The phrase literally refers to a bomb maker being lifted off the ground (hoist) by the very device he made to destroy someone else. I won’t get into the speech it is taken from, but it’s tempting because it’s a masterful piece of vengeful rhetoric that includes the speaker gloating over possibly putting one over on his enemies so he can “blow them at the moon.” Ouch! I’m mentioning it in our context because in this Sunday’s Talky Bit I want to explore some ways we might be vulnerable to being “hoist with our own petard”; in danger of being harmed by the very attempts we make to undo things we regard as harmful. In particular, I’ll be probing some of the dangers unique to communities with lots of “stage 3” explorers in them, which I think is a reasonable characterization of The Table at this point in its life. If you have no idea what I’m talking about when I say “stage 3”, you might want to go back and take in a couple of podcasts in the “I Doubt It” series, just to have a general framework for the ideas running in the background. You can find those here. That said, I’ll continue to work to make each one of these a valid “stand alone” exploration, for reasons that are related to what this week’s Talky Bit will be about. Too vague? Show up on Sunday and I’ll see if I can improve on that.  🙂

In other news, we’re working on an actual plan to have a blend of in-person and online gatherings for the remainder of this calendar year and it feels like we might be making progress. I feel encouraged by that, and am also working to hold any plans loosely, always seeking what will be the best of the available options for the mix of people and circumstances that comprise this community. Be assured that we are also constantly referencing the public health directives in this process, and that any indoor gatherings at this point will require both full vaccination and masks in order to offer the best available protection to the vulnerable in our community, including our unvaccinated young ones. I know that’s a challenge. We’ll also continue to both livestream and / or podcast every gathering so that people can connect in whatever ways are most plausible for them. I’ll keep you posted as those plans unfold.

This week’s gathering will be online, found on our Facebook page here. That also means we’ll gather online for And Lunch After, our Sunday Zoom hangout. I’ll post the url for that at the end of this email. And a reminder – our online gatherings include Community Time, an opportunity to share what’s going on in your life and in your spirit so we can travel together. Take advantage of that, and post something to the page so we can journey together. The audio podcast version of the Talky Bit will be posted early in the following week here.  There will not be a Wednesday evening zoom hangout this week.

That’s it for now. Here’s that url for And Lunch After.

I’ll see you on Sunday.

Peace,

Tim Plett