more, less brief reflections from the on being gathering (part 2)

26 Feb 2018

continued from 21 feb post and my reflections about the on being gathering.

whirlpool trio and the question

on the 2nd day (or maybe it was day 3; they all blurred together in a really nice way), i spent like four hours in the hot tub. i met a bunch of queers, which was pretty cool. i think it was luke and kyle. i also had an awesome conversation with two guys for at least hour. we talked about things ranging from our rejections of our spiritual upbringings, to our current work, to gentrification, to economic democracy and ujima. jacobo and tim, you two are the best.

one of the last things we discussed was a big irony of the weekend. the gathering was all about civil conversations and yet… practice or training for having those conversations wasn’t actually on the docket. it probably wasn’t a convening designed to that that, but we three just couldn’t make sense of it. there were so many “like-minded” people who would be so down to work on that in a “safe space” and we were already all together. it seemed like a huge missed opportunity.

there were a few chances here and there, but they were all in the margins (i.e. in either open space conversations that got proposed or optional breakout sessions that everyone didn’t get/have to go).

all three of us thought the question needed to put out into the space. jacobo prompted tim to ask the question during the “community conversation” session later that evening. he waffled and then we all waffled and didn’t decide on anything.

later in the day, jacobo said i had to do it and i figured, why not. i’ve been quiet pretty much all day so i can use a little energy on this.

i stood in line and ask the question on the mic and i think it took krista off guard because she did the thing that people do they’re caught off guard: ramble. that wasn’t my intention at all; i just really wanted to put out into the space: can we repurpose some of the time (tomorrow, on day 4) that we’re already together to practice having conversations across difference that don’t flatten. she basically said “maybe next time.” which i get; the conference was almost over; it would be nearly impossible to redesign the last day on the evening before (well, not impossible just hard and maybe not desirable to the team). but afterwards, probably 6 people can up to me and said something like “i appreciate you asking that” or “based on her answer, i don’t know if she understood your question…”

anyway, it was an interesting experience for sure. #imlearning

on the lack of queer elders

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words / writing / post-processing
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