2023-11-14
2023-11-14
Morning
I'm here at Liminal Village, having arrived yesterday afternoon. I thought it would be a good idea to note down what I am experiencing, feeling, thinking, every day, though I'm not going to write personal feelings about particular people (unless really necessary, and then anonymously).
The main issue that has come up very clearly for me is how to flow with the fact that most of the people here are “hanging over” from last Lunation. In fact, it is only myself and Maija who have arrived specifically for this Lunation 48, with the idea of working on RegenCHOICE. I recognise that I've written quite a lot about this a few days ago on 2023-11-06, and this is a restatement in the terms that occur to me today.
What I found coming through yesterday had a number of key points. This Lunation is for me a preparation for another event, maybe elsewhere, where we can try to build a prototype demo system. There are a few things that would be really great to have achieved by the end of this Lunation now.
- If we can build the collective vision between the people here, then that will show that there is a good chance of convincing other people in the “regen” space as well.
- Key to this, and really to any attempt to match people well, is a set of questions expressing people's preferences.
I was thinking of how we could have a kind of win-win, deeply tuning in to what is going on here and now, and using that to build the two points above.
Transformation of conflict would be one exciting way forward. We identify a conflict between two people here – no matter how small or big – and we ask the people involved to work towards expressing the underlying different beliefs. Then, clearly separate out the beliefs into their constituent parts. For each part, work collectively to express the different positions along that dimension. Identify the extreme positions and the shades of grey in between.
In a similar way, personal experience can be used to build other “scales” or “ranges”. We could help each other, for example, to identify what the divergent points were between ourselves and ex-partners who we have split up from. Or, we could do the same for jobs that we were unhappy in.
The point that excites me most in this is that, for this to function as an effective scale for RegenCHOICE, we will need to express each position positively as something that an individual can identify with. So this very exercise will be, in effect, an exercise in empathy — seeing the matter from the position of the other, not just from our own perspective and value system.
I'd like to give an example here, and maybe I could start working on something from my own experience, but I know it is difficult. I would prefer to work collectively with other people's issues first.
Going back to the first of the two points listed above, building a collective vision partly entails connecting with the wider issues that matter in people's lives, not only what matters to them personally in terms of relationships and jobs. My question here would be, what do you really care about in this world? For this issue, how can you see something like RegenCHOICE playing a part in creating positive change in this area? Often these days, we get stuck contemplating the intractability, the huge scale, of what needs to be changed, and our little efforts to do something positive can seem hopeless. But with some collective help, focusing on the potential of what a system like this may offer, maybe we can build a sense of common purpose, at least in this one aspect of the problem. I'd like people to think for themselves first on this, but after thinking for yourself you can read my motivation list. Whenever new things come up, I would like to add them there.
After the vital step of exploring what else is being done by other people and projects in any particular chosen area, this will serve to prepare to reach out to groups that focus on these issues, offering to serve them by adding the RegenCHOICE functionality to their networks.