ABSTRACT
I wasn’t planning on writing this chapter. In fact, I really was not planning to be involved in this book at any level. And now, a bit over a year after agreeing to work on this project, it feels only fitting that I write some words to bring this rather remarkable project to a close. It’s not that social action and social justice, as my three-year-old daughter Bea would say, are not “my thing.” In fact, like many others in the helping professions, I think about social action and social justice all the time—and in so many ways it is why I do what I do. Rather, this was a project that my father and Jeffrey were all excited about; it was something they were doing. And then in a matter of a few weeks, all their projects were in jeopardy. My father’s rapid downward health spiral and the vague, yet serious cancer diagnosis shook up all of our worlds. Though critically ill, my father was focused on finishing up many of his projects, perhaps his last acts. Jeffrey and I both suggested dropping this book as he took time to prepare for chemotherapy treatment, but my father really wanted to finish what he’d started even if it was literally his last act on earth.
