Allow Me to Introduce Myself

https://christopher-doyle.blogspot.com/p/about-author.html

My first draft author’s page is linked above. It reveals how I came to creation of this site. Let me give a little history on who I am.

FIRSTBORN SON

I was born to teenagers in small town Indiana. My mother carried me to the altar albeit inside of her. Six months later, I was born at a rural hospital, much to my mother’s chagrin. I nearly died there twice! She swore that no other children of hers would grace that place. Next, my sister was born in nearby Evansville. We moved to Indianapolis, where I was raised and my other three siblings were born. I am the oldest of five children born to the same Mom and Dad. My parents were married 47 years until my mother died at 66. Dad died a widower six years later.

THRICE BAPTIZED 

Born into a Catholic family on Dad’s side, I was first Christened in that faith as a baby with Godparents, both named Pat, and all the pomp and circumstance of the Roman liturgy. I made it through the Sacraments of First Communion and First Confession before my Dad broke from family tradition and The Church.

Secondly, I was dunked as a 10-year-old in the Baptist church nearer our home. It’s where Mom volunteered and enrolled us in Vacation Bible School. We enjoyed an active membership in that church and participation in youth group, musical productions, as well as VBS. That lasted until my junior high years, early ‘80s.

Thirdly, I was again dunked as a young adult by a fiery, former golden glove, Pentecostal Holiness preacher in Florida. And if you count the infilling of the Holy Spirit as a “baptism by fire,” then you can say I was baptized fourthly. Needless to say, I was fully immersed in the full gamut of Christian fundamentalism!

DECONSTRUCTED XIAN

I fully deconstructed from the faith as an older adult. Still spiritual, I now see Xianity, and fundamentalism, as separate cults. There was religious trauma inflicted upon me from the beginning. I scrapped all theology and now practice presence and mindfulness.

EDUCATION

Starting school in the small town of my birth, I was nearly finished with Kindergarten when we moved North to Indiana’s Capital City. But I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the contribution of my paternal grandmother, who picked me up daily from preschool. It was directly across the highway from her house. Each afternoon began with a hot dog lunch, then story time and a solid nap. Mom was working as a beautician in a downtown parlor, whipping women’s hair into beehives and other couture coifs! Grandma Doyle LOVED local poet James Whitcomb Riley and I loved the way she read his stories, “The Bear” or “Little Orphan Annie.” It was either-or in addition to her daily encouragement from “The Little Engine That Could.” I will never forget her saying, “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can,” in the voice of The Little Engine. I credit her with my love of stories and storytelling even though I only learned to love both decades after she was gone.

Parochial grade school through fifth grade and then again in high school would be my lot in Indy, with 6-8th grades in advanced placement by IPS. In 8th, I was bussed to the lower income East side near 30th & Post. Despite rumblings of race riots, none ever broke out in 1980-81 school year and I became quite popular at that public school. 

The week I graduated from Bishop Chatard High School on the city’s northside, my family joined Dad in Tallahassee, FL, where he’d moved to take a CEO job over Spring Break.

I took one gap year and worked at Publix Supermarkets before enrolling in the community college. Earned an Associate’s Degree for transfer to the University. Taking classes at both Florida State and FAMU campuses, all while courting my wife and starting our life together, I ended up working my way through a bachelor’s degree with her support. We both had state jobs and mine allowed for six credit hours of free tuition. That is why it took a decade for me to earn my degree in communication, 1987-97. I graduated the Summer semester of 1997 from FSU.

I am a proud Seminole #Unconquered

FAMILY AND PROFESSIONAL LIFE

I spent decades in Tallahassee, first in an apartment with my family—who left in ‘89 and returned to Indy—and then a small rented home with my wife whom I married in that Pentecostal church the very first day of 1993. We purchased our first home in May 2001 just three months before bringing home our first baby, Merikathryn. That same homeplace welcomed her sister, Makenna,  in June 2004, at just three days old. Both girls were born in Tallahassee to different parents. We were the lucky adoptive parents!

During our childless years, I tried my hand in radio, a dream I’d had since childhood. I worked for free at the FAMU station in college, did reporting at WVFS one semester and deejayed at the local Xian station, WCVC-AM. I interned for a local group of stations, but was most often in the WJZT studios, our city’s first and only—and short lived—smooth jazz station. I stayed on after college, but was paid so little, i abandoned my childhood dream altogether.

Eventually I parlayed my degree and experience into a state job doing public relations. I worked as a state spokesman for the nation-leading Emergency Management Agency in Tallahassee, and then for a national nonprofit that also did disaster management and education. It was there that I honed my professional writing skills producing statewide press releases, some with the Governor’s office and coordinating agencies, and creating content for inter office and public communication. I was a FEMA-trained crisis communicator who trained public information officers from across the state. 

A personal crisis in late 2000 caused a sudden change in my career path, but I eventually found my way back to writing by 2011. That’s when I embarked on a brief career in journalism on Fort Myers Beach. My daughters had begun their education in Tallahassee and then Indianapolis before attending the beach school. But that is where my marriage fell apart the following year.

I pursued gig work as a writer, journalist and musician from that point forward, supplementing my income with various jobs in grocery stores, restaurants and another national nonprofit.

FATHERHOOD

My two beautiful daughters, now full-grown adult women pursuing higher education in Colorado, are my crowning achievement. It was during two periods of un- or underemployment that I was able to really pour myself into their upbringing. Now I was always an active presence and cheerleader in their lives. I even took over the majority of family cooking duties once we adopted our oldest. But after losing my job in Indiana and going on extended unemployment, while my daughters were in elementary school, I was a stay-at-home dad and I LOVED IT!!! It was the best job I ever had, walking them and their friends to school every weather-permitting day, packing lunches with hand-written napkin love notes and joining them some days in the school cafeteria. I was absolutely present for a number of years, including a 2014-20 stretch in Tallahassee post-divorce. I was the primary caregiver most of that time. There was no better place than the breakfast counter at the townhouse in Southwood or the dinner table turned game table at nights! So many wonderful memories of parenting those girls.

This is my favorite photo of them taken in front of the townhouse in 2020.

That is a pretty decent snapshot of my life. Stay tuned for more in coming posts. Thanks for reading and for finding this page.>