Crossroads Dispatches

game-changing, or how to turn economic recovery into a multi-player game experience

"Game-changing."

You hear that term bandied about in innovation circles. In application, it isn't that frequent as "game-changer" implies something that leapfrogs one out of the lock of a current system, institution, industry, regime, paradigm and defines its own brand-new game. 

I hadn't connected the dots with the synchronicity of hints and winks that life is a grand "game" until recently.

I sat down to eat lunch the other day, and absentmindly (well, could almost replace instinctually or spontaneously with "absentmindedly") pick up the top magazine in my Mom's pile to browse through for eye-candy. (Not typical for me; if I am going to read while eating it would be the Internet.)

I open up her recent Elle to the story of Jane McGonigal. The article profiles her life and her purpose: fleshing out her childhood joy into a profession, announcing her new game company, showing how she got into real-world gaming (differs from video games in that it interleaves real-world issues and real-life experiences with game mechanics), and the head injury that instigated her latest game: one that helped her regain her joie de vivre and her health.

So I thought: what if we were to repurpose Jane's concept of "how to turn recovery into a multi-player experience" into "how to turn economic recovery into a multi-player experience?" And I don't mean recovery as in return to the past or status quo. Perhaps dynamically better than yesterday: I like what Umair Haque says here about the classic Greek principle of eudaimonia: "Eudaimonic prosperity, in contrast, is about mastering a new set of habits: igniting the art of living meaningfully well. An active conception of prosperity, it's concerned not with what one has, but what one is capable of."

I'd been thinking that economics and money touches just about everyone's life--okay, nix that for fairies, elves and dragons. But humans are fairly enthralled (dare I say, seduced) by this whole game of exchange of gifts that includes bits of colored paper and tinkling coinage.

"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete." - Bucky Fuller

Backtrack a bit to May 2009, I was working on a grant proposal that tied into New Orleans' "Creative Recovery." (For context, "Creative Recovery" grants were through Transforma Projects mini-grants: "The Creative Recovery Mini-Grant program supported work produced at the intersection of art, social justice, and recovery in New Orleans. It fueled the recovery process with the energy of the local creative community by supporting the vibrant activity on the ground level.")

I realized after I'd dreamed it and written it up (then, reading the fine print) that I disqualified for applying for the grant as I was no longer a permanent resident (however, I was in New Orleans at the time). The seed of the idea kept tugging at me, so I wrote it up as a real-world game concept in February 2011. Here's the original Kickstarter project proposal here (unfunded); although, the concept has evolved considerably.

"The "next Google" is unlikely to be a search engine, however, just as the "next Microsoft" was not a desktop software company. I used competing directly with Google as an example of a problem with maximum difficulty, not maximum payoff. Maximum payoff is more likely to come from making Google irrelevant than from replacing it. How exactly? I have no more than vague ideas about that. I wouldn't expect to be able to figure out the right answer, just as I wouldn't have expected anyone to figure out in 1990 what would make Microsoft irrelevant. " - Paul Graham, entrepreneur, angel investor, and founder of the tech start-up incubator and education program, Y Combinator

At this point in my musing, I'm reacquainted with an old blogging buddy in his private Google+ circle last week, and he linked to the article below. (Worth reading the whole she-bang for context and inspiration.) My friend asks his circle how we might use Google+ to correspond with each other and take action towards life-enhancing visions of the world (or what I also call a Renaissance). That's when things get intriguing...

The article my Google+ buddy shared to kick off the private circle discussion:

"Put what, why, and who you love ahead of what, why, and who you don't, and your roadmap will begin to write itself.

Now, my little principle might cause those with hand-made suits and beancounterly tendencies to leap out of their chairs and hit me with the tarantallegra jinx. But even the cynics might be willing to admit: given a mysteriously non-recovering "recovery" for a global economy perpetually poised on the brink of perma-crisis, the status quo's out of ideas, out of options, and running out of time.

