This Week at the Castle

Hey folks – welcome to this week (and next weeks) venue. Lots of moving around in the next two months, but then things will become a bit more predictable – at least in terms of where we gather. This week we’ll be meeting at the University of Winnipeg Club Room. It’s located on the 4th floor of Wesley Hall. That’s the castle-ish building that faces Portage Avenue on the main U of W campus (515 Portage Avenue).

​Details about finding our gathering:  Enter the building by the main front doors (right in the middle of the front of the building, on the Portage Avenue side). There is a red and white campus sign on the grounds to the left of the doors that says “Wesley Hall”, and we’ll put out our sign as well. Once inside, go straight ahead up the first short set of stairs, and take the wide curving hallway to your right. Once you go around the curve (if you find yourself in a bright, modern-looking space you’ve gone too far), you will see the elevator in an alcove on your right. It comes promptly when called, and is blisteringly fast compared to the one at Creative Manitoba. Take the elevator to the fourth floor, exit to your left, and you’ll be in the Club. Whew!

I was tempted to say something like “NEW LOOK -SAME GREAT PEOPLE!” as a subject line, but it just sounded too much like retail. Still, with all this location hopping, it’s worth remembering that we don’t gather out of convenience but because there is something essentially and importantly humanizing about exploring in the company of others. We do this better together, and I’m grateful for each person that makes the extra effort to participate in a community that doesn’t have it’s own mall-like parking lot, let alone it’s own building.

And speaking of parking…there is parking on the surrounding streets, most notably convenient on Balmoral, the first street to the East of Wesley Hall. If that’s full, I’ve also arranged for us to use the empty spaces in the Booth University parking lot, which is located one block further east off Colony, behind the Investors Group building off Portage Avenue. If you do park in that lot, be sure to only use spaces that are labelled for Booth University. Booth administration have assured me that if you are in the designated spaces and some over-zealous parking lot monitor still gives you a ticket, they will take care of the matter. So do feel free to park there.

Kids Table– it’s on! We even have some choice of spaces, including a rather ostentatious boardroom. Perhaps we’ll make the decision based on whether the kids come dressed full casual, business casual, or business formal. Your call…:)

Talky Bit– well, if I haven’t used up my word quota on the directions, I’ll spend some of them considering the matter of “wonder” as a root of all the exploring we do as human beings, whether we do it by going for a walk or doing science or yoga or religion or art. Think of it as an antidote for, but not a denial of, some of the ugliness of a world that often seems to think that we can bomb one another into peace. Ack…

Let’s gather on Sunday just because we can, and be grateful.

Peace,

Tim Plett