Voices I Hear

Traditional skills and community

2009-12-06T21:32:00.002Z

The path few months have been busy both at work and at home. My wife and I are considering a VERY big change within the next 6 months (more on that in January) and the project I am working with is totally re-vamping itself between now and June 2010, needless to say my mind and hands have been very active and will continue to be so as the next few months crawl by. This time though has prompted a reflection on the questions I am carrying with me through life and whether or not I am asking them in the best possible way. Over the past two years or so I have been formulating a question about craft and traditional skills as a tool for social change, as a catalyst for addressing the various levels of isolation we face in the world. By traditional skills and craft I am talking about things like farming, woodwork, textiles etc... Although we rely on these skills for our, most communities forgotten these skills (by shipping them overseas and industrialising them). As a result, most communities we find in the cities, towns and villages across Britian and the U.S. have slowly become isolated from themselves as well as the natural environment they are apart of. On top of that, any one of the three most widely recognised global dilemmas (climate change, peak oil and water shortages) will force a re-localisation of sorts, something we no longer have the resilience to sustain ourselves through. On a positive note though, I have been seeing glimpses of the change that can come when communities are becoming re-skilled and not just at middle class 'hobby' levels, at all levels across social divides. People are starting to see themselves reflected in the things created or grown by their hands and seeing how people praise their work and use it. We're starting to see ourselves as important parts of the communities we inhabit. Over the next 6 months I'm going to try and make periodic entries highlighting some of the gems going on around the re-skilling movement. As a start I'm going to post something I tried my hand at today, upholstery. I had two chairs with very badly ripped fabric on the seats. For one I used an old tweed coat I picked up at a charity shop (if you look closely you can see where the pocket used to be) for the other I used some scrap fabric left over from a quilting guild....

The collapse of dialogue and the collapse of a nation

2009-09-05T12:27:00.002+01:00

What happens when a country stops being able to dialogue with its disparate parts? Can it stand, does it fall or does it ultimately stand still until its seams unravel. Being an American expat I try to keep up with American politics as much as I can but the main problem I face is that my perspective of america is primarily filtered through the media (i.e. new reports). I left America 4 years ago to the day to peruse some questions I had about the world without really any nationalistic or anti-nationalistic opinions. Over the past few months I have been noticing a scary trend in the news coming our of America. We've stopped having conversations with each other. Who is to blame for this? Some people would blame it on Fox News and others would blame it on the Liberal Elite but in reality I think we are all to blame. That's you, me, Glen Beck, Barrack Obama and the millions of Americans who refuse to understand the questions people genuinely care about and continue to feed this monster that we started birthing in the 70s and 80s. It's as if we have taken G.K. Chesterton's quote to its extreme:

"The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of the Conservatives is to prevent the mistakes from being corrected."

If we are going to use this liberal vs. conservative model (one which I really don't believe exists) to speak of our society it is important to remember that both the liberal and the conservative are necessary. We need each other move forward. When we get things like parents keeping their kids out of school so they are not 'indoctrinated' with the Presidents desire for their children to study (something George H.W. Bush did), Town Hall meetings that don't even happen because people are shouting 'rumours' over the information the very same person wants, policies that favour the wealthy or these so called 'golden parachutes' we have gone too far. Why is it that 44 million americans don't have access to healthcare? because we refuse to have a conversation about it. Why is it that the working class is not seeing the promised results of the stimulus package? Because we refuse to have a conversation about it. We are a country that has to work together conservative, liberal, homeless, politician, nationalist, activist. If we can't do this... and I mean truly do this in love, than we will not find a way out of the problems we are facing. Please start talking to your neighbours, your opponents and don't forget the most important part... listen to them!

Words of wisdom from the (very) near east

2009-08-27T22:15:00.002+01:00

This past Sunday my wife and I met three young people from the Czech Republic. They were here as part of what I can only understand was a religio-arty course trying to read a traditional Czech fairy tale in everyday Scottish life (or something like that). We found their story interesting and invited them over for dinner last night to get to know them better... As we anticipated our discussions were varied but also very intriguing ranging from wedding rituals to art and everything in between. But, what I want to share with you is a few excerpts from our path of dialogue on travelling, missionaries and religious questioning. It began as a dialogue of the 'western' desire to travel. The Czechs were under the impression that westerners seem to have an inherent desire to travel and visit far off places, something I can't disagree with myself living in a country other than that of my birth. Someone asked everyone to say somewhere they really wanted to visit and one answer was fascinating and in many ways was a breath of fresh air. To him, he wanted to visit his home country. In short, he was speaking about this new found sense of place and desire to travel the area near him and discover the intricacies of his community. This desire to have an intimate knowledge of the place we find our selves is very foreign to may of us (despite the fact some of us want to have that desire). The first foreigners to visit Czechoslovakia (and still the majority of who visit places other than Prague) were missionaries. The impression these missionaries gave the Czechs was one of a culture of restless evangelicals who combine their desire to travel and their desire to proselytise and go into far off communities seeking to share a new series of questions. This really was not a critique of the early teacher-missionaries that travelled through out Europe but one that was asking serious questions about more recent missionaries travelling to local communities without really understanding them. You see, different cultures have a different questions it finds important, and these questions have a lot to to with the philosophical tradition of that region. In Britain we are very much children of the enlightenment and rationalism and on the whole tend to have a very literal and, well, rational set of questions we carry with us. Think of the types of debates we have here between Christians and non. continental philosophy on the other hand is very much about what is unseen. They look for why someone is saying what they are saying, what is behind the answer or better yet think about a fiction story. In and of themselves they are neither true nor false, they are encompassing something or an idea greater then the words on the page. You see when contemporary missionaries visit these communities they are introducing their own set of questions, many which don't make sense at all. I'm not attempting to say there is no need for missionaries around the world, but I did find this account intriguing as in many ways it implies a religio-philosophical colonialism where we find interdenominational competition (something very regularly done) taken to a new level one we perhaps have yet to properly critique.

On Landed Power and Community Ownership

2009-07-28T21:13:00.000+01:00

For the past 8 days or so I was visiting the islands of Eigg and Muck off of the west coast of Scotland (about half way between Mull and Skye). Over the past few years Eigg has received much press about its community buyout where the islanders set up The Isle of Eigg Trust (a partnership between islanders, Scotish Wildlife Trust and the Highlands and Islands Council) which bought the island and now gives the islanders say and protection from many of the problems associated with being tenants. Everyone is supposed to have a say and participate in ownership of the land. Muck on the other hand was left pretty obscure an unknown to me prior to heading out to the Islands. I was quite keen to find out how these close and somewhat closed off communities operated, to see if it really was that different on the ground and I carried a series of questions with me as I walked around and sadly they only got asked verbally on Muck. The day we arrived on Eigg there was a gig on. We were excited about this and were told by a local that many times gigs turn into ceilidhs and last a long time. When we arrived to the gig there were maybe 16 people, 8 of which were tourists like us. Very few people seemed to enjoy it and half the people (including us) left at the interval simply because there wasn't much happening. This was quite sad an unexpected (something that is a fault of a bit of romanticisation on my part). But the next day, it was the big lunch and everything seemed to stop on the island with everyone going to the community hall for lunch... stark contrast to the night before. They also have just finished a huge renewables project making the island self contained for electricity. I don't feel the short time on Eigg allowed me to truly see how the community works but the feeling is that the Myth of Eigg is very inspiring and powerful, but like all myths the real thing rarely lives up to it and probably never can. Muck was a stark contrast to Eigg in many ways. We quickly discovered that the Laird is viewed as as much apart of the community as everyone else. He was referred to as 'benevolent,' 'a worker' and 'friend.' We stayed in a B&B on the island that was actually just someone's spare room. Dave who lived in the house was shocked when he moved to the island that no one was growing fruit and veg. He set up a huge gardening project and now produces enough veg to supply all of Muck, Eigg and a few veg boxes on the mainland. He simply asked the larid for some land and it was his. It was a surprisingly large project and was working very well. On Muck we were treated like family and invited in to a few peoples homes... It was the opinion of some people that Eigg is a big idea that gets big funding, its a question whether some other groups could use this in good ways and whether if Eigg didn't have the funding they did whether or not they would be forced to work harder to make some things work. It was also the impression in other areas (that can be reinforced a bit by what we saw) that a good portion of the population on Eigg just sits and drinks a good portion of the day, they also recently had a drug bust on the island. On reflection new questions are raised. I don't pretend to be able to shed more light on anything that what I saw and were told by locals and I hope I could reflect that. I would recommend both islands to you, but for different reasons, Eigg for what they are trying to do and Muck for what they have done even under a Laird. The next place to look is Gigha, an island bought out by the community soley by themselves (grant funded) without needing to partner with other bodies.

