Every year I look back on all the work I have been a part of, and I like to publically thanks everyone who has invited me to be a part of their lives this year. It has been a busy one, with trips to New Zealand, the United States, and every Canadian province from British Columbia to Quebec. So thanks are due to the following groups who invited me to come work with them: Office of the Dean of Medicine, University of British Columbia Vancouver Aboriginal Child and Familiy Services Office for Accesa and Diversity, University of British Columbia The …
Today Dave Pollard reprints a recent speech by Bill Moyers in which he implores the world to use its heart to see what is unfolding around us. Moyers ends the speech thusly: On the heath Lear asks Gloucester: ‘How do you see the world?” And Gloucester, who is blind, answers: “I see it feelingly.’”I see it feelingly. The news is not good these days. I can tell you, though, that as a journalist, I know the news is never the end of the story. The news can be the truth that sets us free – not only to feel but …
With thanks to new friends met through the Art of Hosting this week: With regard to external factors, I don’t envision any other single factor like friendship with admirable people as doing so much for a monk in training, who has not attained the heart’s goal but remains intent on the unsurpassed safety from bondage. A monk who is a friend with admirable people abandons what is unskillful and develops what is skillful. From the Itivuttaka collection of Pali suttas.
I have been engaging with Lenore Ealy since the Giving Conference in Chicago. She turned me on to Richard Cornuelle’s work which seems prescient in many ways. This paper, De-Nationalizing Community (.pdf) is a short but very interesting read. It weaves together anarchist and libertarian perspectives arguing that the idea of community has been appropriated by government. The paper generated a really interesting spark of mutual interest between Lenore and I. We come from very different political poles and through our conversations I have been losing my grip on political spectrums, compasses and other typologies, which can only be a …
The last of three parts on music. We are talking about improvisation as a method for working with or being in groups – developing a set of practices that refine one’s ability to think on one’s feet and to see full opportunities in small hints (Blake’s “world in a grain of sand“). Improvisation, especially in a collaborative environment, produces material that would never otherwise arise. And yet, it is worth pointing out that great improvisation is not simply making stuff up on the spot. Consider this from Becker’s essay: When I used to play piano in Chicago taverns for a …