Facilitating Change

So many of us now are hybrids. In between. With that comes freedom. But also the loss of a sense of connection to something bigger and that can contain us in a comforting way. Like a parent’s embrace. The rituals that marked passage and grounded and gathered communities are fading away. I believe that acknowledging and celebrating the milestones in our lives is important and can help us transition and accept change.

Annabel Soutar, co-founder of the amazing Porte Parole, will present at Pecha Kucha Montreal tonight. Care about democracy? Citizen engagement? Clear your schedule and be there!

What’s important is the ability to gather with others and the possibility to be accompanied in your work. To be able to ask questions and bounce around ideas. I’ve been thinking for some time that public-access venues and coworking spaces are connected. This is why. They provide access to helpful people — librarians, dinamizador@s, infomediaries, the-guy-sitting-across-the-table-from-you.

So somewhere in June everything fell apart. I was falling and falling. Shattered. Scattered. Lost. Yes, that’s the main feeling: loss. Layers upon layers of it — some new, some old. Accompanied by self-loathing, deep deep sadness, hopelessness, and rage. All combining into a perfect dizzying downward spiral.

Smell is the most powerful trigger to the memory there is. A certain flower, or a-a whiff of smoke can bring up experiences long forgotten. Books smell musty and-and-and rich. The knowledge gained from a computer is a – it, uh, it has no-no texture, no-no context. It’s-it’s there and then it’s gone. If it’s to last, then-then the getting of knowledge should be, uh, tangible, it should be, um, smelly.

“We do so much but no one knows about it. We have to do a better job of telling our story.” I’ve heard this again and again. So, why’s it so hard? I’ve come to suspect that part of it has to do with the structure of communications within organizations. The centralized structure is a problem. We need to figure out how to make a distributed model work.

This stuff tastes like flowers, but it’s not sweet. Their website describes it this way: “Lifted aromatics of tropical fruits combined with the traditional nettle and herbaceous aromas of Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc.” Yeah whatever. Blah, blah, blah. Flowers, I tell you!