[Oe List ...] [Dialogue] Witness

[Herman Greene]

I am changing my email address from hfgreene at mindspring.com to
hfgreenenc at gmail.com, effective immediately.

Herman Greene

On Tue, Dec 11, 2012 at 7:14 AM, Sarah H. Buss <shbuss at icloud.com> wrote:

> Nice. This is why I sign up for our Listserve.
> Sarah
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
> On Dec 10, 2012, at 4:02 PM, Richard Alton <dick_alton at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>  *Burning Man*
>
> Celebrating my 71st birthday this December. You would think after all
> these years I would have learned a few things and, more important, be a lot
> wiser.  Not sure. I guess one thing I have learned is that there is a lot
> of wisdom out there in this great old world. And to act on this insight I
> try to collect wisdom and jot them down in my yearly calendar… I am not
> sure it makes me wise.
>
>
>
> One example is my daughters going to Burning Man (gathering of old and new
> hippies as one friend explained to me to smoke a lot of pot). Well my
> daughters Christina and Kay had not told me about this last part so I
> immediately went and googled Burning Man. And upped popped the Burning Man
> principles: *There is no default world; Expect more from strangers; Form
> your own camp; Be part of the* *generosity economy and Embrace
> impermanence.* I wrote Christina- the older daughter- what is this all
> about? She says, “you know this is like what we learned with ICA, you know
> the other world” Now that caught my attention.
>
>
>
> The one principle I was most fascinated with was the one about *‘Expect* *more
> from strangers”.* It seems Burning Man believes that people are scarred
> of other people, and it is their job not to be scarred. They also recommend
> “go in for a hug”- that seems a little too scary for me. Most people it
> appears are trying to project their appearance of normalcy instead of
> celebrating their wonderful weirdness. The key seems to be able to say
> “yes” to the strangeness of strangers. Your job appears to be to expect
> people to be interesting.  Also you have a right to approach any random
> person and have an interesting interaction.
>
>
>
> So I now have these 5 principals in my calendar book. I usually try to
> read through these wisdom notes regularly and try to be mindful of them
> through the day. ‘Expecting more from strangers” went with me to the ICA
> Nepal Conference. The second day there I tried to walk from the ICA Nepal
> office back to my Hotel. A course, I got lost. I had a map but it did not
> seem very helpful. And then I noticed a man walking near me who also had
> his map out with a great big backpack like he had been trekking. Finally, I
> walked over to him and asked, “have you found where we are?. Nope, but I
> think I am close” We finally figured out where we were with the help of a
> policeman and we started walking together. Where are you from?: Egypt. What
> do you do?: I am the Egyptian consular at the Egyptian Embassy in New Delhi
> and come regularly to Nepal to trek. He asked me some questions and I told
> him about our El Bayad work and that I had coached baseball in Maadi
> (suburbs of Cairo). And then I asked him about the new government in Egypt.
> He spent about 15 minutes trying to explain the situation in Egypt and what
> he thought the future looked like. I was just startled that this just
> totally out of the blue interaction had produced such an amazing
> interaction.
>
>
>
> And then there was the actual Nepal Conference. What a way to just
> maximize such weird connections?  And is not that finally what community
> is all about? I guess that is what Burning Man means by *Form your camp. *Burning
> Man’s philosophy seems to suggest that these camps are about making an
> impact together. They are not just for hanging out together, but camps are
> where people are about something that contributes to the larger
> community..this is what gives camps meaning. These camps seem to leads us
> to the *generosity economy*; this has to do with someone who always gives
> to others as a way of life. Burning Man sees the transformative feature of
> their faith is the ‘gifting’ economy. Notice how it makes your life better
> to give. In fact, giving away can become a way of life for you and your
> people.
>
>
>
> The last principle is *embracing impermanence* which is really up in your
> face at 71 years old.  I am going to put that one in my 2013 monthly
> planner for my brood screen for the year. I know I have to embrace it… I am
> sure it will embrace me.
>
>
>
> Bet you that these principles came from smoking too much pot. Probably,
> the same pot the Other World came from.
>
>
>
> Dick Alton, just back from hanging out with Bill McKibben and 350.orgworking to divest my oil stocks…
>
>
> Richard H.T. Alton 166 N. Humphrey Ave, Apt, 1N Oak Park, IL 60302 T:
> 1.773.344.7172 richard.alton at gmail.com Don't let the fear of striking out
> hold you back Babe Ruth
>
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