I enjoy writing. I've published newspaper, journal, and magazine articles. I've also done my fair share of book chapters, encyclopedia entries, book reviews, manuscript reviews, and blogging entries. I even wrote a book. Channeling my academically driven writing style to a general audience has stretched my ability to write a great deal. There's no denying a social science background in my writing today as evidenced by my style right down to word choice - I make no apologies for that.

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But, today, I get to write about different subjects and I don't have to do it for tenure or for publishers with deadlines -only for myself and others who choose to read it. My social science perspective involves examination of multiple layers of an issue. Very rarely is a social issue, or most things actually, experienced or described in 'black and white' terms. If only life were that simple! Social scientists examine it all - the black, the white and especially the grey areas in between.

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My profession exists because of the very nature of said 

liminality. Take poverty for example. There is no singular

cause of poverty. I think of poverty as the epicenter of an

unsteady wheel wherein the spokes on the wheel - like

access to good healthcare, transportation, groceries,

affordable housing, childcare, living wage jobs, etc., are

absent, weak, and/or unstable. The wheel won't move

forward easily and in fact may feel like it's not moving at

all. Just when someone feels like they're getting ahead,

an unexpected life circumstance (one of the spokes)

interrupts the wheel's pace, perhaps even puncturing it.

This can easily lead someone to an economic standstill.

Those living in poverty as well as those living in the economic margins do so with wobbly wheels. There is no quick fix to poverty and if there were, it would have been resolved hundreds of years ago. But, I believe if we all invest in our community just a bit more, we can balance the wheels for others and live more purposive lives.