Stride recently had our first all company in person gathering since December 2020. I opened the day with these remarks…

It’s a thrill to see you all. Thank you for coming. I realize we’re skirting the edge of some of our comfort zones. Certainly mine. But the work to put this together has been really thoughtful. Thank you Rebecca and particular Julia for making this possible.

It’s been a really difficult eighteen months. Sad. Lonely. Stressful. We’re not fully through it. But we will come out the other side of this.

So what kind of future do we want? Not a return to normal. The intersection of so many crises has created momentum for change in the world and new opportunities to connect what we do for a living to what gives our lives meaning.

We have to dive into that. We have to join with others to make our society more just and equitable, to reverse our harm to our climate and resources, and to use capitalism’s ability to create wealth to create opportunities and make people’s lives safer more joyous.

To give you a sense of why I know we can do this I want to tell you about my friend Jim. Jim didn’t lead a social movement. He was an entrepreneur, artist, marketer, father, and husband.

I met Jim 30 years ago. I’d been cut from an mfa directing program and was back at home looking for a way to reconnect to my passions and to people. So, I called to this theater to volunteer. Jim answered the phone. Turned out he was the managing director. He welcomed me in. And i spent the next ten years there. Met many of my closest friends. Collaborated to create new work with writers and actors.

At some point, Jim decided to start a consulting business. And hired me. It was my first software developer job and my first Consulting job. He encouraged me to ask out the woman who became my wife. He encouraged me to move out to New York. By the time I did, he was moving back to Seattle so he helped me take over the lease on his apartment – where I still live now.

It wasn’t that he took me on as some project. I’m one of dozens of friends whose life he’d made better. He knew how to use his talents, he knew how to find joy in ‘enough’, he was generous with help, and he knew who he wanted to be in the world.

That’s how I see Stride. That’s actually the floor for how I see Stride because you are all so capable and heartfelt and disciplined. we are capable of creating so much _together_.

So, let’s continue to help each other navigate this present. And let’s start building our future.

Let’s find people to work with who inspire us, challenge us, and are doing meaningful things. Let’s commit to helping them build things that make an impact on the world.

It’s not about grand gestures. It’s about really doing the work. Knowing how to use our talents, how to find joy in ‘enough’, being generous with help, and knowing who we want to be in the world.