hemenwaykid's Page

So yesterday morning I arrived in Phoenix, bright and squirrelly and sleep deprived, but ready for a joyful gathering! I am usually bored by play-by-play event postings, so I will try instead to summarize via theme:FOOD.We have been provided food by Joanne and her family, a woman of great power and love. It is amazing what good food, or the promise of good food, contributes to a gathering; and Joanne has made UH-MAZE-ING food. Pasta with homemade tomato sauce, sausage to add if you are a meaty person, polenta with basil. Snack food like you wouldn't believe. Right now, soup is simmering in crockpots, waiting for whenever we're ready for a break in talking about oppression so that we can fill our bellies. What kind of gathering would this be without such awesome food in such abundance? How distracted would I be right now, unable to concentrate, if I didn't know when and where lunch was coming from? How do we value food in our society, and the preparers of it? They are providing a service, such an essential service (thank yourself if you provide your own self with food!), allowing us to function and gather and share. Thank you, Joanne, for the beautiful spread.Relatedly, hospitality, people who are willing to open their houses and their cars (and their libraries!) for us to get together and share and bond. We are right now talking about resources and survival and privilege, and just the fact that I can be here, in this room (in ANY room), talking about these things? We are so privileged to even be able to be having this conversation. How do we expand the privilege so others can have these conversations?ANTI-OPPRESSION.The Four I's, the Triangle, and the Web are just the beginning (and now that I've done the 4 I's four times, I think I finally have a handle on it). If you don't take it home with you and look at it, and look at how it applies to yourself, and try to make it influence your behavior, then you've never got past the starting gun. What are the ways in which I perpetuate privilege, perpetuate materialism, and perpetuate the slumber of the masses, perpetuate the distraction (I work in the hospitality industry, so the answer: a lot. Maybe I will do a 4 I's exercise on my hotel and who can stay there). Does your 501(c)3 status help you break down oppression or help perpetuate it without your knowledge?The world needs help, and the world is broken. But I am part of the world, and I reflect its brokenness. I will help myself break free of it.Time for lunch. More later!See More

I am, rather belatedly, accepting Micro-Challenge 001, and introducing myself on this-here bloggything. Even though my profile is actually pretty complete when it comes to letting you know what it is that's important to me.I am idealistic to the point of being gullible or delusional...I guess that to me, one of the most important things, one of the things I want to be able to change, is that I think everybody in this world has a place, a niche, somewhere they can fit in and be happy and be productive. Some people have an easy time finding their place. Some people never find it. But it's always out there.I think we as humans, we as a society, need to change the way we talk to each other and about each other. I think we need to redefine our relationships with each other. I'm not talking about everybody agreeing all the time--I don't think that's possible or even desirable--but there has to be a way that even people who disagree with each other can work together and respect each other."Thinking too well of people often allows them to behave better than they otherwise would." --Nelson Mandela"The most powerful activists in the world are the ones who are unashamedly themselves." --Peterson Toscano"A revolutionary organisation must always remember that its objective is not getting people to listen to speeches by expert leaders, but getting them to speak for themselves." --Raoul Vaneigem, "The Revolution of Everyday Life"The revolution can be found in music, can be found in religion, can be found in families. But all of those things are so often used to enforce the status quo, not upend it. It's a constant back and forth. I'm interested in taking the things we use to prop up our society and using those same things to create a new one. A new way of thinking, a new way of being. We need it desperately.See More