We Like Sheep - Wandering Astray

Overall May was a good month for me. My solitary practice has continued, in May I was able to loose 7.9 pounds in the month (using a trend analysis from start to finish), which is right where I was hoping to end up.

Our CRC was more off then on, but we had a good evaluation and are going to try some really interesting experiments for this quarter. One of which is moving the common meal near to the start of our liturgy and use that space as a space to include children, before separating to our study and reflection.

One of the more interesting things I read last month came out of england:

http://hauntedgeographies.typepad.com/basho/2009/05/99.html

It was the reflections on joining a local "transition" community and struggling to understand its place inside the broader network of the "Transition Lmtd" group. Transitions is network / stream that comes out of the bio-regionalism movement in England and is about find ways for communities to respond to the twin issues of peak oil and global warming in local, networked, grass-roots ways.

The author was one of the anchors of Vaux, an experimental church form in England in the 90s and early 2000s that did some amazing stuff. What struck me about it was the hesitancy of people on the outside to risk being parts of networks that had a sense of heirarchy where they were not present in the formative stages.

For example here:

"The first piece of information that begun to dampen some of my enthusiasm was the existence of a ‘Transition Network Ltd’ and the associated ring fencing of the terms ‘Transition Network’ and ‘Transition Initiatives’. The movement seemed to be posturing as a ‘brand’. Which to me, is falling at the first hurdle, quite literally buying into the very system that has perpetrated so much havoc. It feels particularly depressing as transition practice could potentially challenge capitalist subjectivity.

All this tends to breed immediate suspicion, undermining all the talk of ‘decentralisation’, ‘temporality’, ‘sharing’ and ‘openness’— its just business as usual. I find the copyright issue particularly confusing as it’s being invoked ‘to ensure their work isn’t hijacked’. This seems crazy, the whole project has emerged virally, its meant to be replicated, adjusted, twisted and hacked. It’s designed to be adapted to local conditions. The Transition network should be more confident of its biological models. As with open-source programming, the code should be freely available— to be tinkered, adjusted and improved by anyone. Yes, misuse of ‘the commons’ is possible, yet this is the nature of the beast. The benefits and advantages of a locked-open system far out way the possibilities of any ‘deviant’ application. (Ab)use and error are necessary evils, a creative system requires them. To make pearls and snow, one needs ‘dirt’."

It reminded me how deeply ingrained the expectations of freedom and forking are embeded into the generation that grew up on the internet. When open systems (online) are the norm its a struggle to accept other modes of being.

So this month I am going to look for ways to embed that freedom into the way we introduce the CRC to the new member joining us for the first time.

Nate