Intentions

Here I am, basking in the glow of a life spent using language. As a young person just out of college, I canvassed neighborhoods for environmental groups, knocking on strangers' doors seeking signatures and donations. The seven years I spent walking neighborhoods, training others to canvass, and running offices full of canvassers gave me a series of lessons in street psychology. I learned how to assess a person's willingness to speak with me, how to initiate conversations about environmental topics which concerned them, and how to ask for money. I had pleasant (and a few not-so-pleasant) conversations, made several actual friends, and only got bitten by a dog once. I raised lots of money, and decided that if I could get more than a hundred dollars from complete strangers night after night, I could do just about anything.

I moved on to retail sales, selling consumer electronics. It turned out that it was easier to sell a physical product than an idea, and I again relied upon the proper choice of words to find success in the field. After a few years, I became bored with this commercial endeavor and decided that my higher calling was to enter the profession of teaching. Long story short, I spent twenty-six years working with students in middle school and high school. The daily interactions with kids and adults energized me and gave me an opportunity to apply lots of the lessons I'd learned as a canvasser and a salesperson, with the added responsibility of using my influence to impart knowledge.So. Many. Words.

Some words about why I'm using words here, now. In recent years, I've discovered that certain things matter a great deal to me. Things such as nature, and human nature, and the many links between all forms of life. Connections. That's the main idea which permeates most of my thoughts these days. And through my formal and informal writing, I hope to make connections with my readers. I hope to highlight the connections which exist between all of us. And I hope to keep learning how to become a better human being. Integrity matters. I appreciate the opportunity of sharing my words with anyone who cares to read them. If this sharing, this connectivity, reminds us we are all part of a system, that each of us belongs, I will have succeeded.