As a US diplomat, he served in embassies and consulates around the world. As an Air Force Commander, he had some daring exploits of varying levels of sanity and sophistication. He’s lived, worked, and played in more than fifty-five countries spanning six continents.
In his memoir, Gathering No Moss, Feeney recalls his four-decade trip down his life’s wild, weird, and surprising journeys. A somewhat reluctant traveler, he conveys the heavy burden of loneliness on the road while driven by the search for meaning, spirituality, and love. His life has been filled with thought-provoking questions, highly charged emotional situations, and brushes with greatness and tragedy.
He’s been an airman, an officer, an instructor, a commander, an administrator, a trainer, a consular officer, a manager, and a diplomat. He’s sold paintings on a street corner, washed dishes, worked in a paper mill, flipped hamburgers, painted houses, and tended a bar. He smoked pot, drank too much, and fell in (and out) of love (including four marriages). He went AWOL, was shot at three times, survived a brain aneurysm, and beat colon cancer.
His mantra— “The more you know, the more you don’t know sh*t” or TMYKTMYDKS—reminds us all that the human mind will never let you understand the human mind.