In an economy dedicated to the pursuit of more, bigger, faster, cheaper, nastier, the greatest hidden cost and unintended consequence is that something vital, enduring, resonant, and animating has gone missing from our lives — and it might just be the biggest thing: meaning in what we do, and why we're here." - Umair Haque, "A Roadmap to a Life that Matters," Harvard Business Review blog, July 13, 2011

I was surprised to see this article in the Harvard Business Review blog--it's a bit warm and fuzzy for HBR (at least the HBR that I recall from years ago)... although a great sign... sign... signal, design... as the article lays out a design intention as in William McDonough's mantra: "Design is the first signal of human intention."

Linked in the above post is Umair's post on eudaimonia, Greek philosophy of "a deeply fulfilled life", where Umair contrasts the trajectory we are on with what we may prefer to set into motion, into design. In my own blog (see purpose paragraph under the headline, Crossroads Dispatches), what he calls eudaimonia I've encapsulated as:

"A neo-renaissance, eco-epicurean savors, curates and shares slices from the surf's edge on the inspiration, imagination, the art of living, the living of art - and anything that screams Life."

"In short, I see an outcomes gap: a yawning chasm the size of the Grand Canyon between what our economy produces and what you might call a meaningfully well-lived life, what the ancient Greeks called eudaimonia.

The economy we have today will let you chow down on a supersize McBurger, check derivative prices on your latest smartphone, and drive your giant SUV down the block to buy a McMansion on hypercredit. It's a vision of the good life that I call (a tiny gnat standing on the shoulders of the great Amartya Sen) hedonic opulence. And it's a conception built in and for the industrial age: about having more. Now consider a different vision: maybe crafting a fine meal, to be accompanied by local, award-winning microbrewed beer your friends have brought over, and then walking back to the studio where you're designing a building whose goal is nothing less than rivaling the Sagrada Familia. That's an alternate vision, one I call eudaimonic prosperity, and it's about living meaningfully well. Its purpose is not merely passive, slack-jawed "consuming" but living: doing, achieving, fulfilling, becoming, inspiring, transcending, creating, accomplishing — all the stuff that matters the most.

. . . .  Though it harks back to antiquity, eudaimonia's a smarter, sharper, wiser, wholer, well, richer conception of prosperity. And deep down, while it might be hard to admit, I'd bet we all know that our current habits are leaving us — have left us — not merely financially and fiscally broken, but, if not intellectually, physically, emotionally, relationally, and spiritually empty, then, well, probably at least just a little bit unhealthy. Eudaimonic prosperity, in contrast, is about mastering a new set of habits: igniting the art of living meaningfully well. An active conception of prosperity, it's concerned not with what one has, but what one is capable of." - Umair Haque, " Is a Well-Lived Life Worth Living?," Harvard Business Review blog, May 12, 2011

So this is a backstory on the genesis of the game. I've a few ideas for an enchanting real-world game that'd be worthwhile for each of us individually--and widening the circle, collectively. I think the "economic" recovery is a matter of re-imagining our present and future as to what we would truly desire no holds barred, rather than constantly extrapolating scenarios of the past onto the future.

To tie this in all together to the present day, Google+ could be an effective way to communicate with our "allies" (i.e. us) on a near-daily basis to play a game I'm formulating. (I'll admit this is much simpler if you already use Gmail as your hub, as I do, then it's integrated into your Internet experience.)

Allies is the multi-player aspect of the Super Better game that Jane used day to day to recover from her injury and post-concussion syndrome; so it is not a game of solitaire ;)

Please let me know if you need an invite to Google+ by August 1st (I may not check comments at this post later).

   

The economic thriving game is unfurling in a baby step next week. [Above is Derek Sivers' video "Start Now. No Funding Needed." Derek founded CDBaby in 1997.]