Homeless Farming in London

2009-07-14T10:16:00.001+01:00

Weed it and reap

questioning the system of organisations

2009-07-11T12:37:00.001+01:00

It's been over a month since I have posted last and there has been good reason for this as I have had quite a difficult time feeling free to put the thoughts I wanted to write into public space, but you see that itself is a symptom of what I have been wanting to write. Let me rewind a bit and fill you in on the rest of the story... For quite a few years now I have been involved in a conversation about charity, organisations, economics, empire, resilience, justice, community, love and faith. This conversation has led down a path of learning and experimentation, steps of faith and opening up to new paths of questioning. I won't put forward that I have come to any answers I have only refined and found better ways of expressing my questions. I have become increasingly sceptical of organisations, corporations and churches who create bodies that do charitable work. That is not to discount their motives or their genuine desire to help people. I do on the other hand wonder what version of 'good' is being sought through these acts of charity. Are these bodies set up with a desire to liberate and not co-opt; are they rooted in a belief that they don't have a monopoly on the answer for what people need or do they fool themselves into thinking there is this answer for people and that they know what it is? Are charities and organisations the best way to address societies woes? These are the questions I carry with me in my pocket as I attempt to act on the world and continue to contribute to a conversation that more and more people are joining. In April I decided to take a very active role in a new organisation being set up attempting to learn whether or not it is possible to create stop-gaps to prevent this community from becoming co-opting and instead directed towards liberating, freeing and releasing people to discover their potential. We are working with an existing community of people, many of whom are classed by the government as vulnerable (not sure exactly what this means really) and just about all of whom suffer from a breakdown in community and resilience, (sounds a lot like the majority of the people in our society). On the ground it is fantastic, the majority of my time interacting with the community is through finding out people's dreams and attempting to introduce them to people and paths to help them achieve them. I love being in that place. One level up from that though is where the learning and difficulty seems to present itself. I am quickly learning that the system we have developed over the thousands of years we have been trying to help vulnerable people in society isn't set up in a way that can start releasing people. I have also been finding that certain questions can't even be articulated in certain circles simply because there is no vocabulary to translate ones questions into those circles. Legal barriers begin to come up as one established 'organisations' and certain questions get barred from being acted out on. It becomes difficult and stressful yet still enlightening and educational. Over the next few two months we will be facing the 'make it or break it' time for the new structure we are putting in place. I only pray we can make room for questions to be asked at all levels and ensure their is a space for everyone to be able to ask their questions about what is set up (I realise as I write this that organisations seem very static don't they). I welcome any new streams of thought on this as there are some great examples of groups who have circumvented the problems we have placed in front of ourselves, but then again most of those groups never went as far as to set up and organisation....

Homeless and Politicians

2009-05-01T08:14:00.002+01:00

How can we help the most marginalised reclaim their voices? Recently through a discussion with some of the guys who frequent the centre I work in I discovered a profound sense of political opinion and knowledge. This same group of men sits around a table five days a week and chats through the new things they read in the news and hear on the radio. Although It's good that they have an outlet for these discussions I asked them what they do about their opinions, if they ever share them with anyone else or vote in the elections. For some reason this threw a spanner in the works and some felt that politicians were all corrupt or that we can't do anything because no matter who we vote for they will just do what they want. This challenged me as its a similar critique I have heard when I used to challenge students to lobby their politicians. So I decided to try and create a space to allow the members of our community to meet with and pose questions to politicians. On Wednesday we had our first visit. An MEP came and spent time touring our project and one of our community members spoke with him sharing his thoughts on why we do what we do and how successful it is and then for 40 minutes the MEP went around and shared coffee and time with various people having lunch. It became a very interesting space. Lots of varying opinions were shared but the exchange was one that seemed to be releasing. The only person who seemed to feel out of place was the MEP's assistant. It was an interesting experiment and will be even more interesting next time... It might be good to try and get an interested group together who does this regularly.

Food Inc...

2009-04-22T23:28:00.001+01:00

For those of you in America this is a very important film, for those of you elsewhere these are questions to ask about your own food system...

Food Inc. - Trailer - [HD]1080p

ALP to GMM

2009-03-29T10:34:00.001+01:00

Grassmarket & Edinburgh Castle
Originally uploaded by superhoopsa

Its only 3 days until I start my new job at GMM/GCP and although I am very excited about that, I am sad to be leave the Adult Learning Project. There are lessons I learned here which will be extremely valuable to my new post. I learned that real learning has to start with dialogue and that we truly can do education differently. We do not need to teach at people to try to get them to fit into the box we think they should fit into. ALP has been working for 20 years and it has been working as apart of the local government but has also been challenging the way the local government makes its decisions. It is a real active critique that critiques itself along the way.

When I start at GMM much of my time is going to be working with a large number of volunteers... volunteers of all ages. From having conversations with people over the past month it has become apparent that a good portion of my job is going to be inspiring people to take on the dream of the project. To show them the vision and help them catch the idea and get behind it. Those times when volunteers all get together and get excited about it the atmosphere becomes electric and ideas start flying and people get excited... what we need is to spread that throughout the project and to the service users and supported volunteers. We need to re-initiate the praxis cycle and get people dreaming and critiquing what is going on now with that dream in mind... begin pushing and acting towards that dream... that is my challenge but that its catching... small pockets of people are beginning to run with it...

The Death of Wolf Larson

2009-03-08T23:06:00.002Z

sea-wolf
Originally uploaded by cdrummbks

The Death of Wolf Larsen

I've just finished reading Jack London's Sea Wolf. I wanted to read Into the Wild, but the used book store I went to didn't have it, so i picked up Sea Wolf and White Fang (which I read when I was very young) in its place. I chose Sea Wolf because it was the older of the two and knowing the setting of into the wild, white fang and children of the north I expected that setting, but ohh was I in for a treat, it was almost entirely at sea...

It was a discussion of materialism vs. sensualism... with a bit of a discussion about the classes mixed in. I forgot how poetic London's writing was... I'm defnintly going to dig into White Fang soon... though I think I'm going to start Tolstoy's The Cossacks first... If you ever get a chance, go pick up some Jack London and have a read!
here is the wiki on Sea Wolf

A Move and New Questions

2009-03-06T12:48:00.001Z

It is official now that I am going to be the new field worker for the Grassmarket Mission/Greyfriars Community Project. I make the move 1 April. This is an interesting move for me because it is into a project I have been working with in various capacities for over 3 years now, and the project itself is on the cusp of making huge strides in what it offers and what it is attempting to address. If you read back through my posts you will see one about the development and vision for the future of this project.

In my new role, I hopefully will get to draw on my experience with different community projects and adult education centres though translating that information into a new scenario may prove difficult at first. When working with marginalised people, many of whom are homeless or at risk of homelessness there are extra questions that have to be asked. This became very apparent to me the other night in my Friere reading group when we were talking about formal education and how the system of education we all by into itself is a tool of oppression and can easily prevent well minded people from achieving much because the system doesn’t work in their favour. A question I am asking right now is how do we use education as a tool for liberating people when the people you are working with are plagued by loss? I was told yesterday by someone I respect in radical education that the answer for our time is isolation. Finding ways of ending isolation helps move people to re-enter communities. But soon it will be my job to translate that into the practical… which is where the real cycle of praxis begins.

Cafe visits and lent

2009-03-04T12:45:00.000Z

Contessa goes out for coffee
Originally uploaded by MiranC

The first week of our lent experiment has gone surprisingly well once the caffeine addiction was kicked, and for our feast on Sunday we visited Iglu in new town, a restaurant specialising in local food to see what they could cook up, I had rabbit and my wife the wood pigeon. It would recommend it.

Some thoughts on my experience thus far… Normally I go to cafes to sit and read and do a bit of work but I am finding that extremely difficult as I very rarely find anything to drink/eat and when I do it has nearly always been apple juice and shortbread. Joce said she found a wee juice bar on Victoria Street where she had a carrot and apple smoothie. I wonder… if when we meet people in cafes we always have communion over coffee, tea, biscuits, muffins, cake etc... what would the indigenous version of this be? Some would say beer or whisky in a pub but what about during the day? There really isn’t that option in Edinburgh. Any thoughts?

