At the time of this writing, we are in the midst of one of the most tumultuous years in recent history. Certainly of my slightly longer than a half-century life. We just stumbled into 2021 and not together. We were tripping and elbowing and hollering at each other all the way across the line and the stumble stagger still hasn’t stopped. It feels appropriate to recognize that saying the number of the new year comes out 2020 won. I wish that was funnier.

So, we’re going to build a connected community together. Or at least you’re curious enough to have picked up the book and flipped to the first chapter. Maybe you’re in your hippy friends bathroom and this book is your only option for reading material. Whatever. I’m going to take you seriously because this work is desperately needed and I am going to hope that even if you are stuck in your hippy friend’s bathroom that you might get sucked into this story and decide to be an instigator. So, from here on out, I’m going to talk to you like you’ve taken the plunge. You bought the IKEA cabinet and brought it home and now you’re reading the directions so you can put all the parts together right. You can imagine that cabinet all done, looking great in your kitchen and full of all the snacks and dishes that make life complete. Motivated. Passionate. Relentless. Sorry about switching metaphors but it felt like the bathroom one got sketchy when I used the word plunge.

​I'm going to write a book in 2021.
It's about building connected community and the underlying concept is that it's up to the people in the community to pull it off. We can't wait for our traditional leaders to tell us how to be. They are a reflection of us and we need to change our culture and norms from our grassroots core if we want to be healthy individually and corporately. This happens by intentionalizing the quality of our individual, organizational, and institutional relationships. We need a better, more connected narrative.
This book will be based on a lot of science from different fields brought together to reveal startlingly familiar implications. It will also grow out of a couple decades as a community psychologist (professionally since 2019 and more of a community geek before that).
Since this is a book about community, I'd like to enlist you, my community, to help write it. To do this, I'm going to post sections to my blog every week. I'll attempt to do it in order so that readers will get a sense of the book's progression. What I'm asking you for are your questions, comments, and stories. I'll use these in the book (with permission). Each section will contain a quote, a summary, the main content, some stories, and Q&A about the concepts and applications. If you'd like to be a part, you can sign up to receive blog posts here: http://eepurl.com/gKeIZv.
You can also check progress on my website blog page: https://www.connected.buzz/blog. You are on that page right now...
I'll send a free copy of the finished book to the 50 most interactive readers. I'm looking forward to sharing this adventure with you!