Again, it’s hard to overstate how affirming it was to have another person remember the same stories as you. I told Tony that I have kept many such memories in the memoir I wrote, Always Partly Broken, covering this time period and the impact of difficult forces on the spirit, particularly the feeling of remembering certain important events alone. Our conversation was the type that reaffirms the whole person—past, present and future.

I recently returned from representing Illuman at the Wild Goose Festival. This was my third Wild Goose. I had heard Richard Rohr talk about it in the past, and in 2018 on a whim, I decided to go. This year marked the tenth anniversary of the Wild Goose Festival. Joy Wallis, who is married to Jim Wallis of Sojourners, was a founder of the festival and explained how Richard was the inaugural keynote speaker in 2011. The Wild Goose Festival was inspired by the Greenbelt Festival in the UK which is in its 47th year. They describe themselves as where artistry meets activism, the secular meets the spiritual, and politics meets positivity. It is the same at Wild Goose: Spirit, Justice, Music & Art.

The summer is drawing to a close, but opportunities for growth and involvement in Illuman’s men’s work are not waning.

As always, stay in touch. Let me know what is happening in your life and what you would like to see happening at Ohio Illuman.