Thrivability - A Collaborative Sketch by Jean Russell

Jean Russell has just launched a very cool "Thrivability book." I'm going to do a bit of an intro on it, but feel free to skip my intro it and head to the bottom of this post to see it... Or you can linger and read my intro. Just letting you know I'm going to say a few words before showtime.

An introduction to my life of full-on thrivability
I was up late last night, doing what I often do: indulging my creative capacities. Last night that meant working with images, posting them to various sites to share – and then reply to comments as "friends" and "fans" and "followers" quickly responded. When I finally turned off the light and got up from my little "kitchen of the mind," I realized that this is a very propitious time for some like me: I have the tools, the skills and talents, and the social nature to spend most of my waking hours creating and sharing my creations. Sometimes it feels like full-on 24/7 magic in my life!

One of the reasons for this is my ability to use the tools at hand: digital media like still fotos, video, text-forms like blogging and micro-blogging (Facebook, Twitter, etc). Another reason is the inspiration and guidance (and opportunity) I get from so many people I meet, sometimes face-to-face, sometimes its via virtual connections, similar to what "penpals" used to be, I imagine. (btw: The richest f2f encounters happened at last years Media that Matters event – I strongly recommend anyone who wants/needs to plug into a powerful current of creativity to check out this year's MtM in May).

Tools, talents, people
I'd like to say that I can't tell which is more important right now: my capacities to use the tools available to me, or the people who inspire and guide me. But, like so much else in my life, what is at the heart of my creative outpouring is my connection with people. Jean Russell is one of these.

I've never met Jean f2f. We've never spoken. I can't even remember how we "met." I do know that we are mutual Twitter "followers," that we are Facebook "friends," and that I was drawn to her notion of "thrivability."

I won't get into what "thrivability" means to me. I will however say that thanks to Jean I've found a handle that describes what's important to me: that I don't simply sustain or maintain myself, my family, my community, my work, but that I do what I can so that these are places of active, creative engagement. Places that I can describe as thriving.

All of this is a long introduction to a project Jean asked me to be a part of, an online "book" that you can look through via this embedded slideshow. She "crowd-sourced" the project, putting out the call to folks like me to submit a word that we think relates to "thrivability," and to accompany that with a page of writing, images, etc. It's was a beautiful idea. Now its a beautiful "collaborative sketch."

My word...
Dance. As you may know, I love to dance, and I love to talk and write about dance. I love to take pictures of dance too (though it's hard sometimes, because mostly when I see others dancing I only have one thing on my mind: to be dancing too). Thanks Jean. Thanks for inviting me into this project. Thanks for giving me another opportunity to explore my experience of dance.

ps. It's on page 28, surrounded by many amazing pages of images, writing, thinking. An inspiring neighbourhood to find myself in!

And above all – Congratulations Jean, on this lovely "book!"

Thrivability: A Collaborative Sketch

View more presentations from Jean Russell.

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Saturday evening thoughts about Friday night tango

Image by hanspetermeyer.ca via Flickr

Saturday evening. Generally a time of rest for me (sort of), after dancing Friday evening. I need the evening off because after 5 hours of dancing, this 50 year old's body usually has a deliciously sore feeling. Also, my dancing soul has been thoroughly nourished. Though I am a dance-aholic, I'm OK with taking the evening off.


But I'm not here to talk about Saturdays; I want to make a comment on last night's tango experience.

I spend most of my Friday's with the crew at ValDance.com. It's the heart of my week. Friends gather for happy hour beforehand, often at Hank's Bar and Grill. We usually take in the 1 hour beginner or intermediate workshops on whatever is being offered (swing, rhumba, waltz, foxtrot, chacha, etc); then we dance dance dance until ValDance closes down and it's time to move on to another dance venue.

Good stuff. A lively crew; a good mix of music; lots of great dancing!

Last night was "tango" night. At one time the ballroom tango was interesting to me... and then I made my voyage to Buenos Aires, following a trail left by Sally Potter and her Tango Lesson movie. That ruined ballroom tango for me. As I stepped into what tango can be, I didn't want to go back to the ballroom version.

So instead of workshopping ballroom, I took tickets – and practiced. Away from the class, in the foyer of the hall, I practiced Argentine tango. And whenever the talking stopped in the hall, and the music played... magic. And that was good.

I'm not a fan of "moves." Less and less of a fan of moves for the sake of moves. Which is one reason I like Argentine tango over ballroom: the emphasis moves away from dramatic gestures towards simplicity and connection. Sometimes it's enough to hold a woman close. To pause. And just walk. And walk. To pause again. To breathe. And walk some more.

