The easy part is my name…
I’m Roger Marum—a psychologist currently living in rural Vermont, where my wife and I moved in 2006 from Los Angeles, a city that may sleep, but is in perpetual gridlock—or so it seems to me when I return to California for work and pleasure.
I have a private psychotherapy practice with two offices, one in Middlebury, and the other in North Ferrisburgh, Vermont. I have made, and continue to make annual trips to California to see clients, who were part of my private practice before moving to New England.
From 2012-2019 I taught a course on communication and connections at Middlebury College (Winter Term). The four-week intensive exploration of how social media and our electronic devices affect our values, relationships, and the manner in which we express ourselves helps students better understand themselves in this rapidly evolving online age.
Teaching this class gave me the impetus to expand my online experience beyond research and e-mail use, and so I launched this blog. I left my reluctance for public disclosure on the sideline, and though I feel an occasional twinge about making my thoughts available in “the cloud,” I’m becoming quite comfortable with it.
I was also encouraged by my editors, Herta Feely and Emily Williamson, to create a website/blog, and begin writing blog posts because I enjoy writing short philosophical pieces.
The Reluctant Disciple, resistance in tow, has entered the 21st Century.
The hard part is…writing about spiritual and psychological matters, both of which are my soul’s passion, and muse.
I write because I am filled with questions that concern and, at times, plague me: Does the practice of psychotherapy make a difference, and if so is that a function of methodology, personality, or the random connecting with a caring person?
Where does evil come from, can it be stopped, and if there is a Higher Power, God, Divine Presence, or Supreme Creator—Alpha and Omega—why doesn’t the awfulness get shut down? Why do children pre-decease their parents? It shouldn’t be.
Is there more to life than what my senses assimilate, and if so, how can I find even a restless peace in that “knowing?”
I am a reluctant disciple whose written words give voice to my questions, yearnings for truth, solace in times of despair and doubt, but most of all they make possible a deeper connection to the hope and resilience within me—a belief that starts with a risky leap of faith.
Must be a good thing….I added you to my favorites.
With yet one more glorious snowfall, I am beginning to wonder about who’s in charge upstairs…or exactly what global warming means. I guess it means climate change. In any case, I love the day after a good snow, when the sky is scrubbed clean and has turned that incredible color of blue. But enough is enough. Now, for Spring! Please please bring it on.
The crow can provoke fear…will listening so acutely to oneself lead to dead eyes being pecked out by the very crow that is the self.”…
Myself
May I simply say what a comfort to uncover somebody that
actually understands what they are discussing online.
You definitely realize how to bring an issue to light and make it important.
A lot more people must read this and understand this side of
the story. I was surprised you’re not more popular since you most certainly possess the gift.
I am a friend of Herta and Jim Feely’s. I look forward to following you blog. ML
Margie,
Welcome, and thank you for following my blog. I look forward to any comments you wish to share.
Sincerely,
Roger
I look forward to following your wonderful writing!
Muriel,
Thank you for your gracious comment, and joining what to me “the writer” is a forum to share our thoughts and feelings. Perhaps as the writer of the posts I’m an orchestrator reluctantly holding a baton, and though my words mean something to me if those words stimulate responses from readers we are all better for the writing–posts and comments.
I look forward to reading your thoughts,
Roger
You were a great 5th – 8th grade teacher!
Denise,
Thank you for these kind words and remembering those days. Wood Dale Junior High School is a memorable part of my life because you and the students I had the privilege of being with made work seem like play. I have fond memories of those years, and can readily “picture” the occupied desks filled with students wanting and not wanting to be there but nonetheless reading Shakespeare, doing math, making it through current events while listening to The Beatles and discussing the recent events on Dark Shadows. All great.
Roger
Roger, I just read your new book, Faith, Doubt and Listening. Your essays are candid, vivid and thoughtful. I was drawn in by the wry, self-deprecating way you write about personal epiphanies. You are so good at recognizing and recounting daily encounters when the presence of God is revealed in ways most of us fail to see. Thank you!
Gary,
Thanks for reading and commenting. For every encounter I recognize there are probably ten I miss, but I’ll keep my senses “to the grindstone.”
Roger