One of the things I love, absolutely *love,* is the chance to connect w/ my colleagues.  This week has been an especially fruitful week in terms of connecting with a wide variety of colleagues.  I’ve been using FaceTime to connect with folks, talk about writing projects, AAR panels/proposals, and generally have enjoyed the chance to really enflesh collegiality across the miles and distance.  And when I mention distance, I do mean the far and wide colleagues–event skyped w/ Nina who is currently located in Cape Town, South Africa!  Today is no different!

Today is what I’m calling a Friday Fireside Chat.  I’m getting ready to FaceTime w/ Leila Ortiz who has been engaging Judith Butler’s Bodies That Matter:  on the discursive limits of “sex.”  We’ll be FaceTiming soon, and I’m ready because I’ve just reread the introduction this morning!

I’m unsure what will come of this Friday Fireside, but I imagine it will be all good stuff!  I’m sure we’ll talk in Spanglish, connect as Latinas do, and appreciate the technology that gives us this ability.  I’d like to find ways to incorporate this type of practice each week.  While we all are busy, I think that finding ways to connect “in person” feeds not only our *souls* but our minds, if those are 2 different substances?!

And so, as I countdown the minutes to our FaceTime meeting, I am reminded of the gift of engaging with folks across differences and creating more room on the bridge for radical relating.  Remember, “radical” simply means grasping for something at the root!  Let us all strive for a type of rooted relating that anchors us all on the wind-swayed bridge.

Here’s to Friday Fireside Chats!  Theologian meets QueerEthicist over FaceTime.