There have been big swaths of my life when I felt like I was leading from behind. I suspect that many, many others have felt the same way, though they might not have named the phenomenon thus. Here are some examples: Having more experience and information than anyone else in a group, but not being…
Only a couple of weeks ago, I remarked how a few fireflies in my backyard made me a time traveler. Dexter and I both spotted their greenish glow. You know how they are: the first one or two make you wonder for a moment if you actually saw them. You look where the tiny beam…
One of the things I noticed as a new staff person at Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin in the early 1980’s was that both government and foundation staff were very helpful. They wanted Planned Parenthood programs to succeed. They valued sexuality education, clinical services, and advocacy. They got the point that to make every child a…
The countdown to my encore launch has begun. At 5:00 PM Central Time July 31, 2015 I am closing the door on this chapter of my life as the President and CEO of Diverse and Resilient. The following Monday, I will be attending more specifically to my work in community development with projects in Milwaukee and…
The Fourth of July is a nostalgic time for me. I remember with pleasure and wonder blankets under the sky at Jackson, Mitchell, Wilson, and Juneau Parks. I recall parades and curbs and decorated bikes. While there were traditions like soupy Jell-o and potato salad that needed monitoring for temperature, there were also steady changes…
Yesterday South Carolina State Senator Pinkney was buried and others murdered in Charleston were memorialized. Yesterday LGBT university presidents and chancelors cheered during the opening moments of their first conference to advance emerging leaders in higher education. Yesterday the US Supreme Court announced their decision about the constitutional protection of same sex couples to marry.…
Over the next several weeks, I will be very active in transitioning leadership of the organization I founded to its new executive. There will be scores of details to address, skeletons to exhume, and introductions to make. Today, I am hitting the pause button on my regular blog posts. This current post is the 100th…
She had known that they were all bored by him, but it had never occurred to her that he was equally bored by them. He was as ever kind and subdued, but the sad perspicacity which she had learnt in suffering suggested to her that, though he probably never acknowledged it to himself and never…
When he died, I went about like a ragged crow telling strangers, “My father died, my father died.” My indiscretion embarrassed me, but I could not help it. Without my father on his Delhi rooftop, why was I here? Without him there, why should I go back? Without that ache between us, what was I…
My father was one of those men who sit in a room and you can feel it: the simmer, the sense of some unpredictable force that might, at any moment, break loose, and do something terrible. ― John Burnside, A Lie about My Father: A Memoir I must have been about seven or eight, certainly no more,…
Creating Community for Everyone 