I leave you now as I go enjoy pea and ham soup left over from last night’s dinner

British Diet Day 1.5

2009-02-26T13:38:00.001Z

Its been a day and a half since we've started our British food only lent experiment. Its mostly good, toast and jam, ham and cheese toasty, split pea leek mozzarella bake, apple oat cookies, apple juice, conference pears... that's what my diet has been consisting of thus far... it hasn't been bad. I slipped up once and had 1/3 a cup of coffee (I have a coffee addiction and needed it to get through a bad headache at work).

What I do need though is some ideas of what we can make? Its the no spices thing that is going to be difficult, we used English mustard last night in the bake cause pepper and nearly every other spice is imported...

over on my wife's blog you can see our 'Sunday Feasting Cupboard' where we put all our imported foods.

British Food For Lent

2009-02-17T18:37:00.002Z

Bangers & Mash
Originally uploaded by DimsumDarren

Now every year I do something as a social experiment for lent and surprisingly my wife came up with one that was very appropriate for what we are both focusing on just now. Only British food. We are interested to understand what it means to eat locally and to truly see if it can be done. There are obvious things that have to be cut out like tea (not mint though), coffee, brown sugar, many spices, chocolate, rice etc. But there are just as many good things we can eat like most veg, beef, chicken, pork, fish, cheese, sugarbeet sugar (silver spoon is from sugar beets), bread, butter, milk, pepper (capsicums dried), salt, apples, pears, sultanas… and the list goes on. We are hoping to better understand where the foods we normally buy come from. Its amazing how many of them can be local but we buy them from South Africa, or Argentina. Now there is an obvious critique to this all British diet, how do we support impoverished communities in the global south when we only buy from the U.K? I completely agree with this critique and two Lents ago I tried to go only eating ethically sourced food from the south, which I must say was a lot harder than I’m anticipating this being. I don’t really think anyone’s diet now days can be local, we have integrated things like oranges, tea, coffee, sugar, chocolate, spices, and bananas into our lives to truly live only locally. But making conscious decisions about where our food (and clothing) are sourced from is an important step in changing many of the problems that face the way we consume (for we will always be consumers of something). Is anyone up for joining our Lenten experiment?

My Wife Is an Urban Farmer

2009-02-15T23:05:00.002Z

Greyfriars Kirkyard Originally uploaded by Sh0rty

It seems that this first month and a half of being married has brought some interesting things to light, one is my wife's hidden farming skills. Now as you avid readers will have picked up, I speak a lot about food, well its an underlying theme through out my thoughts. I have been trying to learn about why our world is so disconnected and food and how food system works seems to be a big catalyst. I've been doing research on this the past few months, but in the mean time my wife has got involved with and is now coordinating two ventures in the city relating to food. I've mentioned it before that we're going to be teaching a course geared at helping people grow their own food in their own homes or in back greens. We've called it 'growing good food in small places,' and its going to be the first of a series of groups that are part of St. Brides Centre's Family Live Healthy Day (the other two aimed at teaching people how to cook the food they grow and how to stay active). Her second project is very exciting as well. Greyfriars graveyard is an infamous place here in the city, but what most people don't know is that prior to the Scottish reformation Franciscan monks had a monastery there, and they grew medicinal herbs there for the public. There is now a venture as part of the Greyfriars Community Project to re-introduce a herb garden to the graveyard (yes it is very fertile soil). They are digging up about 5 beds for herbs and the plan is also to have a small vegetable allotment as well growing all heritage vegetables. As part of GCP it will be aimed at helping minimize marginalization by getting people to share skills and re-introducing crafts into our society. These projects are just in their launching phase, but keep a look out on her blog farmerwithoutafarm to see how they progress.

Being Married into a Community

2008-12-28T14:36:00.001Z

One week from today I get married and I thought I would share with you all the ethos of our wedding and how were doing our best to achieve this practically with our decisions and choices... We wanted to take a communitarian approach to it and attempt to have a relationship with as many aspects of the wedding as possible. It is my belief that communitarian approaches naturally begin to break down the barriers built up and make it nearly impossible for it to be overly materialistic, egotistical, un-environmentally friendly, etc...

Starting with our invitation, my best-man and artist flatmate (along with some input from the mother in law) designed the invitation with the logo at the top of the page, and instead of a gift list we asked people to paint plates and pottery for our home. Joceyln's outfit was made by her local tailor in Kankan Guinea when she was living there just before she came home, and likewise my waistcoat and sporran are being made by a good friend who is a costume designer.

The flowers at the wedding are mostly coming from my future mother-in-law's garden and the rest are coming from a town north of here, Blairgowrie as well as beeswax candles made from Scottish beeswax. We have asked friends to contribute their bits to the wedding, with the music, the readings not being known (or heard) by us until the wedding itself.

The food for the wedding is local if it can be and mostly all organic (fairtrade if being imported). The beef is being provided by 'Damn Delicious' and the vegitables from 'Phantasee.' The apples, pears, and blackberries are coming from the mother-in-laws garden as well. We have a good friend who is a chef co-ordinating the cooking of the food which will be prepared the day before by a group of friends having a cooking party at the homeless kitchen I work at, and on the day another set of friends will be helping do the finishing touches and waiting the tables. The sparkling white wine is coming from the winery next door to Jocelyn's uncle's farm (her uncle is contributing grapes to the wine, but his grapes won't be ready till next year). The beer is local to Edinburgh, Innis & Gunn as well as an ale from Alloah called Williams Brothers Black.

Were going to have a big ceilidh at the end of the day and we've asked the Collumcille band to come and play for us. The Collumcille band is a social enterprise here in Edinburgh that works with adults with learning disabilities. The band is made up of tutors and students.

It seems nearly half the guests at the wedding have taken part in making the day happen. Though it has been hard (and there is probably more we could have done) I want this to be proof that it can be done in this manner, and still not have cost loads (nearly a third the cost of the average wedding)... If your coming, I will see you on Saturday... Can't wait!

The largest bank in the world and its public face

2008-12-10T10:13:00.003Z

I recently came across a new advert in the U.S. by HSBC and for some reason I cannot put my finger on it disturbs me. It shows the arrest of a group of protesters at a logging site, one of the protesters being married to a logger. HSBC does very well at not taking sides with the protesters, loggers, or even the police. But what is this advert trying to say? It is a very ethically charged advert, and has nothing really to do with banking as far as I can tell. My only guess is that they are trying to say 'at HSBC we allow room for people with different ethics' defering in a way the need to have their own. Please watch it and tell me your thoughts...

HSBC: Lumberjack

Giving Thanks with Family

2008-11-26T21:01:00.008Z

Thanksgiving is tomorrow and I think above all holidays, this is the one I enjoy the most and probably take most seriously. I find the 'family' aspect of it very important and the giving of thanks for what we have and share. The way we do thanksgiving in the Lockhart family (by that I mean my wife to be and myself) is we begin by inviting those people around us who we consider family and ask them to invite those they consider their family. Different people define family differently, personally I define it as those people who I learn from and are in a growing relationship with. I usually ban anyone inviting via email (and especially facebook); face to face invited or over the phone only as that helps keep this very personal. Everyone is asked to bring something to share with me and Joce being in charge of the turkey. In this way it is a working out of 'gift economy' where people bring things to share with the community and are given things from the community. There is no person to person exchange but a communitarian exchange, a type of communion, very symbolic of the body which we all make up. There will naturally be people who do not know each other as people's families are never that well defined and overlap, but even in this the meal is shared and people are investing in one another across those familial boundaries making it a inclusive family not an exclusive one. I find myself unable to anticipate just who or how many people will come to tomorrows meal and in a certain way that's how I want it to be. I know who I have invited but that is as far as I can see. If you are coming I look forward to sharing thanks with you.

Including the Marginalised into Society

2008-11-26T00:42:00.004Z

I've just arrived back from my last meeting as a part of the Greyfriars Community Project vision and development group. It was a summit meeting with various members of the groups involved with the aim of everyone agreeing on the mission and vision as outlined by the vision group. For those of you who haven't yet seen them they are as follows:

Mission Statement

'Providing Sanctuary, Giving Support, Developing Skills'

Our vision is to see a world where:

- People feel valued and every citizen is given dignity.

- People feel cared for and can move towards independent living without feeling abandoned or isolated.

- People can be confident to trust and value their own decisions, overcoming a poverty of expectation; ultimately realising their own potential.