We didn't walk much in the foyer as the rest of the ValDance.com crew were learning to sway and sweep etc. Instead, we took the opportunity to practice some of the minor moves that make navigation with tango – Argentine tango – a pleasure, and so much more than navigation. We did some work on timing, bringing our feet and ankles together at the just-right moments. And a few embellishments. Simple stuff. The stuff of elegance. Almost meditative.

A nice way to warm up for an evening with a fair number of tango tunes. When the dance started we got travel 'round the floor in our own time. Feeling the music between our bodies. Walking. Pausing. Stepping quickly when the candombe rhythms emerged. Slowing when it receded. An ocho here, a gancho there. But mostly the simplicity of the walk, slow or fast, with the music moving through and between our bodies.

Tango. Love it. Love that I followed Sally's lead, and the fantasy I had about going to Buenos Aires and learning to dance there. Love that I got to come home to a local version of Sally's BsAs salon with Kirra and VancouverIslandTango.com. It just keeps getting better, the more I dance, the more I feel the music and the presence of my partner.

¡Muy bueno!


6 March 2010
hanspetermeyer

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Tango: the Walk (with thanks to TangoCorazon)

It's almost time for me to gather up my shirts, shoes, and socks and head out the door to the little salon where I learn about tango and milonga. But first I had to check my email. And there it was, an invitation by my professora de tango, to read the blog she's started at TangoCorazon.wordpress.com

What's cool is that she's letting us know what she's going to focus on, and why. Here's a quote that she's taken from somewhere to describe why we're going to be "walking" tonight...

“Tango is like writing a letter, it has a beginning, periods, commas, stops and an end. If you are doing figures and gyros (turns) all the time, people don’t see anything and that is why there is the walk- the invention of the people. In this dance of the people, which is what tango is, all the famous couples have used the walk, and they use it constantly. The tango is on the ground, It is caressing the floor. It is the ball of the foot supporting the weight of the body, right on the axis and each person on his/her own axis. If you make pupils walk at the beginning, they get bored and want to learn steps and more steps – to show off at the dance hall. So you need to have the luck of meeting a teacher who tells you: No. Look. You must walk. First walk.“ Tango Corazon, Oct 2009

I guess we're lucky, eh? To walk. Instead of being distracted by all the many (too many!) steps that often keep good dancers from becoming great dancers.

And now, to find those shoes, socks, and shirts (I need a few 'cause dancing – even a slow, meditative dance like tango – is hot stuff, hot and sweaty stuff, for me.)

Hasta luego muchachos.... hpm


ps. for more information on Argentine tango on Vancouver Island.... www.vancouverislandtango.com on Twitter at @TangoCorazon, and on Facebook

Conscious Capital 4: hanspetermeyer interviews Kate Dugas about Social Venture Institute 2009

Kate Dugas is the Social Media Strategist for Vancity Credit Union in Vancouver. She has also been in and around the Social Venture Institute at Hollyhock on Cortes Island, BC. In 2008 Kate was identified to hanspetermeyer as one of the "go to" people in the Vancouver region with regard to what Joel Solomon of Renewal Partners has called "conscious capital." Kate suggested that SVI was the centre of this conversation in our region.

Shortly after the September 2009 SVI hanspetermeyer interviewed Kate and asked her why SVI is so important in the "conscious capital" conversation, and about her experiences there.





Background on Kate Dugas:
Kate has been building communities on and offline all her life. For the past ten years she has been a pioneer in the online community realm having worked with a broad spectrum of groups ranging from well known international activist groups to smaller community based groups. She has been instrumental in the creation and success of a wide variety of projects including international communities in support of healthy oceans, local action and education portals, and most recently ChangeEverything.ca; an online community all about positive change for Canada's largest Credit Union, Vancity.

She is skilled at facilitating the emergent wisdom of groups, as well as exploring groundbreaking questions often leading projects into fertile and rewarding territory.

As well as her work with Vancity and ChangEverything.ca, Kate is is an energy-healing practitioner and artist who runs Quench Designs, her Vancouver-based jewelery business.

For more information about Kate's work at Vancity Credit Union, visit www.changeverything.ca

For more information about the Social Venture Insitute, visit www.renewalpartners.com/svi

For more information about hanspetermeyer visit www.hanspetermeyer.ca or www.hanspetermeyer.com

Image via Wikipedia

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Local Government & Leadership on Social Issues: a Conversation with Doug Hillian

Image by hanspetermeyer.ca via Flickr

Recently, one of the young guys on Courtenay City Council got drafted into the big leagues (yep, the farm club system does work folks; start your political career in your town, village, city, or regional district and, with luck, you'll be noticed by the scouts and head for bigger money, more prestige, and a little more power... maybe). That means we're going to have a by-election this fall. November 7, 2009. That's a Saturday. Enough time in the day to get down to the local polling station and cast a ballot.

