I’ve been thinking lately about community engagement through the lens of my own participation in community, particularly what makes or breaks the communal spirit. These are deeply personal stories, based on my own passions, so take it all with a grain of salt, but each is a lesson in the art of engagement, highlighting the dos and don'ts of weaving the social fabric — I’m sure you have your own stories. I’m sure you’ll be able to relate. We all can.

I visited Kathmandu in 2004 (being a nomadic experience junkie is a great way to isolate oneself and distract from trauma), where I talked for hours with a ridiculously brilliant, energetic young boy loitering outside a Temple. This kid stuck with me. This kid, brimming with potential, was living in a dead-end situation he’d never get out of.

I was bullied my entire childhood. In fact, one of my earliest memories was being encircled by all my classmates in the schoolyard, their chants encouraging a red-faced, clench-fisted (much larger) bully to “kick my ass.” And nobody ever lifted a finger to help.

I've hit my limit. I'm bored with all the robot-authored content on here. While AI is great at amalgamating ridiculous amounts of information, when it "writes," it has no soul. It has no heart. It holds no emotional intention beyond what we ask it to mimic. The result is the now-predictable, anodyne crap you see posted all the time (that we eagerly pat each other on the back for — sorry, but it's true). It's so empty, I can't help disregarding it.