Second Reflections on Northern Voice: Essence
I have seen and heard people describe Northern Voice as transformative. My personal experience was that it was validating, and not in an, “I’m OK, you’re OK,” kind of way. I don’t feel I changed any fundamental beliefs or learned anything that is going to have a major effect on how I go about my daily business. What I do know, is that there is a small, hopefully growing, group of people who share the same critical, core beliefs about our responsibility to share the gifts we have been given, however tortuous the process.
We can’t be lumped into one group or dismissed with a buzzword. We aren’t liberals or conservatives, hippies, artists, bloggers, activists or educators. We are individuals. We don’t agree on everything, and disagreement increases our awareness of the importance of sharing knowledge. We follow different paths and reach different milestones along the way. But the essence, the indescribable central core of each of us, drives us to openly share, willfully create and gently guide others to discovery.
February 26th, 2008 at 6:55 pm
This is beautifully put, Jen. I like the focus on validation rather than transformation. And while I am afraid of essence, I think the dependence on being transformed and the cultish logic we can often fall back upon (and I am certainly the most guilty of that) might be equally problematic.
February 29th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
Actually, I thought we were all “liberals, hippies, artists, bloggers, activists and educators” and finding out you call yourself a conservative has sent me into a tailspin from which I have yet to recover. And what was that Dionysian Peyote-fest on Friday night if not cultish. Sheesh, which conference were you at?
February 29th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
Mmmmmm. Maybe you need to get to know me better. Maybe this was just my way of saying,”Thanks for letting me hang with you anyway.”