Understanding Community: My Ongoing Journey

people doing group hand cheer

I've been writing on and off for a while now about what I think community means. All because of my journey with fellow stay-at-home dads these past few years. Yet I never believed for even a second I was close to understanding it. So when an opportunity appeared last evening for me to attend a … Continue reading Understanding Community: My Ongoing Journey

Fathering Softer #6 — Engaging my teen

black father talking to son in fir trees field

I believe there's one universal truth about engaging with a teenager, in my case, a 15-year-old boy: Conversations rarely happen. Yes. That's a fact. At least in my household it is. It takes a lot of effort to engage my firstborn in a conversation. Not because I don't want to mind you. On the contrary, … Continue reading Fathering Softer #6 — Engaging my teen

Knowledge Conversations + Writing = Knowledge Work

Since ending my adjunct teaching duties last week, I found myself jumping back this week into meetings with different folks. Each time involving conversations that connect me to less academic stuff and more real-world ones. Increasingly I see these conversations as fuel for my creative thinking and writing. They provide content for me to muse … Continue reading Knowledge Conversations + Writing = Knowledge Work

Conversations for human connections

people silhouette during sunset

June is proving to be the month for human connections for me. Or, more specifically, men-to-men connections. Especially if you go by what happened in the past week when I had not one, not two, but five separate and deep conversations with eight men! Had you told me this would happen a month ago, I … Continue reading Conversations for human connections

Of Cerebral Conversations and Cognitive Connections

I'm always looking for opportunities to spend time with people who stimulate me intellectually. That's something not difficult to do when I was still plugged into my previous full-time lecturing work. There, I had easy access to what I refer to as 'cerebral colleagues' (as opposed to the 'coffee chit chat colleagues'), as well as … Continue reading Of Cerebral Conversations and Cognitive Connections