 What I'm Thinking of Writing (and Podcasting) About Soon:
"Stupidity is a place of grace."
So says my dear friend Andrew and I hope he's right. I'm feeling very
stupid these days, in the true sense of the word -- "stunned, dazed, or
incoherent". Clearly, of late, I have been all three.
And for
that reason I think I will try to say, and write, relatively little for
the next while, until I have something intelligent to say (in the sense
of being "supported by evidence of its empirical validity") rather than
just something intuitive and conceptually interesting.
For the
next while I will be reposting (with modest updates) some of my more
enduring articles from the past five years. But first I will be posting
my New Year's Intentions (as distinct from New Year's Resolutions).
I remain absolutely resolute (or perhaps I should say intentional)
that my Purpose is to establish and nurture the establishment of Model
Intentional Communities. The principles and competencies I think they
might need or aspire to (including polyamorism) are completely
negotiable, and will be arrived at by consensus of our members. I will
respond briefly to the critics of this intention shortly, and will then
move on -- rather than debate the validity of my ideas endlessly, I
think it makes sense for us to just begin, and discover whether they
make sense, and whether they work, or not.
I have started a
blog with my Second Life intentional community partner, and as our
experimental community evolves you will be able to read about it, from
the point of view of all its members, on this new 'group' blog. New
articles on that blog will likely be cross-posted or cross-linked here.
My goal is transparency, and our new blog will be a true journal of
learning and discovery.
I am also resolute in my belief that the
best way to approach and cope with all the challenges of our time is
through Love, Conversation and Community, and specifically:
Whether
you want to change the political or economic system, save the whales,
stop global warming, reform education, spark innovation or anything
else, the answer is in how meaning,
and understanding of what needs to be done, emerges from conversation
in community with people you love, people who care.
As a consequence, while I will be writing less on this blog, I will be engaging in more loving conversations, one-to-one and in community.
If you want to be part of that, please sign up for gmail and email me
at dave.pollard (at) gmail.com; we will be able to see each other's
online status for instant message conversations (and, depending on your
operating system, VoIP voice-to-voice conversations as well). I have
come to prefer the latter, because voice-to-voice conversations are
more iterative and provide richer clues as to meaning (voice inflection
etc.) than mere text. I will make as much time available as possible
for such conversations but you'll have to be patient with me, because I
only have so many hours in the day for conversation, and may have to
'schedule' something with you rather than (what would be more ideal) be
able to converse with you immediately and ex tempore.
I am not interested in debates or adversarial conversations -- I find
them a waste of time and energy. If you are willing to entertain a
discussion full of "yes...and" rather than "yes...but" expressions,
then I want to talk with you.
I am not abandoning this blog. It
has over 2500 pages of material in it and I will add to it as often as
I have something new to say -- not new abstract ideas or promising
models but new learnings, discoveries and experiences from actual practice that
you, dear readers, may hopefully find valuable. This will include
posting conversations that I have with others (in text and/or podcast
form).
You'll get a better sense of where I'm going in my upcoming New Year's Intentions article.
"Everybody sails alone, but we can travel side by side." -- KT Tunstall, Heal Over, a truly amazing song you can find on YouTube
Hope
to see you, dear friends and lovers, on our journey, nearby, within
voice range, and perhaps close enough to touch, to feel. A journey of
love, peace, understanding and joy.
"Not farewell, but fare forward, voyagers." -- TS Eliot, Four Quartets |
12:39:36 AM
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