If you have game suggestions, or other suggestions, please let me know in comments or over at Google+. And, please note, if you go over to check Google+ out, you are viewing the public posts. The way Google+ works is you have to be in my circle to view the super secret ones ;).

p.s. Jane McGonigal's new company, Social Chocolate, initially starts an online verson of her Super Better concept game that she used to recover from her own head injury; she's extended the game for any type of injury and/or illness (yet to be released, forthcoming). I've been thinking of what game-changing means in terms of healthcare and other fields too--but that's another story.

p.p.s. I'm well aware of the "this is a first-world problem" argument. We start where we are ourselves and branch out inclusively from there; it's not advocacy on public policy. This engages people to people. The game is meant to be something you can personally participate in.

ART CREDITS: Cy Twombly's Camino Real; iron hoop trundling was popular in the 1960s and 1970s in China; hoop trundling boys circa 1830 in New York City via Funny Emails; an American Indian hoop game via Buffalo Post.

companions on the journey. . . of enchantment

I was re-reminded of my purpose (for want of a better term) while reading this via Time magazine about J.K. Rowling's new online venture, Pottermore:

"When Rowling does what she does best, it's the closest thing to magic available in our mundane, Mugglish world. And I say that as both a Harry Potter fan and the father of a Harry Potter fan." - "Is Pottermore Good for Harry?", TIME, June 23, 2011

Sadly the reporter admits they don't perceive miracle and magic abounding. But hey I've been there too.

Even as recently as a few months ago, the world seemed confining, and confounding. Now, suspending belief and lies, a boundless radiance is present.

BTW, that purpose I'd nearly forgotten... it's called ENCHANTMENT.

Let me back up a bit, okay way back.

When I was starting a freelance consulting business in 1995, I went it alone for a year (this was before the virtual watercooler now known as Twitter existed). It's not that I absolutely needed peers, but there was an undeniable desire to have playmates to chat and bounce ideas with that might understand what I was navigating too.

Most of my buddies had jobs, and couldn't relate (nor care) to the uncertainty and other rewards and challenges of free agents. Also, I was starting an online magazine at the time (long gone now, it was called AwesomeWomen.net) and hired a part-time researcher/writer to help me with that side-gig too. To make a long story short, that's how I became actively engaged with the local Women's Business Center and National Association for Women Business Owners (NAWBO).

For many years, those were my peers--we had diverse businesses, yet fundamentally a common journey that isn't necessarily a mainstream journey forged deep bonds between us.

Another time I created a peer network rather than seeking a ready-made group. About two to three months after surviving one of the largest natural disasters of the last century-- Indian Ocean tsunami, I roped my housemates at the time into co-creating a weekly group that met at our home on Sunday evenings called Daring to Live an Authentic Life. Among the messages (many others as well--outside scope of this post) that I grokked through that experience was one that insisted, "Don't settle." Steve Jobs summed up that message a few months after Daring to Live an Authentic Life group sprouted:

"Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart." - Steve Jobs, commencment speech at Stanford University, June 14, 2005

At that time, I was yearning to have some mutual support in applying spiritual principles and simply being true to myself in a world that seemed (to my perception at that moment in personal history) not to necessarily reinforce a natural, unique direction of being.

"Living is my job and my art." - Michel De Montaigne

That hints at why fairly recently I began forging a virtual roundtable called Encanto.

It's not Hogswarts--as that'd be a bit more of the old-school-lecture do-as-I-say-model. Hogswarts however does provide, in my opinion, a way for Harry to have even more fun (and mischief) with playmates Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger than he may have had in a hermitage. My intent is to lean more towards King Arthur's Roundtable where we're surrounded with fellow peers on a common journey of self-mastery (and I'll dare say self-wizardry).

Blogs, as most websites do, tend (certainly not universal, just tendency) to invite skimming more than diving. Also blogs, being public websites available at a click of a mouse to anyone that can rustle time on a computer anywhere anytime in the world, tend to invite passersby through on their way to another destination. I know loads of people alight on Crossroads Dispatches looking for an image of stardust chess, faerie truffles, a diagram of a medieval alchemical crucibles, an essay on an essayist, or an article on Google's internal product development process--and then, poof! move along on their merry way.

