As Myself
With my co-parent (Sara), our children (Miriam and Mordecai), my parents (Mark and Ellen) , and my brothers (Corey and Casey).
I come from a small, close-knit family. I grew up, and started a small, close-knit family of my own. My father is a retired research physicist. My mother is a retired journalist and tireless force for good in the world. My middle brother Corey is the warmest person I know; he lives with mom and dad in my hometown of Rochester, NY. My youngest brother, Casey, is a globe-trotting film-maker. He's awesome.
The Weisman Family. Weisman is my middle name. I use it professionally because it is also the name I share with my children.
Sara and I were married for more than sixteen years; she works as a project manager at a major technology firm. Although we reached the decision in early 2019 to bring our marriage to a close, we remain fiercely supportive of each other as co-parents and life-long friends. My daughter Miriam (Mimi) is twelve years old and in the seventh grade. She adores math, and performing in musical theater. My son Mordecai (Mordy) is eight years old and in the third grade. He loves Minecraft, Lego everything, and Star Wars.
Although our family has changed with the end of our marriage, and some of us may live in different cities in the future, we remain a family, and care for each other very deeply.
My shirt in this picture reads, "Trust Me I'm a Theologian."
Depending on which friend you ask at what time, I am either unflinchingly serious (always) or thoroughly irreverent (constantly). The trend in American culture is to value the performance of authenticity over the reality of earnestness - I will take earnestness every day of the week. As a dear colleague once observed about me, my wardrobe affords no middle-ground: I'm either dressed in a t-shirt with something funny (to me) on it, or I'm wearing a suit.
Among friends.
I am a lifelong Unitarian Universalist, a science fiction buff, and a vegan. In my free time, I like to play story games with my friends. Mostly as an excuse to do so, six of us started a podcast a few years ago. It's thoroughly not part of my ministry - I don't use my title in the production notes. On the other hand, I'm never really "off" as a minister, and I'm good with that. So certain elements do trickle in, from the tension over how to make moral choices in an immoral context, to themes of the search for meaning and belonging, to the fact that one of the characters I'm responsible for is a bipedal jaguar-person exiled from his home planet for religious heresy. I have no stake in anyone listening to our podcast - it's purely a creative outlet and an opportunity to spend time with old friends. But if you like role-playing games, action adventure stories, aliens, wizards, deep pathos, and low comedy, it is possible you might enjoy it. The Chimera: An Actual-Play Podcast can be found here:
