I saw this poster at the Smithsonian's Portrait Museum the other day and was immediately taken by every aspect of it (and the photos it refers to). I dream a quite specific world and try to speak of it whenever I think I might be heard, a world in which our social instincts are first to listen, be kind, help, collaborate, care for, etc. To support that dream I also dream of a world where every neighborhood has at least one weekly meeting something like the 90 minutes on Wednesdays hosted by FHNN where anyone can show up and help create a space in which everyone has a chance to speak and be heard about what matters to them as well as to enjoy a refreshing balance of sharing silence and social time with their neighbors.
I mention this because attendance on Wednesday @ 10:30 is down to 6, 6, & 7 for the last 3 weeks which is fine in itself, of course, but it's just the beginning of summer weather, summer travel, and the first "normal" summer after years of pandemic woe. Last week it was suggested to go ahead and change our meeting time from 10:30am to 4pm since we'd been talking about it for a long time and don't have any formal way of organizing and directing our little group. June 14 will be the first day we will meet at 4pm.
This past Wednesday I was the guide and talked about my desire to invigorate our weekly meeting once again before we peter out. I was pleased at the response and the other ideas y'all have. Here are the notes I used in that discussion.
Can we become a completely self-organizing group based on a few shared ideas? The most important of these for me is this one:
Anyone can attend, don't need to be a member of a village or even local, no charges or requirements beyond not being too annoying.
Our format of roughly 30 minute segments seems to work pretty well: 30min to greet and meditate, 30min to present a topic and mindfully discuss, and 30min of casual social conversation.
How do we ensure we have a guide each week? How do we pick topics? We had a lively discussion around these essential questions and I don't have time just now to write it up.