Roanoke Vice Mayor Joe Cobb ★ Creating the space for ourselves and each other

Identity and Action: We continue exploring how the written word shapes our sense of self and how we put that into work in the world around us with a conversation with City of Roanoke Vice Mayor Joe Cobb. In this episode Joe discusses three books that weave through his way of being in the world. We touch on hospitality and fear, on seeing ourselves and on the power of claiming our bodies.

"Living this life...," Joe says "is not about what or who we ought to be according to someone else, but who we come to know ourselves to be. And for me, love is the guiding force in shaping that."

Joe Cobb is the co-author with Leigh Anne Taylor of Our Family Outing: A Memoir of Coming Out and Coming Through (self-published in 2011). This summer he marked one year of service on Roanoke's City Council. He has served in the past as pastor of Metropolitan Community Church of the Blue Ridge, and currently he’s a chaplain for hermitage Roanoke and Outreach Coordinator for Highland Park Elementary School.

The three titles discussed in this episode:

• Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life (Doubleday, 1975) by Henri Nouwen
• Beloved (Knopf, 1987) by Toni Morrison
• Let Your Life Speak:Listening for the Voice of Vocation (Jossey Bass, 2000) by Parker J. Palmer