Jim Heaney

Taste This, Taste That: the Life of Jim Heaney, Dilettante

Jim Heaney was born an Irish-Catholic alcoholic. He remains one today. However, he has been sober for the past 21 years. No one has yet found a cure for the Irish-Catholicism. This story begins in a tiny house in Jacksonville, Florida, and ends in a slightly larger one in Columbia, South Carolina. Residences in central Florida, Indiana, Liberia, Georgia, Pennsylvania, England, Zaire (now Congo), and Kansas follow in that order. Much of Dr. Heaney's life involved battles. His most difficult ones were within himself. He struggled with low self-esteem, academics, addiction, religion, and infidelity. Several of these skirmishes are ongoing. In his youth, he learned to his distain that "dilettante" referred to someone who dabbled in the arts and academics. Someone who knew a little about a lot. During his twilight years, Jim came to realize that he was that dilettante for whom he'd had low regard. Yet age had allowed him to accept that dabbler and, hence, himself. The older he became, the more he realized the less he knew.