About
I am a historian and traveler of the US West. I am a teacher and a learner. A coach and an athlete (albeit in an aging body). I am a policy junkie and an optimist. The purpose of this site is to take the encouragement from many of my students, my colleagues, my family, and my friends to write stories that do what they all seem to think I do in person -- help us connect. The people in my life claim that I help them to connect in one way or another all the time and they think I should write some of those things down now and again. So here I am.
The entries will chronicle an experience or a topic I've been thinking about during the week and will hopefully make sometimes playful and sometimes profound connections among seemingly disparate things. In my first entry, for example, I find deep connections between our neighborhood coyote, a Latino worker, and a fearful dog walker.
In an age when we are all connected more than ever, I hear from people all the time that they feel disconnected. I see in our public servants and in our educational system a willful unwillingness to make important connections. So this is my contribution to connection thinking (a new term perhaps).
And then there is the other purpose of this site: Earnie. Earnie is my teddy bear, who has a grand and adventurous life all his own. For years, friends and family have been encouraging me to write a children's book about Earnie. I'm not sure I know how to do that, but to maybe give myself a kick in the pants, Earnie will have his own page on this blog and if that goes well, maybe we will try to give him his own book some day. But Earnie fits here because I imagine we all want to connect more with wonder than we currently do.
So why the name? I began playing basketball at the age of 10. Eventually won a high school state tournament, all-state honors, and played collegiate ball. I went on to coach and for a decade had an 82% win percentage because I had players who connected deeply to one another and to the game. I have always been an old-fashioned sort of player and coach. In particular, I LOVE the pick 'n roll. Don't know what that is? Check out this great instructional video of the "play." It's one of the great tried and true set plays in the game of basketball and it requires the 2 offensive players to truly connect with each other. In ball as in life, communication, timing, and understanding are crucial for success. In this OLD SCHOOL video, Larry Bird explains how the screener must connect with the defender but, perhaps unexpectedly, the ball handler is really the one that makes the connection happen. The ball handler should rub the shoulder (and thus connect) with the screener. Then, ideally, there is a perfectly connected pass to the screener who has rolled. The play offers a profound analogy for life. When you initiate action, you should always connect first. Just when you think your role is over, you should keep going (and roll). When you connect, don't give up, and look out for others (and are ready for the pass), you will most certainly create beauty!! Hence the name and purpose of this blog.
Don't worry, there won't be too many corny basketball analogies. Each week, I hope to write a decently brief story about something I've encountered during my week that offered an opportunity to make connections. You will find a smattering of stories about the landscapes I explore and some ponderings on my Palo Verde neighborhood in the beautiful but challenging Sonoran Desert. You will find a smorgasbord of my thoughts on a wide range of topics from coaching to teaching to traveling to staying. There won't be much (if any) partisan politics here, but there might be some musings on public policy (I can't help it). There will almost always be a connection to the non-human world as I think that is simultaneously increasingly scarce and increasingly important. And there will almost always be observations of social interactions past and present.
Pick and choose what you read. And let me know your reactions. I imagine I will learn a lot from connecting with you and hearing your kind and thoughtful responses.
The entries will chronicle an experience or a topic I've been thinking about during the week and will hopefully make sometimes playful and sometimes profound connections among seemingly disparate things. In my first entry, for example, I find deep connections between our neighborhood coyote, a Latino worker, and a fearful dog walker.
In an age when we are all connected more than ever, I hear from people all the time that they feel disconnected. I see in our public servants and in our educational system a willful unwillingness to make important connections. So this is my contribution to connection thinking (a new term perhaps).
And then there is the other purpose of this site: Earnie. Earnie is my teddy bear, who has a grand and adventurous life all his own. For years, friends and family have been encouraging me to write a children's book about Earnie. I'm not sure I know how to do that, but to maybe give myself a kick in the pants, Earnie will have his own page on this blog and if that goes well, maybe we will try to give him his own book some day. But Earnie fits here because I imagine we all want to connect more with wonder than we currently do.
So why the name? I began playing basketball at the age of 10. Eventually won a high school state tournament, all-state honors, and played collegiate ball. I went on to coach and for a decade had an 82% win percentage because I had players who connected deeply to one another and to the game. I have always been an old-fashioned sort of player and coach. In particular, I LOVE the pick 'n roll. Don't know what that is? Check out this great instructional video of the "play." It's one of the great tried and true set plays in the game of basketball and it requires the 2 offensive players to truly connect with each other. In ball as in life, communication, timing, and understanding are crucial for success. In this OLD SCHOOL video, Larry Bird explains how the screener must connect with the defender but, perhaps unexpectedly, the ball handler is really the one that makes the connection happen. The ball handler should rub the shoulder (and thus connect) with the screener. Then, ideally, there is a perfectly connected pass to the screener who has rolled. The play offers a profound analogy for life. When you initiate action, you should always connect first. Just when you think your role is over, you should keep going (and roll). When you connect, don't give up, and look out for others (and are ready for the pass), you will most certainly create beauty!! Hence the name and purpose of this blog.
Don't worry, there won't be too many corny basketball analogies. Each week, I hope to write a decently brief story about something I've encountered during my week that offered an opportunity to make connections. You will find a smattering of stories about the landscapes I explore and some ponderings on my Palo Verde neighborhood in the beautiful but challenging Sonoran Desert. You will find a smorgasbord of my thoughts on a wide range of topics from coaching to teaching to traveling to staying. There won't be much (if any) partisan politics here, but there might be some musings on public policy (I can't help it). There will almost always be a connection to the non-human world as I think that is simultaneously increasingly scarce and increasingly important. And there will almost always be observations of social interactions past and present.
Pick and choose what you read. And let me know your reactions. I imagine I will learn a lot from connecting with you and hearing your kind and thoughtful responses.
