A Bit about Who I Am
Preface …
Everything one does or doesn’t do says something about who that person is … I begin with a “preface.” Author (published, best-selling) Malcolm Gladwell in his book, Blink, shared stories and studies that attest to how much information we capture in the “blink of an eye.” And, yet, there are mysteries that remain about someone, even after the blink of a lifetime. So, here I am and you shall know a bit more about me if you read this page … and if you read some of what I write.
Briefly Stated …
- Born in a small Michigan town
- Mom a psychologist, dad an MP, deputy sheriff, deputy US Marshal, later a CFO at several US Federal Prisons
- One extraordinarily talented younger brother, with whom I shared my toys soon after he was born by tossing them into his crib
- We moved just about every year from age 1 through 12; we stopped when we got back to Tucson for the second time
- I was editor of my high school newspaper and loved it; worked summers for the Arizona Daily Star
- I went to Earlham College to study philosophy, disillusioned with what I experienced in that field, and ended up thoroughly loving experimental psychology (even helped build the school’s first real lab)
- Dropped out of graduate school in experimental psychology (UA in Tucson) when I started to hate the rats, became a full-time reporter for the Star for a couple of years
- Left to go to seminary (hoping to be a campus minister) and became thoroughly entranced with Professor John B. Cobb Jr. and, through him, Alfred North Whitehead’s process philosophy (universe is on a creative advance via process; process is fundamental, substance emerges from process)
- Combined this with an interest in becoming a psychotherapist and eventually earned a Ph.D. in pastoral counseling: understanding and doing psychotherapy in a theological context; my theology is inclusive and progressive
- I was ordained as a UCC minister more than 30 years ago (specialized in doing pastoral psychotherapy)
- Have subsequently worked 35+ years in the field of psychotherapy in a variety of settings
- My family, which shall remain anonymous, includes several adult children (all out of the nest) and three grandchildren; fatherly advice now only upon request
- Our dogs grew old and are gone; a coterie of cats remain in on-going states of delightfulness
- I have written some popular and some more academic articles, have lead a number of workshops for professionals in psychotherapy on the topic of spirituality
- Continue to be interested in the potential that process thought has to provide the basis for a meta-theory of psychology, integrating all the key facets of reality (mind-body-spirit)
- All along, I have nurtured a deep and abiding concern for justice for all life
- And today, I see an acute need for human beings to learn how to transcend our primal, hardwired predisposition to resort to violence to settle differences, choosing instead …
- To follow the wisdom inherent in the world’s major religions that points us toward compassion, generosity, love and care and away from violence, greed, narrow self interest, fear, hatred
- I keep getting older … am not sure why, but there seems to be no good way to stop this which leaves me with the vague hope that Whitehead was correct when he said that all of the World, including therefore me, is taken up by God and cherished in objective immortality (so, would I enjoy this or would this be only for God’s pleasure? Hmm.)
– David E. Roy
If you click here, you can see my (almost) current resume.