The Life of Brian (In the Now)

"Civility is claiming and caring for one’s identity, needs, and beliefs, without degrading someone else’s in the process.” ----- Tomas Spath and Cassandra Dahnke, Founders, Institute for Civility in Government -------------------------------- It's a normal weekday on the job and I'm waiting to pick up one of my regular passengers. There are no others on board and [...]

“It’s partly because we are neuro-biologically hardwired for belonging and connection. We’re hardwired to want it, and need it so much, that the first thing we do is sacrifice ourselves and who we are to achieve it.” —— Brené Brown ------------------------------------------------- I'm having breakfast with my housemates. Conversations ebb and flow... occasionally joyous, occasionally uncomfortable, occasionally [...]

He was so lonely. Among all these people and while actually engaged in an interaction with a person looking straight at him… ----------------------------------------------- As I sat with my good friend in another part of the bar, I kept thinking of the man we'd just left... still talking to the young woman at the door of [...]

"Everyone knows that experience of being surrounded by people and feeling completely alone." —— Brené Brown ------------------------------------- I was at a live music venue with a few good friends when this man I barely know approached me and shook my hand. He said nothing. There was pretty loud music playing but the band (that I wanted [...]

"I think our need to push away the word “paradox,” and the need to — our need for either/or, not “and,” is driven by our lack of capacity for vulnerability. It’s really hard to straddle the tension of yes/and. It’s really hard to straddle that, “Yes, I want to belong, I want to be a [...]

I checked into it and then had a plan for the next time I would interact with Luke. --------------------------------------------------------- Well... I thought I had a plan. I can't even remember what it was now but that doesn't matter. What matters is that I cared enough to be paying attention when an opportunity arose to make [...]

For some reason, Luke was focusing on this one character and needing me to focus on the same thing. ------------------------------------------------------------ Of all the people with disabilities (and developmental disabilities in particular) I've worked with over the years, I've had the most difficulty finding a comfortable and/or successful way to interact with those who have autism. [...]

"So Brian... remember in, remember in, in the movie, the movie Under Siege two, Dark Territory, Travis Dane uses Grazer One to destroy a Chinese chemical weapons plant?" --------------------------------------------------------- During our very first conversation a little over a year ago (and in many of our other early interactions) Luke Gonzales's quick and sharp, stutter-like way of [...]

Yesterday I picked up a woman at a location I'd never been before. It was a brand new location, in a fairly new Kapolei shopping center. Not really that hard to find but I had some difficulty finding it anyway so by the time I did pull up to help her on board, I was [...]