About this space:

This is a blog about attention, about reflection, about discovering and exploring what matters in a world in which reflection and personal insight has less somewhat less value and "currency" than it ought to have. 

About Depth Over Speed:

Sometimes a friend will ask what I mean by depth over speed.

It's easy to see it at first read as a statement against speed itself, as if getting stuff done fast is a problem.

Speed has become a given. More and more, our lives are enabled and enriched by the availability, interconnection and affordability of things, activities and services for which speed is an essential aspect of their value. 

It's not a problem in itself.  The problem is in not noticing it. 

The ubiquity of speed makes it easy for us to forget, to never really slow down, to never stop enough to reflect or to recognize that the introduction of speed into every aspect of life has raised the value and cost of attention and reflection.

Exploring Depth over Speed has become, for me, a kind of spiritual practice - a practice of attention in a fast moving world. I first learned of the concept from my friend Peter Block, in his book The Answer to How is Yes. 

As I explore it, I make occasional posts here about what it means to me, which I hope will be of use to others on a similar journey. 

About me:

I am writer, musician and small business owner, living in Cincinnati, Ohio.

I live in a neighborhood, actually a very small incorporated city (about 1 square mile and 5,600 people) within the Greater Cincinnati metro area, called Deer Park. 

I've lived here since 2000 with my wife, Jane. It's just the two of us in a small home, enjoying each other and our pets, arts and other interests since the kids have grown up and into their young adult lives. 

One reason we moved here, from a more sprawling suburb, was to have a more pedestrian life where we might get to know our neighbors, drive a little less and be close to most any place in the metro area. 

It's taken a while to break out of my own shyness around my neighbors, and leave the isolation of my self-contained life, but I'm starting to know our neighbors and the many gifts of our community. 

Much of what I write and talk about with regard to community in general and my town in particular is starting to also find its way into these pages, as part of my experience of Depth over Speed.