Emerging from my phone-answering, spreadsheet-utilising, keynesian stimulating, statistics finding, status quo-sustaining self to again stand up, smile - and facilitate something looking a bit like change.
Tonight at Smiths bookshop on Alinga Street in Civic we held the first in what we hope will be a series of "Open Spaces" Knowledge Swaps. A very small crowd of seven all in all- two people coming of their own volition, one person herded off the footpath outside to come in from the cold by yours truly, two employees of Smiths, myself, and a French guy taking advantage of the Wifi.
So I presented on community organising, with a workshop I had prepared the week before in Perth but never given; we also had a general discussion about fair trade, to which nearly all contributed- The French guy entered our talk exactly on cue and was surprisingly knowledgeable -giving us a run down of fair trade in France and how those who buy fair trade are more likely to plan their shopping and spend less at the supermarket. And we discovered that three of the group had spent substantial time in Africa.
The only slight tension was when the woman I had convinced to come in - a student at UC - proceeded to tell us about Jesus- which was great seeing that I do want to celebrate all religions and had asked her to express her passions. But she kept saying 'um' reflecting the slight tension in the room, which was partly caused by her framing of the discussion.
She read a small passage from 1 Peter (I didn't even know there was a Peter chapter in the Bible), and prompted by me we talked about the Early Christians and their lives. I wish she could have presented some more context because to me the passage itself sounded all pious, and I sympathised with those who didn't relate to it. But I think she was brave- seeing she had laid her heart bare in some ways for us all. I made almost apologetic comments about Catholicism and how priests interpret texts rather than the parishioners and how Constantine corrupted Christianity.
Overall surprisingly I think it went really well- considering I hardly put any effort at all into promoting it- and next time I will invite people with more confidence, which I think others will as well. We already have a tentative program of 5 workshops-
WHAT FUN!
Small business with Peter Strong,
Zimbabwe show and tell, prompted by the book An Elegy for Easterly with Steph,
The Female Image in Australian media, given by Amy,
How to Write a Song with Conor.
Maybe even a knitting workshop!
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