Hello all,
I want to share with you a question and an invitation. First the question…
Every year Think OutWord evaluates its work and asks: Are we fulfilling our task? Are the forms that we’ve created best serving the work we want to do? We’re trying to create a “peer-led training in social threefolding”… are we doing that? We think we are. We’ve created forms by which individuals can come together and, based on the social questions alive in them, design both an individual and shared study. We invite others into the work by creating intensive studies, workshops, conferences, articles, presentations. We learn from each other. We support each other. We try to develop a deeper perception of social realities… of the living beingness of the social organism.
But are we doing this in the best way possible? Right now, most of that process is available only to the “core group” – a group of folks who have committed themselves to each other and to carrying the organizational work of Think OutWord. But this is a pretty intensive commitment and we think that maybe it has kept some folks from entering the work more fully. So we want to open it up. We want to create the lightest form possible that will allow the work to arise in the most natural way possible. And this is what we want to invite you to.
In 2012 we’re holding Think OutWord differently. We’re organizing a meeting in January that’s open to anyone who’s interested in designing their own education in concert with others. We’ll get together and brainstorm – work with our questions, share resources, and find collaborators. In the middle of the year we’ll offer an opportunity to “check in” for those who are available and interested, then we’ll organize a meeting for the end of the year (next November) when everyone can get back together and review how it went. A simple and open framework… then we create the activity out of ourselves.
So, if you’re interested, please come to the first Open Meeting meeting on Sunday, January 29th, from 5:30 to 9:30 in Harlemville, NY (further details, including location will be forwarded later to folks who register). To register please contact Emily Kozakiewicz at emilyjane412@gmail.com. Then bring your questions (whatever you want to learn more about) and any ideas on how you imagine working with others.
Emily Kozakiewicz said it all much more concisely and beautifully in an email to the core group the other day:
How will Think OutWord’s carrying body change and transform based on the needs of Think OutWord, and the needs and gifts of the individuals connecting themselves with it?
A little picture that comes for me is again one related to the bees…being the form of the honeycomb. They build this comb by hanging together, holding onto one another and each shaping the substance that emerges out of their own little bodies…into these perfect, six-sided forms. A form built in such a way that it serves many purposes……it completely supports the function of the hive. It provides the nest for the Queen, the home for the brood as they’re reared, and the storage for all the food, pollen and nectar, that the bees bring in….and though it is structurally sound enough to hold pounds and pounds of honey without collapsing….the empty honeycomb itself is so very light. Newly built, it is so pure, nearly white….the sun shines through it. And the comb, the form itself, feels nearly weightless in one’s hand…..a light form capable of holding great treasure.
Look forward to creating honey together,
Seth Jordan (on behalf of the current core group)