Alas, as much as I'd adore public blogs (as a format), they don't match my wish for depth, intimacy, delving, diving--they aren't designed as a prime vehicle for a circle, or a roundtable, of explorers delving into the magical realms of infinite existence itself.

Encanto's intention is to be a vital, lived, engaged experience rather than a passive, drive-through experience. This Friday, July 1 midnight ends the introductory pricing ($25/month) to the Encanto circle. Then an entirely new chapter in delving into the magic of life begins ($58/month unless I hear a whisper from a griffin that it ought be otherwise). The number of magicians at any one time enchanting and engaging is capped at 25 to sustain its intimate Roundtable look and feel (there may be ebb-and-flow and circulation of members).

As always, the public blog shall continue its own unique expression, and I am honored that you are part of that journey as well, whether this is a stepping-stone from a Google search or you are a long-time confidant.

ART CREDITS: Thought of Judy Chicago's Dinner Party since a roundtable need not be round;  illustration "Knights of the Round Table Summoned to the Quest by the Strange Damsel" by Edward Burne Jones (via The Textile Blog: Edward Burne-Jones 'Quest for the Holy Grail' Tapestries--they're all beautiful); a still of the Hogwarts dining hall from first movie with Harry Potter's companions on the journey--Ron and Hermione

perhaps consider what life would be like if we truly lived by what we believe moment by moment

{Below's a repost of a May 25, 2007 article I wrote that captures my zeitgeist since many folks may be new here; and I haven't touched on this much in past two years. I am in a very optimistic, visionary, yinyang encompassing Renassiance frame of mood that provokes 'social art'--&/+ the kind of art that bursts forth dynamic cultures and civilizations. Enjoy, Evelyn---}

"Perhaps consider what life would be like if we truly lived by what we believe." - Lost & Found on The Hierophant

When I first got to the Marigny neighborhood of New Orleans, and saw that there were no full-on grocery stores, that's when I first got a clue that the trip was going to be a tad more expensive than I'd anticipated.

That old flashback anxiety came up the first day or two when I went out to eat, paid the bill and then flash forwarded into the future calculating in my head the total spreadsheet amount for food expenditures  for the two months (plus in actuality).

It didn't take me very long to get into the New Orleans' laidback vibe, however, and feel that somehow everything was going to be alright.

What I ended up recalling (my life flowed with grace and miracles in Thailand and Sri Lanka the winter of 2005 too) was when I take the initial, if faltering, step, the Universe takes at least 99 on my behalf.

Small example. I rarely needed to take cab rides while in New Orleans. I would simply decide where I wanted to go  - be it in Tulane or Magazine Street or the Mapleleaf Bar - and voila! someone would inevitably offer me a ride - typically without me asking.

The first time, I'd only been in town for two days so I took a cab to the Jung society meeting on the Enuma Elish myth in uptown. There I met Dan and Diane - literally right next door neighbors to where I was staying - voila! a ride home materialized.

I had no idea when I got there how I'd get home (it was a church tucked off the beaten path; a cab would definitely need to be called out.) Yet I did know I needed to be at that particular meeting. That was the step. When you listen and hear, "Go." You don't balk, "But that's all the way in uptown. It'll cost $25 roundtrip. And...."

Don't give up even before you start. You move in the direction you're being pulled despite appearances that you ought to wait until all the ducks are in the row, and you've lined a ride home, and the stock market is, and the...

I don't wait for evidence to present itself that I'm on the right path. Evidence comes, if it does at all, in hindsight. You move because the wind blows you that way.

"The only thing that will move you (and I don't mean to be too poetic about this) is the same thing that moves a leaf hanging from a tree. It's simply because the breeze blows that way. So you always know what to do: The breeze blows that way, and that's the way you go. You don't ask questions anymore. You don't evaluate why the breeze is blowing that way because you know that you don't know why. And you know you can't know why. There's never been a leaf anywhere that knows why the wind blows that way on that day at that moment. That breeze changes the orientation of your life, moment to moment to moment, simply because that's the way life's moving. And when you're living in your awakened self you have no argument with the way it's moving because it is the same as you are." - Adyashanti

Actually, that's the way I met my friend Wyatt. I didn't know how I was going to get home that day I met him busking on University Avenue either. That was our opening exhange. He asked for money. I walked over, lowered my voice and explained that I'd give him something but I didn't have enough for bus fare home myself. (Tended to go through these feast and famine cycles in the past.) I only know that something was compelling me to go to Palo Alto that day. I followed that whim. Of course, I ended up getting a ride home from my friend that works at IDEO... yet I didn't know that apriori.

