To provide a more detailed sense of who I am in this work of being human with other human beings in a shared world, I offer the following acknowledgements and disclosures:
I am by nature, passionate interest, and training—and perhaps affliction—a gender theorist, an anthropologically-focused theologian, writer, consultant, educator and participant-learner interested in cofacilitating learning communities. To these endeavors, I come bearing decades of lived experience, training, and a heart for a relational, connective practice, curiosity, honesty, and willingness to stay in conversations—even, if not especially, the hard ones. 

Previously, I was trained and worked for over two decades as a mental health counselor and clinician, program developer, and staff developer-trainer. Currently, as a person who still needs to keep a day job to pay the bills, I serve as assistant director of a nonprofit engaged in the deeply soulful labor of fostering and holding relational circles committed to courageous curiosity, conversation, and connection.

In my work and my everyday life, I am endlessly seeking evidence the world is, indeed, built on hesed—generally translated as lovingkindness, hesed means so much more: love, covenantal faithfulness, steadfastness, kindness, and even mercy. For me, this searching is a kind of labor of heart-soul-mind, deeply embodied and embedded in the world, entire—in nature, in human beingness and interactions, the behavior of creatures in the natural world, and the endlessly emerging Torah whispered everywhere: in breeze-blown leaves, birdsong, and the silent spaces in our hearts and our conversations, to name a few potentialities.

Additionally, I enjoy reading, studying Torah, woodworking, gardening, drawing, and especially spending time with my spouse, Diana, our family, and our friends. When I am not writing, woodworking, or closeted away thinking about poetry, I am usually making or repairing things in the wood shop, tending the gardens, working on Big Blue (our truck), or wandering the natural world in search of interesting minerals, fossils, and other unusual artifacts.

I am happy to keep growing older and living-on with Diana, a freelance artist, designer, and publishing professional who shares adventures with me, inspires me to playfulness and laughter. Together, we strive to tend the gardens around the yard and the relationships that matter to us, are engaged members of our Jewish community, and take walks with our dog, Dodi, when we can get his lazy self to go with us. Sometimes, we make art together or simply sit on the porch watching the birds.

For a few years, I collaborated on a monthly podcast—the Bible Bash Podcast—with previous co-host and producer, Peterson Toscano, and my final co-host, Don Durham (of blessed memory). After Don took his earthly leave, I just couldn’t bring myself to try to continue with someone else. In some forums, it is still available for listening.