Relating to community and the process of creating it (communitizing)
• Let’s not • [<2 MIN READ] Playing softball, one ACF student managed to get smacked in the chest with a bat. How? I don’t know. It’s college. Weird things happen in college. Anyway, his chest was pretty painful and the other ACF buddies wanted him to go to Student Health Services to get checked … More I Bruise You, You Bruise Me*
• Serendipitous and deliberate • [1½ MIN READ] Since travel during race-training season often overlaps with customary training runs, one must make allowances. For me, making them gives me an opportunity to make friends in new spaces. Take Wife’s professional meetings, for instance. I’ll have her put out an announcement about a morning group run … More Accommodating Has Its Rewards (#324: 2025’10’01’W)
• Instead of “Run” • [1½ MIN READ] It’s odd to think how many JRC GGR-ers, back in the day, were not actually denizens of Jenkintown, given the store’s name; but, you know, retailers can’t discriminate: it’s bad for business (Jenkintown Running Company online and this website). What’s odd, relatively, is how many Jenkintonians there … More Walk Report (#323: 2025’09’24’W)
• Now just a little older and more familiar • [2 MIN READ] Hanging out again post-run at The Pizza Wheel, I looked at the name of our young server on the bill. Sometimes restaurant staff use other people’s logins, so I confirmed it with her as we made to go. Meredith took the opportunity … More You’re My Neighbor (#317: 2025’08’13’W)
• Communities in community • [2½ MIN READ] At Black Men Run Wednesdays Five years ago (virtually to the day), Train Dave and I joined Black Men Run Philadelphia as the inaugural Growlers travel team. We attended a 2nd time in 2020 then went on hiatus while we waited for the Growlers Group Run to … More Good Times with BMR for Wednesdays and Juneteenth (#316: 2025’08’06’W)
• A couple of thoughts from experience • [1½ MIN READ] I’ve learned a few things about negotiating grief. Two came to mind recently when I was with friends going through the process. Having gone through a few deaths of people I love, including someone very recently, I was able to sit in sympathy with … More Handling Grief
• Getting past just appearances • [2 MIN READ] When my new colleague arrived at the summer conference (SuCo) for my new organization, Coalition for Christian Outreach (CCO), Jon was wearing an Orlando Half-marathon 2024 running shirt. That got us talking immediately, but only briefly as we worked on getting into our respective rooms. The … More Discovered
• Being with and being • [2 MIN READ] Throughout life, I’d managed to stay close to a few important people. People whom I knew and trusted and ones that knew and trusted me. But only a few. Then I started running. I joined a running group at the local running store (iCandybyWangC.com, RunORC.com). It … More The World Is Full of Nice People
• An Anchorage version • [2½ MIN READ] A community-service trip, like a mission project, might not conventionally feature a fixture like a foodfest, at least not one I was to design. One like that would prioritize conversation. This is a truth that people who spend time with me might soon discover; however, my annual … More Consumption and Conversation
• More inattentive than I dared imagine • [2 MIN READ] A recent organizational conference I attended was inordinately full of moments of ditziness that amounted to mostly just annoyance: managing to get into the wrong dorm room for host-college housing, continuing a run down the street and entirely forgetting to turn over to the … More Putting on the Ditz*
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