Starting Line

In the video above, you'll find four young-ish folks talking about Spark12, a new nonprofit startup incubator funded by the United Methodist Church.  In three days, I'm flying to Washington, DC to participate in orientation as one of the first two fellows the organization will sponsor.  As with all big things, I'm equal parts exhilarated and terrified.

Though I know what my plans for my project are (and that's another post for another day), I kind of have no idea what to expect.  And since I turn 36 in a couple of weeks, I keep thinking about my age, too.  All four people on the leadership team--from what I can gather--are younger than I am...and I'M supposed to be the "young adult" in the room.

36 is a weird age to feel like you're hitting your stride.  I remember really clearly when I was a little kid what New Year's Eve 2000 would look like.  I'd be this 23-year-old professional poet surrounded by all these rad artist types in some big city (Chicago, NYC, Paris, London) on his way to revolutionizing the writing world.  Things didn't quite pan out that way.

This is not to say I have regrets about this.  Things just went a bit differently.

Largely because of my wife, I've become aware of the amount of good that still needs to be done in our world.  Systems are broken.  People are damaged every day.  The church hesitates to heed its call.  What can one idea really do about all this?

Well, I guess I'm about to find out.

Follow me on Twitter over the next few months (since I tend to land there more than here).  I'd love to engage in conversation with you about how all this plays out.

Here goes everything.