The Art of Life
Heads up folks – this is longer than usual, and more info-intensive. We’ve been in “brainstorm and listen” mode for a month or so, and are at a place where we have something like a plan. If you find the details overwhelming, you can skip to the second-last paragraph to find out what’s happening this coming Sunday.
Last week I quoted Okakura Kakuzo from his 1906 essay “The Book of Tea” as saying that “the art of life is a constant adjustment to our surroundings”. The context was a community conversation about the shape of our gatherings for the next season of our shared explorations. If you were there or joined us online, perhaps you felt the same thrill of hope I did – the sense that once again this “small in numbers but big in courage and imagination” community has all the ideas it needs to continue to adapt and evolve in the presence of changing circumstances. As much as anyone, I appreciate those who speculate thoughtfully about the future. I also appreciate the necessity of considering that speculation, making a plan, and moving forward. That’s what we’re going to do, starting this coming Sunday.
Before I get to the details, let me add that this plan, like so many adaptive strategies, will deliver its best outcomes if we approach it as flexible rather than fixed; fluid rather than solid. Like the plans of many who have set out on exploratory adventures, we might aim at one thing and encounter another, misunderstand what we find along the way, and at the same time be astonished at the wonders we blunder into. But none of that will happen if we don’t start moving. So here’s the plan…for now. 🙂 Here’s what the coming month looks like. I’ll break it down week by week.
The “fixed points” in this plan will be the second and fourth Sundays of each month. This month (February) those will be the 12th and 26th; in March the 12th and 26th as well, and in April the 9th and 23rd. These Sundays will be in-person gatherings at 170 Scott (The Rainbow Resource Centre), with the gathering shape we’re most used to – music, community time, talky bit, and kids table. The “full meal deal”, to use a well-worn fast food tagline.
The third Sunday of every month will be online only (not in person) as it has been for some time now, but somewhat different than usual in terms of content. It’ll still happen at the same time (10:45 a.m.), but there won’t be any music. If you have things you want to share with the community, you can post them to facebook and I’ll bring them to the group before I do the Talky Bit. So basically, a Talky Bit plus.
alt.Sundays will be different every time. They will be oriented around the values of being together, sharing some activity, and will include some sort of food. Sometimes that might be a meal, along the lines of a Souper Sunday. Sometimes it might be snacks. Either way, it’ll be “bring what you bring” – potluck, take-your-chances style. Everyone will be welcome, whether you bring something or not. Sometimes it’ll be somewhere other than 170 Scott, if we decide to…(these aren’t my ideas, they came from all of you)…clean up a park, meet somewhere to go for a hike, hold down a corner at the Pride Parade, watch a movie, have a “jammies and games” morning. [When someone suggested that last one, I had a moment of panic that came with the thought “I don’t have any jammies”. Is that too much information? 🙂 No worries-it’s a solvable problem. I’ll wear a bathrobe over my jeans and black t-shirt.]
Whew. That’s a lot. Let me put it in the form of a list for this month, just to make it sequential.
February 5th (this coming Sunday, the first Sunday of the month) – alt.Sunday: we’ll meet at 170 Scott, but we’ll do something different from the usual. I’ll tell you about that in detail at the end of this email. At this point we are not planning to livestream this gathering, and typically it will also not produce a podcast.
February 12th (second Sunday of the month) – Full Meal Deal Sunday (that’s just a “working title” – what should we call these?). We’ll meet at 170 Scott, enjoy music, Community Time, Talky Bit, Kids Table. We’ll livestream this and podcast the Talky Bit as well. Boom!
February 19th (third Sunday, Online Only) – we’ll “meet” on our Facebook page livestream. No music, etc…just “time with Tim”, or whoever might be hosting that gathering. Usually Tim…or sometimes the other Tim…or someone else. 🙂 This one will also produce a podcast.
February 26th – (fourth Sunday of the month) – Full Meal Deal Sunday. See above under “second Sunday”. In person at 170 Scott.
Note: only April, July and December have five Sundays this year; we’ll talk about this when we’re closer to them, but the short version is they will also be alt.Sundays. Contents TBD.
All right…so what are we up to on this, our very first alt.Sunday? We’ll be watching an astonishingly beautiful, almost meditative short film that takes place at the intersection of trees, snow, science and spirituality. We’ll follow that with some conversation / discussion about the film. We’ll eat whatever snacks people bring. Since it’s a movie, does anyone have a popcorn maker and popcorn they could bring? Popcorn for breakfast. My mother is frowning at me, right now. Sorry mom – we’ll go easy on the butter and salt. We’ll start as usual at 10:45 a.m, at 170 Scott, and see what happens.
I’ll see you on Sunday.