I've said it before (and I'll keep saying it): local government may be the minor leagues of political life, but it's where the sustainability challenge gets real, fast. One of my mentors, a former mayor of Nanaimo, called local government the "Hell's Kitchen of Sustainability." So it should mean something to all of us who care about the quality of life in Courtenay, this by-election.

One of the people who's tossed his "hat into the ring" (yes, it's a very tired cliché, and if you watch the interview you'll actually hear me say it as I grope for unscripted words to say) is Doug Hillian. I like Doug. He's a serious guy when it comes to community. He also knows how to play (watch him on Saturday mornings on the soccer pitch). I think he's got some things to offer our town, and I thought it would be interesting to video some little chats on various topics. Here's our first convo, from Studio Willemar...



Doug Hillian talks to hanspetermeyer about local government and leadership from hanspetermeyer on Vimeo.

See you at the polling booth! And stay tuned, Doug and I will be doing this chat on a more-or-less weekly basis. Got some questions for him? Leave them in the "comment" box below.

hpm

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Conscious Capital 3: hanspetermeyer interviews Rha Goddess about Social Venture Institute 2009

In this, the 3rd in a series of interviews with SVI09 participants, Rha Goddess is interviewed by hanspetermeyer about her experience at Social Venture Institute 2009 at Hollyhock on Cortes Island, BC.


Rha Goddess is CEO of Move The Crowd, a professional networking, training and development company dedicated to teaching Social Entrepreneurs of the Hip Hop Generation how to “Stay True, Get Paid and Do Good.”

Rha is a performance artist, activist and social entrepreneur. Her work has been featured in numerous international compilations, forums, and festivals. She has received rave industry reviews from Time Magazine, Ms. Magazine, XXL, Essence, The Source, among others. As CEO, of Divine Dime Entertainment, Ltd. she was one of the first women in Hip Hop to independently market and commercially distribute her music worldwide.

In her 30+ year tenure as an organizer, Rha has worked on issues of racial justice and equality, electoral politics, youth empowerment, mental health and young women’s empowerment. She is the Creator and Executive Producer of the Young Woman’s performance movement, We Got Issues! and The Hip Hop Mental Health Project.

Note on the photo:
The cover photo shows Rha on the deck at Hollyhock at the Social Venture Institute 2009 with Suzanne Siemens. (Suzanne provided the photo. She is the co-founder and co-owner of Lunapads. She has attended 4 SVIs, and each time, her experience and the impact it has had on her and on Lunapads is richer than before. Suzanne wrote about her SVI 08 experience on her lunapad blog)

For more information about the Social Venture Institute...






For more information about hanspetermeyer follow or visit...
www.twitter.com/hanspetermeyer (Twitter)
www.youtube.com/hpm1640 (videos)
www.flickr.com/hanspetermeyer (photographs)
www.hanspetermeyer.ca
www.hanspetermeyer.com
www.development-issues.com

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Learning from my Elders

One of the cool things about my life is I have lots and lots of conversations with people. In the past few months I've tried to collect "family history" from preceding generations. But sometimes it leaks into the stories of folks close to me, but not directly related.

What is it about stories? "Facts" are one thing, but I love to hear about how my mother or my friend Andy grew up slaughtering pigs, harvesting and living off the food from the garden.

I also love to hear about what it was like for my folks to face the fact of my imminent arrival: unplanned pregancy. I know that one so close to home. It's my story inside and out. One of the best stories.

And these are not just intergenerational, they're also the spiritual and emotional and practical knowledge for the next gen. Hearing my first ex-mother-in-law talk about what it was like to raise small children was – and remains – one of the pivotal experiences in my life as a father. Thanks Jane.

Lately Jane and I have been gathering the stories of her life. Tonight it was my mother's turn. I hope to travel with my father to his home town in Lüneburg in nothern Germany to do the same with him. A foto/audio exploration of the streets that raised him.

Life is grand. Life is diverse and confusing and amazing. But so much of it begins to make sense and fall into place when we listen to the stories of our elders. At least, that's what it looks like to me.

So... thanks to Jane and Elizabeth and Peter for sharing of themselves. If you're wondering about life, generally, ask your mother or father, or your mother-in-law or father-in-law, or maybe your uncle or godmother - ask them: What did you do when you were raising young children? How did you manage with not enough money? What did you do during the war (any war – or crisis – will do)?

Image by hanspetermeyer.ca via Flickr

My elders don't have "the" answers for me. They do, however, have perspectives that help me see more clearly. When the world is unsettled, it's our family stories that help to give us a sense of place and direction.

hpm

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