ONE IN A HUNDRED people who read this blog will find it interesting. It’s definitely not popular. Writing as a way of discovering who you really are? Not popular at all. Reflecting on the meanings in your life and looking for tools to improve yourself? Definitely not on Buzzfeed.
But so. I’m not interested in popularity. I’m interested in quality, and conversations that go places.
And of the one in 100 who find this interesting, a few of you will be, I’m sure of it, people with whom I could easily spend an afternoon, an evening, and the late-evening hours with in good succession without losing a beat in the conversation. Why would you want to spend time with me? It’s a good question. I can start to answer it, but not here, not now. It’s not important about me, what’s important is you, and the other one in 100 like you, whom I love to connect with and interconnect.
It happens.
Not because of something called ‘chemistry’ or agenda-driven anything. But because we care about exploration, the big questions, and learning from those whose paths we might not have otherwise have crossed. Lately I am discovering that internet is a kind of public space, at times, where you can wander into someone just like that. You can. It can happen. And you can engage in ways that are real, in online conversations that actually go places. I am writing from a year’s experience of experimenting with this kind of thing. Can tell you about that in the orientation sessions for the things to come, things that I like to call ‘cojournals.’ It’s a lot, to start with, in this first fresh page of meeting you. But I think, if you’ve read this far, you, too, are seeking true connection.
One day when we are in the middle of cojournaling we might decide it’s time to meet, in person. That would be fun, wouldn’t it, if we already had a way of getting acquainted? Yes. Then, we can continue from a place of already having started the connection-making, online. We can do that now. Technology.
THOSE WITH WHOM I connect with, engage with, and stay in contact with (through many, many email changes and discarded addresses over the yeasr), are like me: we are tired of the banal, the usual, the ‘scene,’ and the agenda-driven kind of dialogue that doesn’t seem to progress beyond the superficial.
Some of us, as a result, decided to curate the kinds of conversation participants, venues, and locations that lent themselves to a remarkable moment of connection. If you know us personally, you will already be familiar with the idea that we don’t like to document these moments of conversation. So, there will be no recordings, no documentation, no photos to upload to say ‘I was here.’ That makes it hard, of course, to tell you what this is, what it feels like, what the mood is, if you are just coming to this page fresh, for the first time. But we will blog more, telling you these kinds of ambient features, instead of writing about the specifics of who said what, and the ‘outcomes.’ If that makes sense? In other words, it’s all about the being there.
The presence, the moments that we make, on the spot in the bounded box. Together. Traveling used to be interesting because it was a way to discover people by sheer chance, who were also on the road, on some kind of quest. Many of us were seeking, of course we were, some of us were running away from things, of course we were doing that, too. But the important part was the interfacing: the learning that we weren’t so alone in our struggle to find identity in a world that seemed bent on prioritizing some things (money, power) over others (connection, well-being, and a sense of belonging). THE VILLAGE, an online dialogue that is 12 weeks, is the start-point for this online connection. We begin easily and lightly, getting acquainted slowly. The real-life moments will come when a few of us are feeling ready to make it happen. In a place that seems like it might be fun to go to, together, based on where the conversations are leading. Are you curious? I invite you to take our first segment, a 12-week conversation that you can join without any application.
At least now through 31 August 2017, at which time we will re-evaulate this open call for interest.
Curious?
Good.
Discover more when you add your name to our conversation space, co-hosted with Design Kompany, at the registration page here.