- People can build a life which reduces dependance on others gaining a self-reliance.

- There is a commitment to be involved with individuals, meeting and welcoming them where they are.

With everyone for the most part agreeing with these, we have finally reached to exciting part of putting together the interim management committee which will start to find ways of putting the exciting ideas into action. Over the next six months (7 really) this group will begin to unravel what it is that GCP will (and already does) look like. Hopefully facilitating new and exciting projects that have been proposed. I have been asked to be on this committee, and although sceptical of 'men meeting in rooms' I am going to attempt the same thing as with the last group, to force the questions and concerns of the service users/volunteers to the table. To try and help myself and the project learn what it means to have what Guitierez called a 'preferential option for the poor.'

Craft time

2008-11-20T00:30:00.002Z

Many of you know that one of my hobbies is wool, but very few of you have seen the produce of my hobby; most of what I have made I have given away to other people (e.g. jumper to Jocelyn and wooly hat to Lindop). One of my learning objectives and my quest for local economies and being more community dependant is through experimenting with wool. Scotland is famous for its wool and wool based products (like Harris Tweed). With my wedding coming up just after Christmas and 10 of my family members coming, I have set a goal to complete 10 wool based gifts for them. Some will be on my manual knitting machine and some will be knitted (maybe crocheted) by hand, with all being from either Scottish and English wool/angora or waste yarn I find in charity shops. Earlier today I finished a fair isle scarf (in Brown and Mint) and tomorrow who knows. If you come up with any ideas let me know...

A course of study

2008-11-19T14:03:00.003Z

After having left university (again) in the summer, I've been trying to experiment with non academic forms of studying. There are various models friends of mine use, my favourite being tea university (an idea floating in the heads of my friends Tom and Clare. It is a question based way of pilgrimage and learning. Another model is that of the Adult Learning Project who I am hoping to start working with/for within the next week.

For the time being, I am attempting to learn about where the global meets the local, and that journey has brought me to the food system; one place where it all comes together. I am setting out my path of learning by looking at courses with similar questions, like the Food Culture, Agri-culture course at the Centre for Human Ecology (there are many around). I am at the end of my second book of this journey, Soil and Soul by Alistair McIntosh and feel like I should write reviews, summaries of the books I read. So look for them in the near future.

Here is a list of books I have obtained so far to help me ask these questions:

Br inging the Food Economy Home; Local alternatives to Global Agribuisness by Helena Norberg-Hodge, Todd Merrifield, and Steven Gorelick

Soil and Soul by Alistair McIntosh

The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture by Wendell Berry

Food in Small Places

2008-11-13T11:13:00.001Z

What happens when a society develops where people are so far detached from nature that children are taught (maybe not even directly) that food comes from a supermarket, where people's trust in the system is so shaken they believe themselves unable to eat, where the only food stuffs they believe they can afford are take away's or ready meals? What happens when banking and global agri-buisness begin to unravel? As part of a new initiative, were launching a group here in Edinburgh attempting to engage the powers and practically confront these questions. We've been developing a Growing Food in Small Spaces curriculum. Where people from parts of the city can gather in their communities and find out how to grow their own sustenance and regain connection with the land. Based mainly around container gardening were going to try and learn together what works and what doesn't when we utilise and re-recogonize the resources we have around us even in the heart of the city. It is the hope that taught along side this group will be a healthy cooking class where by the end of the first term the group can begin to learn to cook the very foods they have grown together. What happens when a community joins together to actively re-engage with their world

Things I like

2008-10-28T00:53:00.002Z

I have been talking about things I am fascinated by lately, and thing I would love to be involved in, here are some of them.... Local economies: Earthy Food Harris Tweed (got a Harris Tweed Jacket from a charity shop today!) Community Projects: Edinburgh Back Greens The Fife Diet The Adult Learning Project (Which I just started working for) Hobbies: Growing food cheaply in the city Knitting Spinning (Lessons next month) Weaving (Hope to be starting it soon!) Thought I should share those with you...

Trafficking in Scotland

2008-09-24T16:38:00.001+01:00

Not sure how many of you know, but last month Amnesty International released the first ever report on people Trafficking in Scotland. A brief summary of the report, which you can read here, is that like quite a few other social problems Scotland has a disproportionate percentage to the rest of the UK. But one key thing the report highlighted was the lack of anything (other than campaigning) going on. As a result, a few of us are trying to get 17ish people together in a room representing as many spheres related to this issue as we can to discuss what 'action' can be done. Its not a place to argue over what should be done, but to discuss what we, as a country, are going to do. Were calling it the 'Action on Trafficking Scotland Forum,' and hope to meet late November/early December. Do any of you want to contribute to this discussion or have any ideas?

Big room of questions

2008-09-08T14:50:00.002+01:00

What sense can fifty people sat in a room make of the world? I would assume it depends upon the variety of people present. At our meeting on homelessness yesterday there was an interesting mix of characters present. There were the seven of us charing the discussions, there were members of local church congregations, quite a few volunteers from the soup kitchen, a couple ministers, two board members, and about 6 service users. The obvious lack was local community members, but I must take in to consideration that they weren't considered 'stake holders' at the point of inviting them. Although at this point I am almost completely ignorant of what was discussed at the other six tables I can reflect on the three rounds of discussion at my table around the question; What is it about our society that makes this project necessary? It seemed the majority of the discussions started at the same point; society is falling apart. I almost expected this to be the answer people would give first, but my task was to pry a bit deeper into that and ask 'why' do we think society is falling apart, and how does that make this necessary? Most of what was discussed was around 'support networks' and our lack of wanting to maintain them. That is not to say that there are no support networks, but that they are becoming smaller, and as they get smaller people are dropped out of them and as a result become excluded, and we are getting to the second, third and fourth generations of this. The Scottish Government estimates that two thirds of 'homeless' have grown up in the care system and were already marginalized before they became at risk of homelessness. The three groups I discussed this with all had slightly different approaches to what causes this exclusion; each falling somewhere between social prejudices and personal undervaluing. In almost a rehashing of Hegel, we have begun undervaluing people through our ignorance and prejudging of them and those people begin to take our value judgements onto themselves causing them to devalue themselves, with people moving further and further apart; and the generations to come learn this from the generations past just as we learned it from those before us. There were points about the media, capitalism, self abuse, alcohol, etc.. but they all kind of fit into that critique of society. This project is necessary then because it is a place where we attempt to treat people with their own intrinsic value. During the last round of discussion the phrase 'A non-Threatening Community of Sharing' was created to describe what we want to be. Here is a more topic based summary of the actual discussion:

Question 1: What is it about our society that makes GCP necessary? Breakdown of support Networks No guidance: Vulnerable people are marginalised by society when their support networks breakdown Family: Family unites and support are lacking Displaced family members (e.g. living far apart) A 'care culture' in impoverished communities Government: Inadequate spearheading of 'social care' Lack of support for ex-military, ex-prisoners, and refugees/asylum seekers Statutory failure Public education: Very little routes of public communication No education on poverty Lack of 'mutual education' Low literacy and language barriers Social Prejudices Inequalities: Class struggle, disabilities, age Inability to tolerate people 'Hidden' marginalised people Exclusion: Don't want to take responsibility for family, neighbours or friends Afraid of 'risks' in interacting with people Fear of being let down by vulnerable people Being taught we 'need help' Personal Undervaluing Unrealistic Expectations: Media's portrayal of success Continual overpassing for work/accommodation Taught that material possession = well being Self Abuse: Alcohol dependency Drug dependency Self harm Selling of body Depression Causes: Financial failure Mental health issues Physical ailments Cost of housing Divorce Loss of work Exclusion by family Challenging Society Government: Lobbying Lectures Education: Access points Hubs of information Consolidation of services People: Inclusion Equality Valuing people as individuals and their privacy We are better than we think we are Over arching Themes: Inclusion Equality Valuing people Highly relevant Purpose built Networking Welcoming and Accepting A Non-threatening Community of Sharing

Paintings Not Bombs

2008-09-07T21:43:00.002+01:00

A friend of mine had an art exhibition opening today called At First I Saw Rainbows. Simon is a fantastic local painter who mixes his activism and art with a portion of profits going to organizations involved in keeping atomic bombs out of the sky. I recommend to any of you who are in or around Edinburgh to check out his exhibition. It is running for the next two months at 'The Lot' in the Grassmarket. Check out his website Here.

