Dear Friends My posting re "The right to treat each other well" triggered remarkable responses from people on and off this list. Among these were wonderful 'reports from the field' from Glory Ressler and Chris Weaver and others' comments about resonance of the idea.
I intend to send the piece to Mary Robinson, UN Human Rights Commissioner, in a slightly modified form to that which was posted. Here is background which you may wish to 'hear' re the report from our intrepid and inspirational poet Chris (10/17/01) Chris, as you may know, is the director of the Swannanoa 4-H Camp near Asheville in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. This camp, in a lovely wooded setting, has been in use for over 80 years by school age chidren; it has seen at least 20, 000 young people spend some time there. Recently it was threatened with closure as the state government deemed that it had run out of funds to pay for the director's salary, ancillary staff and maintenance. At the height of this crisis, during May of this year, I was scheduled to pay Chris and his family a visit, en route from attending a conference in Vienna to one in Vancouver. He and I had had a good connection a couple of years previously at the OSonOS gathering in Monterey in California. As a potential contribution to the survival of the camp Chris asked me to facilitate a Conversing Cafe. (This can be described as Open Space a la carte, with the principles of Open Space Technology made explicit. See Cafe Recipes in www.theworldcafe.com) People with a passion for what the camp had been and what it could become were invited to participate. After this event, Chris reported to this list: "Alan Stewart from Adelaide Down Under facilitated a "conversing cafe" at the camp last Friday night [May 18] which worked magic beyond description in our community." Precisely what Chris meant by this I am not sure, but what I do know is that there was substantial support given by many people in Asheville and beyond and that the camp is now on a firm financial footing - and thriving. Chris' report on just some of the activities happening there now attest to this. Perhaps what shines through from his observations and reflections, written as only a poet can, is the spirit of the enterprise. Glory and others, the story of 'The one which you feed' which Chris adapted for his purposes and which you can too if you wish, is one which I found at www.gurteen.com Stories. Good to converse, with love Alan Adelaide "I have come to believe over and over again that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised and misunderstood. For it is not difference which immobilises us most, but silence." Audre Lorde, poet, 1999 There is only the fight to recover what has been lost And found and lost again and again: and now, under conditions That seem unpropitious. But perhaps neither gain nor loss. For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business. TS Eliot. East Coker V "The spirit of liberty is the spirit that is not too sure that it is right." U.S. Court of Appeals Court Justice Learned Hand. * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu, Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html