Where does Community Commune?

As the dregs of Christmas lights come down and the New Year starts to set into our collective consciousness, I think back on the holiday happenings. About a month ago, our think tank group gathered at a local mall to collect our thoughts and witness first hand our community in action at its yearly height of consumer participation.

It was very strange. There we were, ThinkTank!, at Fashion Island in Newport Beach, Ca. We congregated there in order to focus our attentions and intentions on the community, which we then transferred our thoughts to Blogspot. We started our meeting that Saturday morning on comfy chairs below the mall’s HUGE Christmas tree while holiday shoppers sprung into action. Discussion abounded, thoughts transformed, and tangible evidence from our existing memories of past holiday traditions (or lack thereof) became the topic for further investigation.

It seemed to me (and it still does) that this is where people have their community center, malls. Towns used to have a center, or if your town still does, is it comfortable? Are there places to sit, congregate without spending money? What does community MEAN in the modern sense anyway? We have created a Consume-ocracy, a society dependent on spending money in order to connect with each other. Communication becomes important only in the case of advertising, which can take countless forms nowadays. Holiday traditions in this environment have the unnerving ability to become shallow and frenzied as we become capable of inadvertently rushing through the maze of holiday “Cheer”. In some cases our loved ones become a gift-giving quota to satisfy.

"What Box" original artwork by ©Katlin Evans

Now, when it comes to a creating particular kind of space, I draw a blank. There are a million kinds of spaces one could create a sense of community, yet I have a hard time visualizing it. I guess the place to begin adjusting our ways begins in the space of the mind. A change of perspective, how we function and think about spending our time and money is becoming more and more crucial.
It’s difficult to think of another container besides the box. That structured armature of our current existence is dissolving before our unconscious. Yet to fathom a new container when the old one (the box) hasn’t fully dissolved and still clings to every fiber of our being, change becomes increasingly difficult. In the strong current that surrounds our daily habits of functioning, just getting by is hard enough! Now we have to adjust our way of thinking as well? This is all too much. But it seems that this (change) will happen with or without us!

So, needless to say, I have started a small quest to see what kinds of community spaces are out there. What are people doing differently from the usual mall, bar, coffee shop kinds of places? We all know in order to perfect something so innovative as “change” there must be many attempts before one or many ideas take off and become ingrained in our most basic perspective and culture.
For example when texting first became a reality for communication we could not see how it would change our lives on a daily basis. To “Text” is now an action, a verb. So instead of calling someone, we “Text” them and calling is saved for the exceptional few and rare situations; close friends, an emergency, a scheduled conference call are all good examples. But I regress. Lets get back to envisioning alternative community spaces.

In my small amount of research, I have found, expressive arts organizations, art bars, and small business type art groups all trying to change the world! It’s all very exciting. But these experimental attempts to change our community vision and function are kind of exclusive in my opinion. Lets say you don’t like art, have no propensity towards it and all around don’t understand it. Then were do you go in this ever changing community vision, seminars? Hmm, doesn’t sound like tons of fun? But then again, fun and community don’t always go hand in hand, do they? All I am saying is that it’s a good idea to start this conversation and spring some thoughts into action. So cheers to a Happy New Year, thanks to 2011, and Hello 2012!!!!

Katlin

Meaning

Why meaning?
Because as The Box (you know, The Box – that thing we try so hard to think outside of) meets its last, as the container that held us so well for so long disintegrates into the cosmic hall of fame, we enter the Brave New World of 2012 – the year the ancient Mayans couldn’t see beyond, the beginning of the 5^th dimension, the world we get to co-create. And as we enter this world we have the opportunity to choose what we want to bring with us. And we want to bring meaning. We need to bring meaning.

The word “meaning” is defined as that which is intended; the purpose or significance of things, thoughts, and beliefs. Meaning encompasses both our commonality and individuality at the same time. Meaning is a reference of the heart that helps us to know and be known to one another. And somewhere along the line, it seems to have gotten lost.

The world has been trying lately. Trying our patience. Trying our resources. Trying to live up to our demands and desires. Trying to change, yet trying so hard not to change. As we tried so hard to make everything okay and let everybody win, we forgot the why of what we were doing--the meaning--and it left our amazing accomplishments empty, unsatisfying, and just plain overwhelming. Excitement gave way to impatience as we found that our New wasn’t New Enough. We became socially disconnected through technologies intended to make connection easy and available to everyone, while simultaneously becoming more globally connected than we ever knew possible. Throughout the many painful events of recent years, the Earth hurt and we hurt with it.

When humans get scared, really scared, they reach out for others. And thankfully it is in our human nature to reach back. When change happens fast it’s also natural to try and reach backwards, even as we’re being propelled forward. We tried to cling to The Box, hanging on to the sides while at the same time feeling them disintegrating in our grasp, unable to wrap our minds around the idea that “solid” things are only teeny tiny atoms and energy in constant motion making things appear to be.

So what do we do now? We need to remember, redefine, and make the choice to create or recreate the meaning of our lives and our world.

Clearly, I think too much. And believe me, not everybody can take too much of this rambling in daily conversation without excusing themselves before their heads explode. Through fate or synchronicity I noticed that more and more folks were struggling with some of these concepts and actually wanted to talk about them.