On books and community

2008-09-06T19:38:00.002+01:00

A group of people here in Edinburgh started a new collective called The Manifesto where together we are allowed to ask questions about our society and culture. It is right now divided into two vague themes; Africa & Identity and Transforming Scotland. As a part of this new collective we have started a type of book group where we can read relevant (or irrelevant) books and find out where they meet what is going on today around us. The first book we are reading is Stone Voices by Neal Ascherson. A chapter in and it is proving to be very interesting. Its a meditation of sorts on 'Scotland.' The people, the idea, and the history of both. I may post thoughts as I go through, but based on the wee bit I have read already I would recommend it (and the book group, first Thursday of the month at Sofi's Bar, the Shore). I'll give a full review in a few weeks time. Here is the link the The Manifesto.

Homelessness and Society

2008-09-06T11:20:00.002+01:00

Today I am continuing my never ending study into the mindset of society and how it relates homelessness. About 4 months ago I was asked to join the 'vision group' for a local homeless inclusion project here in Edinburgh called Greyfriars Community Project, which is still under development. The exciting thing about this project is that it is a partnership between existing agencies in the city; Edinburgh Cyrenians, Grassmarket Mission, Hillcrest Housing Association, and Greyfriars Kirk. Tomorrow is our highly anticipated 'stakeholders meeting' where we are getting together around 50 people to discuss 7 big questions about this project. Each of the members of the vision group have to chair a question and lead a discussion (three times) on that question to a small group. The questions we are asking are: -What does 'valuing people' look like in GCP? -How would a healthy community operate within GCP? -What makes GCP special/unique? -If GCP had a million pounds what would you spend it on? -In what way can we develop volunteering (both from outside and from service users) at GCP? -Is there anything we are doing that we should change? -What is it about society that makes this project necessary? The final question is mine to ask. Any thoughts or sub-questions I should put to the table? There will probably be another post on this soon... Links to the partners: Edinburgh Cyrenians Grassmarket Mission Hillcrest Housing Greyfriars Kirk

The lack of support for indigenous arts in Scotland

2008-09-05T11:40:00.005+01:00

Being immersed in Dalry most days I constantly hear both support and angst for the Scottish Government. One big issue is the recent pulling of government funding from nearly all traditional arts groups in favour of higher profile, commercial, and income generating groups as they prepare of 2009's Homecoming (their tourism campaign). Yesterday a few of us went to check out the campaign and protest at the parliament for grassroots 'indigenous' arts groups. The campaign may interest you.

Check out the petition here.

Asking questions across West Africa

2008-09-05T11:36:00.002+01:00

I've been having an ongoing conversation with a friend of mine about development in Africa, she recently returned from a pilgrimage, or learning journey for three months across west Africa. She actually met up with us in Mali and our journeys joined for about 10 days. Yesterday I met up with her for the first time since she has been back and each of us seemed to had re-defined our questions, I have a lot to learn from her travels. I recommend to all of you to check out her site as she begins to think through and write out her thoughts. Wendy's Africa Learning Journey

Trying over

2008-09-05T11:30:00.001+01:00

Realizing just now that my last post was in may. That is three and a half months ago. Was talking with a friend yesterday and was reminded that I haven't used this, and that I should be letting people know what it is I do in my journeys around the place. So, here is a re-beginning.

Week of learning

2008-05-13T23:24:00.001+01:00

I have had quite an intense last week. I spent five days helping out at the Speak Big Dress festival in Sheffield, and nearly right upon my return had one of the hardest nights in the past year at the homeless centre I work at. Upon reflection, three conversations come to mind and I think I am still processing each as they raised huge questions for me. Firstly there was a conversation with a man in his 60's. I was sitting outside the festival marquee and he came up to ask about what was going on and sat down with me for about half an hour. We spoke mostly about idealism comparing his generation's idealism just before/after the war (WWII) to the idealism of my generation. We spent a long time dwelling on what it is that kills off idealism and whether or not it is good. In some senses idealism is really important (something many people forget) but there is an inherent problem that idealism is also limiting in a way where one searches for a particular future that has been fashioned in the mind of the one with the ideals, the majority of the time neglecting the dreams of those around them not to mention those on the other-side of the world. How do we engage with ideals knowing we may never reach them and that they can be oppressive towards the dreams of those we are trying to help many times? Then there was the conversation with a girl about faith, morality, and justice. It started around the question of 'do you need a God figure in order to know how to act morally towards others?' This is one of the great questions of modern (and postmodern) philosophers. I think Hegel makes a good point when he talks about how humans have a tendency to differ their ethics onto something else which tells them what is good. Which is a problem, but I'm not sure that is necessarily how I understand my faith. I think we have a problem in appropriating what we think is 'right' to God. But I think the journey towards God is one where we can learn what is right. I guess I understand it as a community of learning on a journey towards God and not a differing of ethics waiting for God to command my every move. And last night, in the Grassmarket, I got asked by one of my friends who comes in why it was that I hadn't been spending as much time out in the canteen area. For the past few weeks I have been training loads of new volunteers on the night I run and have been stuck in the kitchen helping them know what to do... I need to work on making it more of a community run thing because I am neglecting my community by trying to help it... almost a literal re-telling of the Mary, Martha, Jesus story, and the guys could tell. Ideas on how to work though that tension of serving in a way while still being able to invest and be apart of community?

The Cult of Sincerity

2008-05-04T15:52:00.001+01:00

Thought I should share this with you as it is one of those wee things that asks lots of interesting questions...

The Cult of Sincerity (full feature film)

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Hard Questions About Community

2008-05-01T21:12:00.001+01:00

I haven't posted much latley, but something that has been muddling around people's heads here lately. to what extent we should live/be/exist in community? My significant other and I have even been asking that question about how we relate with people outside our relationship. Those aren't necessarily the same question. From time to time we hear of people doing experiments in community; sharing large houses, holding possessions and food in commune, sharing leftovers with people we think need them, sharing spouses, sharing courtyard, and any combination of the above. Now this list is by no means exhaustive but even this short excerpt of experiments of living in community shows that many people are approaching it from very different perspectives. It seems that many of the people seeking 'community' have a particular way they see it and then try to peruse that vision they have of community finding like-minded people (or no people) and working towards that image of community they have devised. I wonder what community means really? It seems to me that no matter what we see, we are already apart of a community of sorts, not necessarily concentric circles, but we learn, grow, and teach all the time from what we experience around us. A question I have been trying to ask myself on this journey is, in perusing an image of community do we neglect (and choose to forget about) the community we are apart of? Inasmuch as we already are apart of some community or another, is it that we should work to change our pre-existing community instead of seeking out that perfect one? and is there such thing as bad community? by that I don't mean community that makes us do bad things (whatever one means by bad things) but community that we ignore and try and act as if we are independent of... I have a friend who is really struggling with having perused what they thought was the kind of community that was right, but a decade on realized that in perusing that community they neglected the community that they started apart of and will be apart of for much longer into the future. How do we repair community once we have damaged it. Why is it that when there is a problem with our community we think that taking a break from it will help us sort out the problem (e.g. romantic relationships, church) is it not by turning into community that we repair it? Or are breaks needed? Are we starved for idols we have carved into our minds; idols of church, revival, social movements, community, god? Can these things be made into idols? I've asked this question before, it seems I keep returning to it... I don't want my (mis)conceptions of what these things are to keep them from me.

nationalisation

2008-02-18T11:38:00.000Z

So soon Northern Rock will be nationalised here in Britain. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7250023.stm) I am curious about this as it is one of those things which bridges the line between socialist and totalitarian politics. Out of context it has the potential to help the people of a country or to overly hurt them. It is anti-free market, and gives great favour to Northern Rock over other banking institutions here, but then it links any money passing through NR to all the money that the government filters. I have recently switched my bank accounts for investment reasons, worried about how my past bank invested my money. Overall my question is to what extent should the government be profiting money off of the banks account holders, for as we know banks make more money (percentage wise) off of their customers than any other businesses. Any thoughts? I think this one has the potential to go either way....

A blurring of the lines...