I found that New Orleanians were generous, sharing and less of a "me, mine, and my" frame of mind than I'm used to observing in the US.

It's there it all dawned on me that money would end up becoming extraneous.

Call me quixotic, idealistic, dreamer. (I cannot explain the how's) I've seen into the future. (Though yes, the future keeps shifting because we change it.) Surprising myself, I feel moved toward "collective" (for lack of better name) and cooperative ways of sharing which don't necessarily involve money, or monetary systems.

I want to play in that realm. Live by that belief that we can take care of each other.

To me, art isn't to be merely visited, watched...it's more like a space you inhabit, you absorb, you be. Doubt I've said this, but I'm into social art. Not social as in we're going to exchange comments, trackbacks, and I'll add you to my buddy list.

Social as in art that creates civilizations...like this...

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world

- John Lennon, Imagine

I witnessed so many acts of collectiveness in Nola, ah, where to begin. Okay, here's one I witnessed: One evening I run into a cool pianist I've met at Mimi's upstairs. He is giving away a newly inherited piano to a fellow pianist sitting there at the counter. They'd met the week earlier at Mimi's. It's an extra piano, and she doesn't own one.

That logic doesn't resonate with everyone. Why not put the piano on Craigslist? Why not eBay? Why not donate it to the ___. Because he met whom it was intended for.

Last week Donna wrote in comments: "For some real fun, try giving money away, and watch how fast it comes back to you. ;^)" Yes. (The Diamond Cutter is a marvelous true story of this in practice. If it matters, he ended up a multimillionaire in the process.) Obviously one doesn't give with any expectation of getting. I don't give for quid pro quo or karmic brownie points.

Anyhow, once I got the lesson of giving, I found another lesson was waiting.

& it has to do with truly living by what I believe. As runners are wont to say, though, your mileage may vary.

There are those who give little of the much which they have - and they give it for recognition and their hidden desire makes their gifts unwholesome.

And there are those who have little and give it all.

These are the believers in life and the bounty of life, and their coffer is never empty.

There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward.

And there are those who give with pain, and that pain is their baptism.

And there are those who give and know not pain in giving, nor do they seek joy, nor give with mindfulness of virtue;

They give as in yonder valley the myrtle breathes its fragrance into space.

Though the hands of such as these God speaks, and from behind their eyes He smiles upon the earth.

It is well to give when asked, but it is better to give unasked, through understanding;

And to the open-handed the search for one who shall receive is joy greater than giving

And is there aught you would withhold?

All you have shall some day be given;

Therefore give now, that the season of giving may be yours and not your inheritors'.

You often say, 'I would give, but only to the deserving.'

The trees in your orchard say not so, nor the flocks in your pasture.

They give that they may live, for to withhold is to perish.

Surely he who is worthy to receive his days and his nights is worthy of all else from you.

And he who has deserved to drink from the ocean of life deserves to fill his cup from your little stream.

And what desert greater shall there be than that which lies in the courage and the confidence, nay the charity, of receiving?

And who are you that men should rend their bosom and unveil their pride, that you may see their worth naked and their pride unabashed?

See first that you yourself deserve to be a giver, and an instrument of giving.

For in truth it is life that gives unto life - while you, who deem yourself a giver, are but a witness.

And you receivers - and you are all receivers - assume no weight of gratitude, lest you lay a yoke upon yourself and upon him who gives.

Rather rise together with the giver on his gifts as on wings;

For to be overmindful of your debt, is to doubt his generosity who has the free-hearted earth for mother, and God for father.        

