I saw the crazy guy inside the 
Capitol Rotunda with his tattoos, 
Daniel Boone cap and Viking horns

and it were the horns that really 
caught my attention.  The guy?
He’s a looney-toon, 32-year-old 

actor from Phoenix. The horns? 
I guess symbols of white, male 
aggression, violence, supremacy. 

I am about 50% Scandinavian and 
while I have never known very much 
about my roots, I have mythologized 

what they are and therefore who I 
am, but, actually I’m thinking about 
the Scandinavia I hear about today — 

world’s happiest people, environment-
ally aware, peace loving. Back to 
the horns. Symbols of savagery. I 

am the son of Gust. I guess that 
would make me a Gustafson even 
though I was told my name was 

Hanson before some ancestor changed 
it to what it is today for reasons
never explained. While I love my 

long-deceased father, I actually 
like my baptism name better — 
child of God, brother and friend 

of Jesus; you know — Jesus, the 
Middle-Eastern, dark-skinned guy 
who is the wonderful window into 

the universal, inclusive, grace-
filled Spirit of peace and love. 
Actually, I think my hornless 

father would have liked that.
Probably my long-gone wooden-
shoe wearing Dutch mother, too.