2008-02-03T12:12:00.000Z

I've been thinking about some specific lines that are drawn among the different communities I move in and out of, and I wonder how helpful or beneficial they are if at all. Two specific ones I've been thinking of is the line between the 'service users' and the volunteers that share the meal space I work in. We keep using language about wanting to break down the us and them, and I regularly encourage new volunteers to spend time eating a meal (the same food the service users eat) and sitting and just being apart of that... I mentioned in a meeting with some people the phrase 'a blurring of the lines' and it didn't go down to well... it seems there is a type of fear (that was voiced) about giving them too much decision making/freedom to use the space how they wanted... but I wonder what the purpose of the space is if not to give the people freedom... should we be blurring those lines? The second, which might not be as big of deal to some readers, is the idea of how we speak of and do church. We frequently talk about people being in bubbles and the need to move out of those, myself along with quite a few others to a great extent avoid the 'bubbles' of closed Christian communities (many times manifesting themselves as self described churches) But I'm not sure either of those approaches are beneficial, either the speaking of them as bubbles or the turning away from things which look like that... are we not just perpetuating those lines of division? How can we pop those bubbles and in the Hegelian sense rise above those labels we place on other and become ourselves and truly live out what we say we want to... what does it mean to blur the lines... and what is it we are afraid of loosing if we do?

a teleological suspension of the ethical

2007-12-21T18:16:00.000Z

I've been in america nearly 5 days now and one of the most apparent things is how difficult it is (and would be) to live the lifestyle that i have chosen to live in edinburgh. To me how i spend my money, what supply chains i support, what i buy, etc... are very important to me. It the whole thing about displacement and being seperated from knowing what it is i am connected to. I can't do much of that here, can't recycle, can't have non-meat dishes for the most part other than a salad, many places can't have ethically sourced tea or coffee and there is no ethically sorced chocolate or sugar here... can't really turn appliances off, can't get many places walking or cycling.... its a real conundrum. but then in that how do i still maintain my lifestyle, is it even possible, do i suspend the ethical to be around the people i am here to visit... (refrence to Kierkegaard there). I had it told to me that you can only do what you are capable of doing... in refrence to that, there is a whole lot more we are capable of doing than we are doing, therefore that isn't an excuse for the most part... In this I am not critiquing the entire country here, there are parts i have been to that are doing amazing things and make it easy for people to passivly (in the sense of only doing things when its in their face apparent) do things. We need to start asking these questions so that it forces us do act and do things to usher in change. but the question guiding me for the past few months is very apparent here, how do we interact with a world that doesn't ask the right questions...

Dancing through happiness

2007-12-09T11:52:00.001Z

Last night there was a ceilidh at my community centre, for those of you not familiar with ceilidhs (pronounced kay-lee) they are like barn dances, its a traditional Scottish night out. This ceilidh was in aid of Columcille, a mental health charity. Needless to say about a third of the 150 people dancing had mental difficulties, but I have to say, it was one of the most enjoyed ceilidhs I have ever seen. Everyone had a smile on their face the entire time, everyone was friendly, absolutely no hesitation to stop and chat (quite contra what is the British norm). It really made me stop and think what it is that keeps us from engaging with people. Why do we no longer just have a wee chat with people we run into, people we know, people we don't know... I'm not sure, maybe we are a bit fearful of them not knowing what they will do, maybe not, but that is my new goal, to just talk to people... I think its something we all need...

awch guphlad your beard, hehehehehe.....

2007-12-05T12:04:00.001Z

From the man with six bikes all I can understand is that I have a beard, but I already know that much... Yesterday I spent some time out on one of the council estates here in Edinburgh, for those of you Americans an estate here is similar to the housing 'projects' outside most inner cities. Although I have been to other estates around the city, this visit, as short as it was, gave me a lot to think about. I left about 40 min before I was meant to be there because I was going to cycle out, other than the first 10 min the entire route was slightly uphill with a strong headwind (as we get many times here), needless to say I was knackered by the time I arrived, and despite the recommendation of the people I was visiting, I locked my bike up outside (if someone needs my bike bad enough to steal off of it, so be it). From the time I arrived I was welcomed in, shown around, had dreams for the community (arts projects, canoeing for kids, allotment scheme, community centre, jumble sales, and so on) told to me. I heard council woes, about the lack of effort of the council to do much to improve the state of the estate (despite having visited 2 years ago). This is very similar to what I saw growing up in DC (that is whenever I was blessed enough to see it) how the city centre there was brilliantly kept up, but once one walks just outside that circle of beauty, one meets the real city, the bit that gets very little contribution.... But despite all of the problems, I was inspired, people living in close quarters with their doors blocked afraid of their neighbours or doing anything outside are starting to meet together, spend time working on things, it has been an uphill battle for them, but they are starting to see light at the end of the tunnel. My question for you is why does it take heart ache for people to find each other, why can't we be positive and true community wherever we are, both in the bad and the good. Can we not reach out and help people even when it is not obvious we need it?

Do androids dream of electric sheep?

2007-12-01T16:00:00.000Z

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the title of this entry, it is a reference to the film bladerunner. I just watched it for again, this time in a cinema. Lately I have seen quite a few good films, most notably 'Into the Wild' (if you haven't seen it, I much reccomend it). But why do I mention this, I very rarely talk about pop culture here (at least in this context). There is something about stories... stories tell us things, I know that is an obvious statement, but think about it. We learn through stories, including our own, but that is how lessons have been taught for years. It is stories told of others experiences, myths, fairytales (which, contrary to popular disney tellings of them, are not all nice). They are disarming. When we go into a story we already understand that we are not getitng the entire picture, and most times there are many levels at which it can speak to us, why do you think it is Jesus many times answered questions through stories. could it be that stories better relay truth than facts? now wait a second, that phrase doesn't make sense either. let me explain... facts are most times quite reductionist answers to questions We seek emperical answers so much that many times we miss out on that which is around the answer, the questions we are seeking are like the whites in our eyes, we can't see them but they direct what we are looking at, many times we cannot see that which we started at when we get in to microscopic detail, even science is having this crisis right now (check out einsteinian theory and complex and chaos theories). When we tell stories we are already disarmed we know that not everything is being told, we know that many times it is a myth in that sense. It is really the only way we can speak. We cannot make any sense if we speak of A as A, for instance 'what is A' to answer 'A is A' does not tell us anything, we can only speak of it in terms of what it is not. My girlfriend is in Africa right now and has been having some crazy experiences with her journey, but the stories she brings through those experiences speak words, speak more than just reporting (if there is such thing as just reporting)... (you can read some of them here http://jocelyndonald.wordpress.com/). My question for you is what stories are you not looking at? If we do not remember stories our ideas will be like 'all those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.'

on chrisian non-violence

2007-11-25T00:04:00.000Z

While pondering what it means to love and to exhibit love I came across the work of Adin Ballou. Writing ironically here is an excerpt: 'I see all this (i.e., the contradiction between profession and practice), and I continue to profess religion and take part in government, and pride myself on being at the same time a devout Christian and a devoted servant of the government. I do not want to agree with these senseless notions of non-resistance. I cannot renounce my authority and leave only immoral men in control of the government. The Constitution says the government has the right to declare war, and I assent to this and support it, and swear that I will support it. And I do not for that cease to be a Christian. War, too, is a Christian duty. Is it not a Christian duty to kill hundreds of thousands of one's fellow-men, to outrage women, to raze and burn towns, and to practice every possible cruelty? It is time to dismiss all these false sentimentalities. It is the truest means of forgiving injuries and loving enemies. If we only do it in the spirit of love, nothing can be more Christian than such murder.' thoughts?

