Paul Michael Alirangues's Page

The Story of "The Organic Grower"

By Paul Alirangues

1st draft. 1/11/08

"The Organic Grower" is the realization of my life's purpose. Everything that I have encountered has in some way prepared me for this venture.


I was born on November 26th, 1963, in New Haven Connecticut. Just 4 days after our country was rocked by the assignation of a beloved President, John Fitzgerald Kennedy. It was Thanksgiving week and just two days after my birth, my mother ate her Thanksgiving meal in the hospital. I was born in to sadness and reared by hope, with thanks and respect to God for all that we have.

A large part of my early childhood was spent without a father. After suffering a nervous breakdown, loss of job and finally loss of home, my father returned to his native Spain in 1968 and I didn't see him again for five years. We lived with my grandparents during that time. We celebrated the holidays with good food and reverence for God and very often with the presence of a Catholic priest.

In 1973, because of my mothers' strong religious beliefs in the sanctity of marriage and partially because of a young boy who missed his father, my mother brought me and my older brother Leon to Spain, to see my father and arrange for his return to us. My fathers' mental illness was in full force then and continued for many years after, but my mothers' commitment to him remained until her death in 1987, when she succumbed to lung cancer.

Anyone who was a child of the sixties and seventies grew up in a tumultuous time. Civil rights, Vietnam, the Cold War, the Energy Crisis, urban blight, suburban sprawl, racism, corruption. We were born in to a world that was topsy turvy. We weren't disillusioned because we never were very idyllic to begin with. Many of us became cynical, many became radical, but still many became hopeful as well. The burgeoning hippie/new age culture pointed to a new direction, a direction where Peace and Love were the guiding principals, a direction that promised change and a new world free of hate, war and poverty.

I first experienced hope in 1976. I was a very sad and emotional child, I'm still emotional. But President Jimmy Carter gave me hope. Hope that the world could be a better place, a world where people stood together in peace and supported one another. A world where what was right, applied to everyone, not just the people we call our own. In high school I became very religious and returned to the Catholic Church. I became interested in all religions, but that was only a beginning. The Carter years were filled with hope and faith, but that too was shattered by the militant uprising in Iran that led to dozens of American hostages being taken and held for over a year and ultimately to the defeat of Jimmy Carter.

The eighties were a dark chaotic time. President Reagan, instead of moving the country forward, tried to return the country to some long gone era, a time that nobody my age could relate to. A time where people knew their place and accepted what they were given. A time of fear and xenophobia where the country would close ranks and again try to impose it's will on the rest of the world. People became self oriented and selfish, greed was the prevailing sin. But I revolted, I didn't want to turn back the hands of time, but instead move forward to a new age. I became an activist and joined with many from my generation to try and overturn the Reagan policies.

I dropped out of High School in 1980, in the midst of the Iran hostage crisis. I was becoming a very serious and angry young man. I had no patience for the conventions of modern life. I wanted change and I wanted it now. I applied for acceptance in to the church and wanted to become a Franciscan Friar. But I was rejected and told I did not have a true conviction because I still entertained thoughts of someday being a father. That turned me away from the church for some time. I immediately got my High School equivalency diploma and after a brief working stint entered college where my first major was Philosophy and Religion. I later changed to History, but attended school less and less as the need to work increased. I worked all through my college years. I had 13 different jobs during that time. I attended classes sporadically and spent a lot of time in NYC. I started going to New York when I was only 13 years old. In eighth grade I took almost every Friday off from school and travelled by bus to the City. There, I was exposed to many things, Child predators, drugs, hippies, punks, political activists and most importantly……Music.

Music is my biggest passion. I found refuge in the clubs and bars of Greenwich Village where I became a lover of live performance. I've seen so many great musical acts over the years. Music is my salvation, music also became the first attraction between my wife and I, but that would happen many years later. But music and politics have always been a part of my adult life. It was during that time when I first became aware of things like "alternative energy" and "Organics" which were considered hippie tree hugger stuff back then. And in spite of the negative influence of the Reagan years, these things remained part of alternative culture and are finally becoming accepted by the mainstream. Concerts use to be banned and now they are arranged by Freeholder boards.

From the time I was born I was guided by certain things. The first thing was my fathers' illness and my mothers' devotion to the church, followed by the Vietnam War and the Cambodian genocide, the energy crisis and the Mideast crisis, the Carter presidency and the Iran Hostage crisis and the Reagan Presidency and the Iran Contra affair, the hippie movement and later the punk movement. The country in those years was much like today, generally unhappy. And it all contributed to a deep depression for me, when my mother died of cancer in 1987. I started reading about alternative health care and vowed to never trust my health or the health of a loved one to anyone but myself or themselves.

I found out about Organics by reading about Macrobiotics as a treatment for cancer. I vowed that if I ever got cancer I would choose that as my treatment, but never had the will to try straight out. But I followed alternative healthcare for years after............



That's it for now, obviously it has a ways to go. Part of taking stock of everything, is taking stock of what has been downloaded in this ole ticker of mine. I have a lot of information floating around up there and I'm finally at a good enough Spirit, that I can begin to sort things out. Everday and every moment that passes, something is learned. I know the path I now take is a long one, I may not have this big a transformation for quite some time. It's time to reap what has been sown in me and bring in my crop for all to share. You'll see me around, just not as much, but you'll feel me more and more each day, until we are one.

Peace Love and Light

Paul