The Bridge #106
in which we see what emerges when we're not only curious but actively cultivating
Hello
& Welcome ! The Bridge is a newsletter connecting the professional and the personal creatively across cultures and a diversity of topics, until we are not only full of ideas but also ready to take action. Thanks for joining in the conversation.
Some of you have been reading this newsletter for over four years, and I thank you! Others are new to joining, and I want to let you know that the safe space to experiment here has not only helped many readers connect dots in their life and feel more playful in doing so, the writing has helped me make connections that I would have otherwise felt inarticulately as maybe “intuition” and otherwise never felt quite confident enough to say (or write) out loud. Thanks to your faithful readership I’m getting bolder, and if ever I seem off-track in what I write, feel free to comment or contradict me.
Thanks for giving me today (or any day) some of your attention.
Something to Read
One Piece of Advice I Give to All New Dads (The New Fatherhood)
Kevin Maguire started a newsletter in early 2021, and I discovered it that same year (the same year by “coincidence” our second daughter was born). I was hungry for more conversations with other dads, thoughtful conversations, intentional ones, dedicated ones, and I found those conversations fleetingly with other dad friends.
Meanwhile I would read the newsletter now and again, and was waiting for the right moment to share one of his essays with you all. Back in 2021, however, I had this belief that the format of a longer-form essay with lots of detail, long paragraphs and rich vocabulary would be too inaccessible for certain audiences. I wanted to find ways of communicating that cross boundaries of education, class, politics, and such. I basically didn’t want to sound like a book nobody reads.
Turns out I was wrong about some of these beliefs, because Kevin Maguire has been writing longer-form essays (and many other formats as well, admittedly) for now almost 4 years, and his newsletter today has 17k+ followers, a very long list of guest writers, enough paid subscribers to support a Therapy Fund for dads who couldn’t otherwise afford therapy, and a successful enough track record that Kevin is now planning to publish a book in 2026 (even while he’s also coaching, podcasting, continuing his newsletter, and parenting). So it’s working for him :) and for the dads who are part of his readership community.
This essay I’m sharing today (linked above) was first published in 2022 and got a nudge on social media from Daniel Pink (for those who know who he is), then was re-published in October 2024 because it’s an evergreen message.
That message is: Take note of what you notice around you. Keeping track helps us pay closer attention, and choosing to pay attention to our broader surroundings helps us be more grounded.
Being grounded (aware of our bodies, our environment, our feelings, our perceptions) is critical for mental health, and mental health is critically important for parenting.
The healthier we are, the healthier we can be for our kids, and considering that they care more what we do than what we say… Prioritizing our collective health is a beautiful way to demonstrate to them what matters. Have you noticed that?
Thanks, Kevin, for the reminder!
Something to Consider
A NYC-based non-profit called Brooklyn Arts Exchange (BAX) has new leadership. Instead of one “executive director” they now have three EDs. One of the new co-Executive Directors is a friend’s neighbor. The two neighbors were talking one day, and the co-ED admitted to my friend (Camille) that she (Marlène) was nervous about fundraising.
BAX has been funded historically by foundations. As the leadership team at BAX (and EmergeNYC) enter a growth phase, they need a few value-aligned donors who get the vision and have significant enough resources (willing to donate tens of thousands of dollars, as individuals) to back BAX’s commitments to (1) center artists from historically underrepresented backgrounds, to (2) focus on embodied practices such as dance, theatre and multidisciplinary performance, and to (3) build collective power. The question is, where to find people who have the resources (financially speaking) and believe in such a vision enough to fund it?
Theirs is an ongoing journey, living out that question in faith, experimenting out loud in order to discover what resonates. If they kept the question to themselves, they wouldn’t find the allies they need. If they didn’t celebrate their community with joy, they wouldn’t find the strength to keep going even amidst technical challenges and emotional anxieties or doubts. If they pretended to have it all together, no one would realize that they really do need the help. If no one ever responded to their call, they would be all alone. So we come together and offer what support we can!
You can donate here. OR if I’ve piqued your interest, we could talk more about the work they are doing. Perhaps you too care about the power of embodied practice and the performing arts?
Something to Sing Along With
“Heroes on Fire” a song from the TV show Kipo and The Age of Wonderbeasts is best experienced as karaoke, so if you know the song already — check out the karaoke version instead. That’s how it appears in the TV show originally, with the main characters hiding in a banged up shelter living in a post-apocalyptic world choosing to sing karaoke together.
I was a child
I knew, now I have no clue
You know more than you know
I wanna run through these streets
From these feelings forever
But no-one can make it alone
One day I'll admit
Alone's not enough
'Cause strong is much more than just trying to be tough
The point of the song is, we could be standing alone in our trials by fire, imagining it’s our only option (to burn all alone), and it could be someone is telling us to take their hand, and we imagine it as a figurative expression, but they’re saying literally to take their hand, and we do, and then we realize that we really are NOT ALONE but are instead together “heroes on fire” and it’s not a fire that burns us up but a fire that lights up the world around us, because we are ON FIRE 🔥
You get me?
Something to Practice
Today’s edition has taught us a lot of ways we can take action in mutual aid.
As a closing thought, I’d also like to encourage us to imagine the many ways that — beyond national elections — we can “vote” with our time, our attention, our priorities, our love, our care, our chosen responsibilities, and our daily rituals. No matter who is “officially” in charge, we each have quite a lot of power locally to improve our situations. Step by step,
We can do it !
JPC 😎