Musings from a 6 hour train journey

2007-11-23T18:43:00.000Z

There are times in life where we stop to reflect on our story, where we ponder the narrative of our lives and re-ask those questions that define our journey. This weekend is one of such reflection. Yesterday was the American holiday of thanksgiving (which I shall be celebrating on Sunday) and today my other half, who is the most important sounding board for my questions, left to Guinea for a year... This weekend is one where we are meant to think about what it is we are thankful for, what it means to live as a community, as a family, as a church (in my understanding those three words are very very similar). So then, what is thanksgiving.....? and how do we share it with those around us? As the easiest way for me to answer questions is through analogy, I will speak of some stories, but I must admit, they are not my own. Recently I have finished reading Family Happiness by Leo Tolstoy, a story about love, companionship, and community. Here we have a story split into halves, the first about falling in love and the second about love within community. The characters each have a different journey to their own discovery of love, and to the realisation of their own two person community (or in Augustinian understanding there are three 'persons' at work, love itself becomes the third). Each person realises themselves as the Lover and as the Beloved. Through the course of the book they encounter problems with their communities, In the first turn they neglect any community outside themselves, the two, as one flesh have retreated into their one flesh, no longer sharing happiness or love with any other, and naturally, as with Golum, they become obsessed with self and are led into depression and depravation, in some understandings this is the demonic, to be at community with oneself. They are missing what Hauerwas calls 'sex in public' that is community within community. The second turn to repair this break with community is to move to the city and engage in city life, with others, but here one develops her own community outside of her two person marriage community. It becomes a rejection of a community of love for a community of materiality, again like Golum the invention of an other to be loved by, here her precious became not love but the imitation of love. Likewise there is a film currently in theatres titled Into the Wild. Here is a story of a boy's journey to discover the 'wild.' There are many many stories that can be drawn out of this film, but I desire to stick with this question of community and love. The boy became disillusioned with the masks we all put on in the world, he saw the lack of beneficial community in the world and sought to find something other, to return to the wild, and live as he believed we should live. On his journey, he met people who he spent time with, taught, and learned from, and when he decided to return to his journey, he left each in order to find the 'wild' breaking their hearts in the process. When he finally reached the wild he believed he finally found happiness. He lived for a time, nature taught him many lessons, but the turn came when through reading Family Happiness he realised the 'happiness is only real if it is shared.' He realised, though his vision was clouded at the time, he already had community, what he was seeking he already possessed. And likewise I think this is one of our biggest myths we have in our understandings. Many of us believe we need to seek community, that we need to go out and find these things, define what they are and protect them with dogma or laws. But realistically we are apart of communities whether or not we recognise it. The question we should be asking is how am I contributing and learning from the community I am apart of. And likewise we seek 'churches' even though we all admit their is no ideal church. could it be we have been defining the word 'church' as a circle and seeking a circle, similar to how we seek revival, and make church into an idol. We are already apart of church, of a body, in community and communion with others. This thanksgiving I am most thankful for my family for my community for my church. That is all of you who I learn from, who challenge me, who teach me, who grow with me, who commune with me. I can't draw a circle around who that encompasses, I don't believe in those kinds of barriers. You probably know if that is you, and to you I am grateful....

a long question

2007-11-19T23:41:00.000Z

Does anyone else wake up some mornings and feel as if everything you have been trying to say has been said before, like you want to start pointing out those things you see (those social, theological, communal, political, economic, problems) which cause you pain inside. We live in a culture where we are allowed to voice our views, where people, though not many, do voice their opposition to the way things are prescribed. We live in a world where we know the social critiques, its all been heard before. We know that the way we are living is destroying the world we are in, we know those times when we act for ourselves and not for our communities, most of the time we know the right course of action to take, or so we say... Sometimes I really struggle with people. I don't mean an angry struggle, or an inability to be among them, but a struggle where I do not understand anymore what people are saying. Many times I find it difficult to even engage in conversations, discussions, and dialogue because the premise from which we talk is nearly always separate from the one from which we act. I find it difficult to speak of this without branching into theology (I don't necessarily think that is a bad problem) so for the time being anyone who doesn't accept the Christian critique of this I am letting off the hook, but keep reading, there may be some valid points here, but they aren't from myself alone (I will leave you to interpret that word alone). In church, or congregational, circles there is much talk about love, evil, good, bad, justice, and law. Inherently all of those words are somewhat linked to one another. We have prescribed evil and made a list of sins which people commit, which are bad things, and because of the need for justice law is in place to seek that, or to help prevent bad things (sin) from happening. I know that it extremely general understanding but I am trying to hit at a generally accepted view point, many of the words are open for new definitions in that sentence though. From within that general understanding we all admit that we should love. The two greatest commands (which I, along with Augustine and much of the church of the past) are love God and love your neighbour. If we notice something about these commands they are prescriptive, not preventative. They are prescribing a way out of being bound to law, not a way of abiding in it. The law of old was always given in a way (always reluctantly by God) to prevent man from acting wrongly (or at least attempt to, a very similar view law of today has). But living by the law was never the ideal, it was to live without the need of the law, the only way to do which is to live justly, for love and in love. Even with Paul who helped show the structure of the church, Paul's intro to the Corinthians explains that they were not yet ready for the ideal, that it isn't what he is saying that is important, but because their is squabbles he is giving them a way to address them because they are yet babes drinking milk. If the ideal is to act justly, therefore not needing law, why do we spend so much time worrying about what not to do? As I began this I explained that we know what to do, we know how to act, we know how to love, we know that faith is neither solely acceptance nor and works, but a belief that has outworkings. It physically pains me to hear justice preached from pulpits, to hear Christians speaking of love and mercy. If we really want the right to claim these as Christian beliefs we radically have to reform how we do it, we radically have to critique our words and actions. We have to openly admit our hypocrisy.... but not simply that, we must change. My question to the church is, do we really believe what we say we do?

Colonial Culture

2007-10-15T21:56:00.000+01:00

I spent this week in dialouge with many types of people discussing the idea of colonialim, particularly its relationship to economics, church, and organisations. I am quite interested to hear some people's thoughts as I am still chewing on some of the ideas that were thrown around, most of which I agree with. Does anyone have any thoughts on how colonialism is employed by any of the above groups?

An Economic and Ecological Crisis

2007-09-25T00:48:00.000+01:00

When reflecting upon this weeks readings I cannot help but wonder how it is we have come to the point we are at. From the Northcott reading we see this history of ideas, progressions, and mistakes which have brought us to the way of thinking we are at today, but rarely do we see people stop and ponder why it is we think the way we think. From reading Plumwood it can come across that never throughout history have people paused to consider the economic or ecological problems that are facing us today. Plumwood gives the example of the titanic, an object which is a wonderful technological marvel, thought to be without a rival. Our society and neo-liberal economy has built this great machine which also has no rival (or in reality does not allow a rival). It appears to be running on its own steam without any aid on our part. But, that idea is only a myth, the place we are coming to in the near future, arguably we have already arrived, is that place where our economic titanic is going to crash. In the historical narrative laid out by Northcott we can see each of the steps our culture has climbed, the myths we have adopted, the blinders we have given ourselves. Through this we are forced to take a look at ourselves and how we have blindly bought into and contributed to what the troubles the world is facing both economically and ecologically. In philosophy we are taught to not automatically throw out anyone's answer without first understanding the question that was asked, but how do we do that when the consequences of the answer, despite answering the initial question, are harming us and the natural community we are apart of? It seems almost as if we have reached this pivotal point where we have to decide to jump ship. In Ishmael it is described as a flying machine experiment, we have built a plane and have jumped off a cliff. We believed we were flying but have just looked down and saw the ground quickly approaching, up to this point we were masked by illusions of grandeur but out current circumstances have just woken us up. Were those delusions of grandeur brought about by a wrong style of reasoning? Perhaps, but why is it only now that we are seeing the crumbling of our eco-community? Arguably it began crumbling a long time ago. Was there no-one who saw their own actions reflected in their work? Or have those people been silenced by our neo-liberal consumerist culture. We have had many revolutionaries who have for for the betterment of society and the world, but all of these failed eutopia models seem to have crushed our hopes and we have been reduced to always fighting against what is going wrong as opposed to fighting for freedom, liberation, and a better world. We are just fighting against a worse world. Global warming activists are a great example of this. These readings have together set the stage for our current crisis. It is together a crisis of history, a crisis of reason, and a crisis of scientific ideas; all need to be confronted, all need to be liberated. But how? Readings are Northcott's Christian Ethics and the Environment and Plumwood's The Ecological Crisis of reason, still working through each book, these are my questions so far... any start at answering them? Josiah

Since when are meals revolutionary?

