New Jobs, New Directions...

Art-making is a difficult addiction to maintain.

I've managed it by taking a number of jobs:

• Industrial Reforestation (half a million trees planted!)
• Animatronic Movie Prop (film & TV extra)
• Carb & Sugar Delivery Agent (Olive Garden Server)
• Bum-Wiper (daycare worker)
• Baby Boomer Boredom Reliever (home renovations)
• Lion, Tiger, and Bear Duster (house slave for a big game hunter)

Et cetera. 

And although I've always tried to apply myself, I've yet to take a job that uses the skills of my craft (primarily writing) in a way that engages me on the level of the things I care about most deeply.

Until now.

I've recently been hired as a consultant with SIL LEAD, a faith-based nonprofit organization dedicated to helping local, community-based organizations use their own languages to improve their quality of life. 

I love it! 

Although I'm not actually out there in the thick of it, I now have the chance to use my writing to serve people in marginalized communities around the world in a way that respects and affirms what they have to offer. No imperialist aspirations for me, no sir!

I posted my first blog post on the SIL LEAD website this morning. It's titled, "It's Not a Good Meeting Until Everyone's Been Heard," and I think you might dig it.

I have a limited tolerance for internet-time and SIL LEAD will be taking up a lot of it, so it's likely that (for the time being, at least) this site will become more of a repository for career-news than anything else. Consider this an invitation to head over to the SIL LEAD website and join me as I help give a new voice to marginalized communities.