About

Me

The author, hair dyed blue, standing in front of a palm tree, squinting due to the tropical sun. — In Playa del Carmen

Hello! I'm Chris Dempewolf (dim-pee-wolf), software engineer, former ESL teacher, and, most recently, husband and father.

I'm from Fort Smith, Arkansas. I lived in Seattle for 2 years and abroad in Mexico 🇲🇽, Japan 🇯🇵, and Germany 🇩🇪. I taught English for a couple of years and have worked as a software engineer for 7 years.

I made this blog to explore my thoughts and practice my writing. I don't really know what I know until I write it, so this is meant to serve as my light in the dark.

The Title

In the beginner's mind, there are many possibilities; in the expert's mind there are few.

Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind

This blog's title, Shoshin, is a Zen concept roughly translated as "beginner's mind", a concept first popularized in the West by Zen teacher Shunryu Suzuki in his book, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind. It implies curiosity, openness, and approaching things without preconceptions. It is the goal of this blog to explore many new and interesting topics—always through the eyes of a beginner.