A confessed outsider, Chicago’s J. Ray Paradiso was a recovering academic who refreshed himself as an experiMENTAL writer and street photographer. His work appeared in dozens of publications online and in print. Equipped with cRaZy quilt graduate degrees in both Business Administration and Philosophy, he labored to fill temporal-spatial, psycho-social holes and, on good days, to enjoy the flow. All of his work is dedicated to his true love, sweet muse and bodyguard: Suzi Skoski Wosker Doski. J. Ray Paradiso passed away this year, and this essay is published on his birthday.