BOBSERVATIONS

Bob or Robert; equally fine.

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I’ve always been writing, but much of it has appeared over others’ signatures. When I was in my 40s, a friend since high school days asked why I hadn’t published anything yet. Three decades later, this is part of my response to his encouragement.

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I grew up with parents who had many interests and skills and a sense of urgency. World War II had been hard on them; then came Communism. When my parents arrived in Canada from Czechoslovakia with me, an infant, and my brother in late 1948, it was with immense gratitude to have freedom, security and opportunity. My concern for truth, good sense, civility and generosity in public discourse reflects family history.

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My formal academic foundation (Montréal then Toronto) is mathematics and the humanities, particularly philosophy – which for me is engineering with abstract materials and the specialist training of a generalist. In 21 years with the Canadian federal government, I was a thinker-writer and manager in a diversity of domains – always the generalist. Along the way I learned that, regrettably, “Most communication isn’t.”

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Out on my own in 1995, I got into management consulting and communications projects, and was a Credentialed Evaluator for a while. Now semi-retired – mostly volunteering plus a bit of paid translation, editing and writing – I still find everything intriguing and a lot that is concerning. Besides family and friends, I concentrate my energy on three areas: organizational ethics (via the Ethics Practitioners Association of Canada); doing my bit to make Catholicism a helpful and respectful presence in world affairs; and creating opportunities for responsible public discourse and adult discussion.

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Plus writing. This “Bobservations” blog site is, finally, an organized outlet for my analytical and idealistic musings. The best outcome would be to receive responses and start a dialogue.