Moi!

I also would like to make a few (somewhat incoherent) comments following the
energized and energizing crossings-of-path that took place in the Brico-Pixel
universe.

I greatly enjoyed meeting all of you (many for the first time!), and some of you
(not seen in some years). And I very much am thankful for such a network of
people who are, indeed, earnestly thinking about (and experimenting with) how to
live life in a way that is about sharing and community and so on.

As one of the few bricos of North Amurikan origin, I feel that what all of you
are doing is crucial so that the social systems that you are participating in
don't go the way that the US has gone and continues to go. And I am so thankful
to be a part of this energized network that is a powerful answer to the
hegemonic forces preying on people everywhere.

To James' comment about the 'spiritual' -- I would rather not be placed too
directly in the
ghetto of Western intellectual thought that has been imposed on such a word.
However, that said, I think that most of you might agree with me that the
brico-pixel experience was very much embodied, and in a holistic sense something
*felt* in the heart, the brain, the toes, the skin, and so on ;-) -- difficult to
articulate that feeling -- but none-the-less when I speak about resonances, I am
not talking something ethereal or in any way related to an intangible religious
or intellected abstraction. (at this point I have to call on the techno-shamans
for vigorous support ;-) Maybe this concept of spiritual I would be happy to be
associated with: something to resonate with, something to break bread around!

Of course, I do invoke other systems of thinking that lie outside the broadly
traditional Western worldview -- but it is clear to me that so much of what we
think and do still (as bricos) remains in a blind spot in the more traditional
intellectual (and physical!) ways of going. We will not be able to effectively
address what is 'going on' in the world using what we have been taught, what we
have grown up into, or what thinking dominates the social system that we
are fully embedded within. From what I see of other bricos, I am reminded that
making a new pathway is crucial... along this new pathway, I find reductive
words like "resonance," "dialogue," and "energy," -- re-making the definitions
of these words in ways that more accurately reflect (my own) experience of
reality, the only thing I can do is to share or demonstrate the source of those
new definitions.

To articulate a potential pathway that does not lie wholly within the known
seems to be something that many bricos struggle with -- of course many do not
stop at the articulation, but move directly on to the action, creating a way of
going, a way of living. This is, of course, more crucial than any articulation:
building a new pathway for the self, and sharing that with others. I felt/feel
honored to be in the presence of all of you.

Cheers,
John


PS - And I would very very much like to thank Tapio for his bountiful generosity
during our collective stay with him !!!!
--

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Dr. John Hopkins, BSc, MFA, PhD
Watching the Tao rather than watching the Dow!
from the Finnish Archipelago
http://neoscenes.net/
http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++