sit with them. 

I’m a big dog lover, and you’ll see my little family here in the photos. We have Godzilla (aka Zilla), first born, her brother  King Kong (Kong) from the litter after her, and their half brother, Quark (the Dork).  They’re with me most anywhere I am, and I love to spend time with them, chasing rabbits, lizards, squirrels, bike riding, and generally hanging out. They’re Hunt Russell Terriers, or Jack Russell’s when the color pattern is white base. They show us the  pure uninhibited essence of simply living, and doing nothing more. No false personas, no hidden agendas, no stories, just pure life. Something worth aspiring to. We can learn a lot from them.

Now on to me:

TY Cherry, 57 years young as of December 2024.

Who I am, my identity, and what I do, are of course related, and they’re entirely separate. We can identify with something or some person or some concept or pretty much anything, but if we let that identification become our identity, we then lose who we really are, and we risk losing ourselves if whatever that thing is goes away. Have you heard someone say, “just who do you think you are?” It’s a great question if we pick up on the real meaning. Another one I like: ”who’s driving the bus?”

I’ve been fortunate enough to identify many ego identities throughout my life, while others I have not identified and may never. I see how they served me in good ways and more often in not so good ways. One example is bodybuilding. I got involved at a very young age and continued for decades. It led to my educational background in nutritional biochemistry, health, and many of my business ventures, mostly good things, yet the other side was that I did tremendous damage to my body with excess training and supplements including anabolic drugs, and my ego attached to physical bodies, mine and others, judgments and assessments of myself and others, and a very myopic thought process around that and other things in life. Then the big lesson it brought me  in 1992 — an arrest for possessing anabolic steroids.  Yes, I was arrested, and it’s an important part of my life, who I became as a result of a very complex journey.  If that presents an issue for you, then read no further, leave this page, never to return, I totally understand, and we saved a lot of time! 

To that end, the large majority of society does not, and perhaps cannot, understand what having been arrested or even incarcerated means.  There  is an immediate and predominantly unconscious response to it that is a learned habit. It directs people to reject and turn away from “that kind of person” or “one of them” and find a way to avoid contact.  I’ve seen it countless times in many forms, mostly unconscious actions,  in response to the announcement.  Only on occasion does it surprise me at this point, though the sting is always there. An immediate judgment, categorization, and closing off. It is quite interesting.

 My autobiography will fully detail my experiences, so if you want to know it all you’ll find it there where I recount my version of Dante’s journey. Here I will just say it was a nonviolent, victimless offense. I never consider myself a victim.  That’s possibly the most powerful ego identity I developed but there are of course others.

In mid 2023 as I was delving deeper into my ‘self’  I came to see my current ego identity, which was in what I do. Now, however, I realized I was attached to it as my essence of being. I’m referring to my foundation, EarthCorp, which I began in 2001. If you want to know me it’s a must to know EarthCorp.

EarthCorp is what I do to express my life vision and passion,  to create projects and systems that regenerate our planet, and bring us together to support us as one society, notwithstanding any of our perceived differences like politics, race, religion or geographical separation.  Anything and everything can be done. Walter Disney embodied that, and said it in his own way:  If you can dream it you can do it.  The mission statement is: Eliminating poverty by making environmental regeneration economically appealing. This is accomplished through the creation of jobs, enterprises, and economic development using environmental regeneration programs we design.  It represents more than 2o years of work, so there is a lot to it.  If you are interested you’ll find more on the site.

 I became aware that I was perceiving EarthCorp as my “self’’, everything about me, my personality, my being, and most importantly, whether I would succeed or fail in life. That is a giant risk.  It’s an amazing functional project and mission and I’ve clearly seen it succeed,  seen it all the way through to completion. Still, there  is absolutely no guarantee it will succeed so I  get to accept that it could go in a different direction.  If it did, what of me? Am I a failure?  What other stories can I make up then?  

So now I completely identify with EarthCorp. I am the driving force, the creator and the visionary, and it’s what I do, it’s just no longer who I am. Now I’m working on just me, figuring out what it means to  simply to be happy and enjoy life. Real life, not the adapted persona I spent most of my life in, based around materialism and tangibility. I’ve heard that described as a mass psychosis that many people hold as their identities.  If it’s gone, then what?

Being clear, my goals in life are: 1) to be happy, 2) to build community, and 3) to genuinely help society/planet. Both numbers two and three go back to number one. If I come to find for whatever reason that they are not furthering my happiness, I will stop doing them. Not myself or any other person who has or ever will exist has any duty or obligation to please or help others.  That is a simple fact. We create sociological personas and stories about obligations or mandates that we “should”  or “have to” do certain things, which in turn imply guilt or failure, or not being good enough. if we don’t.  Those all come from stories we have created throughout time and applied to one another, often in an effort to exert control or bend others to our will, conscious of unconscious. It’s a tangled web, one that I am constantly looking to extricate myself from, and I feel that can only happen when we are clear with ourselves and our true desires. This is not about morals, which I feel are paramount for society and maintain a defined set of, rather it’s about being true to ourselves and our authentic nature. 

 My arrest was the first catalyst for my beginning  to see and understand it for what it is.   I was able to identify more of the real values in life and start to move away from living focused only on materialism.  Not that I don’t enjoy many of our tangible creations, I do, I just don’t have an obsession with them anymore or believe they bring me any worth by having them. I don’t crave or pursue loads of stuff.  I go for  those relevant to my goals and the key things that make me happy. Buddha said it best: attachment causes pain.  Life flows better when I use my talents and abilities in an outward focused way. That gives me the most pleasure. 

After working with myself for many years I realized how closed off and shut down I had become. I saw I was simply going through the motions,  pretending I was able to feel, to express real emotion, acting like I thought I was supposed to. I’m aware of the differences between intellectual and emotional intelligence, but I certainly haven’t been expressing much of any on the emotional side for a long time.   I don’t believe we can truly succeed in life if we hesitate to develop our emotional intellect. Without it we are a shell, and our actions and decisions will likely be seen as inauthentic. 

So there you have some personal philosophy, some experiences,  and some photos that hopefully bring some laughs.  If you would like to learn more, reach out, ask, I am totally open. No time to waste with stories, just blunt honesty. Check out  EarthCorpFoundation.org to also learn more about me.  If you like what you see there, please join as a free member, keeping in mind it’s not about me, it’s about all of us working together to be the change to a better world.  You can also stop by InnocentChocolate.com, one of my  projects designed to support EarthCorp and a healthy lifestyle. 

I like to laugh, be in nature, play with my dogs, dance, swim, stay fit, help people and planet, connect with others, be with myself, grow my foods, hike, travel, I love children,  and more. 

I can do without: big cities, big crowds,  materialism, inward focus, politicians, zealots, dislikers of animals, heavy development, corporatocracy, and surely more, though I would rather keep my list of likes longer and dislikes shorter.

I’m a relationship oriented guy, and a driving tasker.  For those that are familiar with them, my top five Clifton Strengths are: Relator, Strategic, Input, Ideation, self assurance. My Myers Briggs Type is INTJ, and my Tony Robbins DISC motivator is a “D” with an adaptive “I” style. I find tools like these helpful in developing new perspectives on ourselves and how others may see us, as well as how we may see them.

The woman I’m looking for as a life partner aligns with my likes and can understand my experiences, and has her own I want to learn about. She’s outwardly focused, in good physical  and emotional shape, taking pride in working out her mind, body, and spirit.  She may have her own children, or be open to adopting, though neither is mandatory. All the rest I get to learn about. A nice book on relationships is The One, by Adashanti and Mukti. 

That’s it for now, thanks for joining me, I look forward to connecting with you.