I am an explorer with endless curiosity who loves to go off the beaten path to learn about places, people, and cultures. I'm honest, a good communicator, and someone who can see humor in almost any situation but knows when to be serious.

Being an explorer, I also like to travel, take road trips, study architecture and the built environment, shop in random stores, hike through the woods, stroll along the beach, sail, and read. I am restarting my photography hobby which allows me to annoy travel mates more easily by ceaselessly taking pictures. I also like to try new foods and different cuisines, enjoy cooking dinner with friends and I make a wicked Viennese Apfel Torte. A terrible dancer, I enjoy giving it a whirl--but maybe not a twirl. (Like any explorer, I have my limits.)

Like any good explorer, my home base gives steady compass for the journey. The Presbyterian part of the Christian tradition gives me the spiritual (and intellectual) grounding that sustains what I do in this world. Basic belief in God's love inspires my quest for justice, concern for the environment, and interest in the welfare of others. It also helps me appreciate the religious, spiritual, and intellectual paths other people take. It has nothing to do with my being a fan of the Detroit Red Wings and the Chicago Cubs.

Living, meeting goals, and setting new goals balanced with spontaneity and some goofing off. In addition to work, among other things I'm designing a wooden sailboat and I'm taking riding lessons with the aim of learning to ride a horse. (I'm pretty good at falling off horses.)

listening, reading, problem-solving (and solving puzzles), paying attention, and wordplay.

my smile, my eyes, my bald-hood, and my perfect earlobes.

Books: All over the place. Mostly non-fiction. The environment, poverty, ice hockey, philanthropy, social entrepreneurship, American history, books about cities and architecture, social structures, baseball, South Asia, writing, sailing, history of business and finance, religion and culture, but also any novels by Peter de Vries ("The Blood of the Lamb" is a 20th century classic); some mysteries; cheap trashy thrillers; "serious" novels I was supposed to read in college & comic novels of the Carl Hiassen sort.

Movies: classics from Capra and Hawks, Scorcese and Schrader; On the Waterfront, Raging Bull, Waitress, Frozen River; any with Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn ; lots of documentaries; David Mamet plays adapted for film; Bogart, Bacall, Edward G. Robinson, Malkovich, and Depp movies. Also Ferris Bueller's Day Off; Planes, Trains, and Automobiles; and romantic comedies and sadly the list goes on.

Music: I drive Pandora to the limits of its algorithm with an improbably wide range of musical addictions covering classical piano to blues to fusion to old rock to folk over to jazz and really loud organ music. It goes from Beethoven's 6th to Thelonius Monk to Bruce Springsten to John Prine to Bach's organ works to Radiohead. Classical is still the favorite.

Food: You name it, I'll try it. I'm adventurous with food as I am with other things. My only limit so far has been things that are alive when they are served.

Laughter, Friendship, Books, music, ideas, & travel.

All kinds of things. The environment, community development, the future of cities, the role of the church in society, the Detroit Red Wings, rural poverty, water quality, social entrepreneurs, church architecture, the history of technology and medicine, horse racing, travel, the Psalms, Job, and how demanding the sermon on the mount really is, if my beloved Cubs will ever win a world series, water availability, religious conflict, the history of philanthropy, stars and constellations, sailing, Grameen Bank, Phil Mickelson's flop shots, what kind of world my grandchildren will inherit, race relations, Darfur, ocean pollution and fisheries, the state of public discourse, wild salmon, my own golf game, ships someday soon sailing over the North Pole, whether we are being responsible heirs of what our ancestors entrusted to us--materially, environmentally, intellectually, and in other ways.
As coherent as all that may sound, sometimes what I think about is pretty random depending on what I might have read over coffee in the morning, what comes up at work, or a note I get from a friend.

It all depends. Hang out with a few friends, catch a movie, read a book, go out to dinner with friends, or catch up on work. Sometimes I even clean the house or take care of overdue errands on a Friday night!!! In other words, its pretty much like any other night of the week.

The beard remains optional.

you are intelligent, honest, have a sense of humor and can be sassy, or if you are creative or opinionated, or you love the Detroit Red Wings, or have curiosity about things, or you love the Chicago Cubs, or you are ....