Duncan Mack

Some have sent me notes asking about this good brother, Tim McCallum, who just “departed the scene” after a valiant year-long ordeal with pancreatic cancer.

I met Tim back in the late 90s-early 2000s when I was facilitating retreats of various kinds and we maintained a connection that spanned two decades.

He moved from New York State to Maui, Hawaii, with his then-lady, Kerri, and they quickly settled into island life. Tim cultivated a deep offering to the community in two ways - a Pilates and body-awareness practice and as a popular DJ on Mana’o Radio, 91.7 FM, Maui, Hawaii with his wonderful weekly show Down Deep with Duncan Mack.

The format of his show was always the same. After the syndicated news, Tim (a.k.a. DJ Duncan Mack) would jump on and give The Uplifting News. As we can all attest, in general, the news sucks. It’s suspiciously designed to ratchet up the divisiveness, the depressing, the hateful. Tim would present the antidote. A story about someone digging wells in Africa, and someone else raising bees. His news was a form of love. Then, he’d switch gears. The first hour was the Boogie Down. Music to move yo ass. Motown. Techno. Cuban. Classical Indian. Qawwali. Hawaiian traditional. House. Dance.

Then, over the years, he began incorporating some of my poems into the mix, and the poetry of others, with soundscapes, and he would always give these wonderful chats (after proper hydration, of course), which were the equivalent of modern-day dharma talks on topics ranging from kindness and following your dreams to the sanity of feminism and combatting the downward spiral thinking of this red dust culture of modernity. Then, it was the last hour of the show -- sliding into the mellow; with ambient and chill vibes to ease people into their weekend.

At a certain point along the way, Tim and Kerri created a miracle: their son Logan a.k.a. a little warrior nicknamed “Duper”;. Watching from afar how Tim and Kerri-- a late-in-life father and mother -- flowed right into these new roles without missing a beat was so beautiful to see. I’m sure I don’t know the half of it.

Tim will be greatly missed by so so many. The following are thoughts that stirred for me in reflecting upon the Tim I knew -- a spirit who embodied the true enlightened warriors code of hospitality.