emerging in charlotte

beth, the beauties, and I visited charlotte, nc this past weekend and had a great time going to warehouse242 and connecting with some ec folks who can sometimes be found there - specifically the Smith, Garvin and Knight tribes.

from left to right:

Beth Shields, Isaiah, Abraham, and Israel with their parents - Yashica (Shica) and Anthony Smith, along with their daughter Deborah. Then, Rod Garvin and his daughter Ayanni (Yanni). Then Hayden and Olivia and their parents, Steve and Becky Knight.

My daughters Michaela Siobhan, Skye Teresa, and Alia Noelle were with Beth's sister Bonnie Jones and her husband Phil Anderson at Carowinds while Beth and I explored just what connecting with adults and having adulttalk actually looks like.

Some of these folks you may know from the noise they make online:

• Rod Garvin is a thoughtful poet and essayist and his blog is well worth reviewing.
  
• Anthony Smith has a huge brain and I'm still wrapping mine around his thinking. You can dive in here (Beth Shields: "Stephen, I think he reads more books than you do"). Anthony promised eventually to post the material he's presenting at the After Evangelicalism confab that Cornerstone University is sponsoring in September. He'll be focusing there on ec diversity.
  
• And, of course, emergers are used to tracking the incisive commentary of Steve Knight and his daily adventures @ Knightopia.

We had a wonderful lunch @ Moe's and the conversation was just as tasty.