2007-09-13T22:37:00.001+01:00

I am involved in community building project here in Edinburgh and with it there has been many ideas thrown around on how we can promote dialogue and groups within the social justice sphere. One of our Ideas, which we are attempting to do this next week, is to have meals, to get a group of people who could invest ideas and inspiration into each other to sit down and share a meal with each other. For some reason people have been raving about this idea, not so much the part about getting people together, but the idea of having a meal. When did sharing a meal with people become so radical? Am I just out of the loop or have we moved so far away from meals and sharing of food that having them instead of around the table meetings that to go back to them sounds new and revolutionary? I think the idea of sharing is what we should be doing, working together. I would have assumed it only natural for this kind of project (or any really) to spend time as a community. So, lets do that, together. Lets be revolutionary and 'fight the system' by doing what is normal... sharing meals and being apart of one another. If anyone wants a meal, come round to my house and I'll cook one for us to share, open invite. Josiah

Instinct

2007-08-05T01:20:00.001+01:00

Tonight I watched the film 'Instinct' written by Gerald DiPego. It clams to have been suggested by the novel 'Ishmael' by Daniel Quinn, one of my personal favourite books. For those of you who have not read Ishmael, it is based around the dialogue beetween writer Alan Lomax and a gorilla named Ishmael. I think the novel is written in such a way that it would be impossible to actually explain what it is about in pieces, the novel is a journey, a journey led by Ishmael, but not delivered in such a way to liberate Alan from his cage, or at least show him where the bars on his cage are. I recommend it to everyone even if you don't agree with everything the book discusses, it's not the journey which is most important, it is where you get to on the other side, or the questions you begin to ask yourself which are most important. I have yet to understand how to discuss and debate via-internet so for now I will leave my thoughts aside on the book. The film on the other hand seems to be DiPeggo's way of following on from Ishmael, he seems to be using his skills to present a similar journey for a wider audience to travel on, even uses similar language to Quinn. Personally I think the film carries on well, but I question the bits of the film which are in addition to the narrative and journey.... I think there were many important eliminates which were used by the filmmakers to share this vision, for instance nearly the entire film takes place within a prison... I applaud DiPego for his attempt at passing on a set of questions, and tools with which to find the bars to our cage. I wonder how many people actually listened to the film, and better yet actually ask themselves questions about their cage. we all know there is something wrong with the world, and always complain about our situation, but where is our cage, what is it that keeps us from liberation? Josiah

Vod Blogging

2007-08-01T12:28:00.000+01:00

Would like to give you a heads up on something some of my friends over at Jubilee Scotland are doing... e-campaigning, that is harnesting the power of the internet and mediums such as youtube, facebook, and such to get issues out there in the public. I am curious your opinions on this new type of e-activism, do you think its benifitial or should it be done slightly differently, let me know. here is the latest vodblog:

Some ponderings on praxis

2007-07-31T00:29:00.000+01:00

I have been discovering one of the fundamentals to discussion and debate, and in reality what I believe to be one of the true fundamentals to all life is what has been called by the orthodox church praxis. Praxis is the merger of knowledge/belief and action. People debate why it is that people know the problems and injustices going on around them but don't act to liberate people from the hurt and injustices. It has been proposed that things like apathy, individualism, or ignorance are to answer for our inaction. I would propose that it is all of them and more. I would put forward that we are born into a culture which teaches and indoctrinates us into inaction. What do I mean by this? Well to explain how I see our culture would be to try and describe the window through which I see the world (yes we all see the world through a shaded window) and I don't think that would fully possible for anyone, but I will hit a few thoughts which I hope would define what I mean by inaction. It seems when we look at the world, we have a strong tendency to externalise and internalise evils. For instance the language we use all the time is speaking of the problems other people are facing, we speak of how someone is in a rough condition which they need help with (to which we either give money to a charity or leave them to help themselves) or we find evil within ourselves and speak of overcoming our own daemons or our human nature. In reality both of those are not necessarily wrong, but they aren't right either. For we contribute to the problems of those around us, and they contribute to desire to do evil. The problems aren't wholly outside of us nor inside us. A simple example (which I hope many of you already know) We buy coffee, tea, cotton, sugar, chocolate and many more products which aren't grown in our own country. Each time we spend our money on those products we are paying a wage to a chain of people all the way back to the farmer, and in those products mentioned above the market price is below cost of production, for the most part each time we buy something with one of those products in it we are paying a wage to farmers which is below a living wage for them and in a very direct way working to impoverish them. Our need to have these things whenever we desire them has worked the system to be unstable and hurt these farmers (this is even spoken of in the bible, see James 4). People know this problem yet have excuses for non-action, mostly economic driven by our own high wages, but how as Christians is this justifiable? this externalisation and internalisation, i think, is caused by our ignorance of these connections between people, the links that bind us together as a 'continent.' The way out culture hands things to us is by shops and banks. We are labelled as consumers and the majority of us, despite what we say, seem perfectly content to be consumers, and only see our connection to the world as walking down to the corner shop to buy some milk, or to the high-street/mall to buy a shirt. We are taught not to even care about how it gets there, when was the last time there was a public discussion of the way things get to us? All we seem to care about, where our words meet our actions are in caring for ourselves, for the ability to be financially sound, for the ability to have food when we want it, for the ability to have a car, own a house, have clothing that is stylish (when most of us have more than we need to begin with). In the church we use the phrase 'use our money wisely' as a way of justifying not spending it so that we can always be sure to have some left over, if you think about it, Jesus had a lot to say about self sufficiency, a lot to say about storing up goods, a lot to say about what to do with our money, but I will leave that for you to read. But in this I am not trying to be completely negative. I am trying to show that we say a whole lot, we are quick to have the right answer as to what we believe. But I ask this to our entire culture, do we really believe what we say about justice, oppression, liberation, care, love... cause it sure seems like we don't, and it seems that we are quick to point it out in others (I do it all the time in my head) but neglect to see how we contribute to injustice, oppression, control, manipulation, and death. To use the words of Paulo Freire, if all we do is speak and say we are Christians all we have is verbalism, if all we do is act and don't reflect, all we have is ignorant activism, what we need is reflection and action, praxis... despite what many western predestinates will say, it is not faith over works, it is faith and works.. as the same thing, what we do shows us what we believe, not what we say. How can we move forward from this and work out our Christianity together? I genuinely believe that if we can work out praxis in our world than we can see change, but then again most of us will have heard a sermon on this... and will treat this just the same and keep our justifications for inaction. It is my fervent belief that any justification for injustice, non-action, not helping, not worrying about others or how we hurt them is an evil or any theological model which justifies any of it. I get negatively branded as an extremist or liberal or hypocrite for holding so strongly to that, but that is what I believe, and I do believe there can be change when some of us begin to truly believe and act. Feel free to disagree, I just wish we would act on what we say and genuinely do more than 'think' like a Christian or do like a Christian and genuinely be that person who evangelises through everything we do. thoughts?

a beginning

2007-07-26T17:14:00.001+01:00

I have been thinking long and hard about how to start this blog, whether to make it communal with multiple posters, or to just write my own thoughts, and still I don't know where this is headed, or even if this attempt will last very long. But, in reality i want this blogspace to be organic and go where it goes naturally. I don't want to place rules on what can and what cannot be posted, or even who can post. If there is a common good here it will become apparent and the community will grow around that, as opposed to hoping a good is discovered within the boundary of pre-determined rules. I will begin by explaining my own vision and where I am at. This creation, which we are apart of, has been groaning for ages. As humans we have sought to possess and be in charge of everything around us, including other humans. We have created plans and implemented them on the entire world somehow seeing ourselves as an outsider somehow above creation, who knows right from wrong, who has the answers of how to properly manage creation. But, the further we progress in understanding creation, the more we discover we don't understand, our solutions create new problems to which we 'discover' new solutions which in turn cause new problems. It has become a part of our culture to view science as the sage who one day will be all knowing having all of the answers. We have began reducing all of our solutions to creation's problems to science while at the same time discovering that many of our problems are not getting better. We are actively contributing to poverty around the world, our natural resources are being used up, we have created a global economy which places financial profit above well being. We think the sky is the limit but are quickly realising that our flight is really a free-fall and the ground is coming up quickly. Nearly all of our new solutions to these problems still carry a bias for our own financial well-being. Our countries only give to others if they will allow our already strong economy's into their new, growing, and weak ones as a stipulation for aid, forcing a dependance. There is an imbalance in pollution and global-warming emissions where the countries which contribute the most see very little effect and the greatest affected countries are the ones which contribute the least. What are the answers to these problems? I don't pose to have them, but what I do know is that many people are blind to the problems and in many instances don't care to know, but we do need to know how we effect others, we need to know how we contribute to these problems. And, this awareness should cause us to act. James definitely had it right when he spoke of faith and works, neither can exist without the other, each changes the other and each grows within it. We need to get along side those who are oppressed, we need to listen to them as people and hear what they need, and not tell them what they need. We need to engage in their fight, not for them but with them. My hope is that this blog can become a place of discussion, a place where views can be expressed, challenged, and pruned in order that they can blossom. Without discussion and debate how can we know what is truly going on and become more than observers. But this should be discussion which changes us, causes us to grow, and most importantly to act. Only then can we begin to see change. This is an attempt to engage in a debate that has been going on for most of creation. My prayer is for us to help each other and limp alongside each other with the rest of our injured creation.