- Kahlil Gibran

UPDATE: As soon as I hit publish, I get this about circles of sharing and generosity entrepreneurs in my inbox:

"Imagine walking down the street and a woman comes up to you and says, 'Hello. I have an offering for you.' Puzzled, you look up and in your palm falls a $7500 check. 'Why me?' 'Serendipity,' she says. 'What should I do with it?' 'Whatever you want.' 'How did you decide on $7500?' 'We sat in a circle of silence, wrote down a number on a piece of paper and it averaged out to $7500.' And then she walks away. Now that's a pretty ridiculous story, but that's what has brought us together here." - "A Radical Experiment in Generosity Launches," CharityFocus.com

art credits Visit (detail of entire painting above) by Mari Klarwein; Breath of Gaia, by Josephine Wall (btw, discovered via a cool art blog by Melissa Ulto you may enjoy, Multo.com::Visual Magic); Tree of Fruitfulness, by Lieve Prins; can't find origin (from Myspace page while surfing) but probably one of those fantasy games

seven years strong and still ticking... "If you're strong enough, there are no precedents." - F. Scott Fitzgerald

"If you're strong enough, there are no precedents." - F. Scott Fitzgerald

Before I started this blog on February 6, 2004, I had thought about creating a blog for two solid years, ever since the O'Reilly P2P Conference. Personally, I knew a lot of technology bloggers--people far busier than I was that told me their secret is that they wanted to write what they wrote, share, and exchange it with others.

"When do you find time?" was my question. "You just do," they said, even folks that already did plenty of writing on deadline as journalists. I saw through my resistance and that "time" was my excuse to balk. In a nutshell, they were inspired, not motivated to blog.

I started a "technology and culture"-themed blog sometime in the early 2003. It didn't last very long. A combination of fear that people actually were reading it, and that I was spending my spring evenings after work in Milan typing behind a computer screen rather than enjoying the tangible interactive life on the cobbled streets with gianduia gelato strolling the square around the Duomo. (Or I might have been in Rome--either way I was consulting in Italy when I quit blogging the first time.)

I wanted to talk about Taking The Red Pill (a February 24, 2004 post), and other philosophical, existential, spiritual questions. My fear was that I'd be ostracized from the tribe.

Yes, this eventually happens(ed):"Spirituality?" my friend looks peaked. "I like what you write. But spiritual? That makes me think of...of Marin." (We're in Silicon Valley.)

Since a commenter asked a question on moais, I decided to go back to the original National Geographic story on longetivity where I first heard about the moai concept. The print article's not online, the video version of "The Secrets of Long Life" is (then, click on "Reason to Wake Up"). Okinawa, an island in Japan, is "home of the longest lived people on earth. The video zooms in on numerous people into their 100s leading healthy and active lifestyles--stretching, biking and offshore diving and fishing.

Moai, the National Geographic video continues: "the rough translation is that it's a group of friends who go through life together and help each other. And the energy and vitality they would get from that I think factored into the longevity equation as well."

The moai concept held a magical allure for a few years. Yet I've never witnessed it "in the field." And something seemed off.

An insight last evening helped coalesce why not. It was one of those evenings where everything swirled together into a collage (I was multitasking online, but then again I tend to bounce and surf and skim online so it's simpler multi-tasking than in real-life) that felt like puzzle pieces all falling into place.

One minute I'm watching, then rewinding the National Geographic video on Okinawan life and moai's, then next I'm downloading from a blog a free chapter of an e-book that just happens to be on The Alchemy of Relationship. I'm also bouncing back and forth reading a longer PDF (source forthcoming), and everything built upon each other in a smooth way.

First, in The Alchemy of Relationship (I've excerpted tiny part) Almine outlined the stages of relationship (and for my purposes here I'm thinking larger than groups of two or three) from dependence (describes my childhood and my family of origin) to co-dependence (quite a lot of cliques like this) to independence (common in USA--i.e. do you know your neighbor's name?) to interdependence: "These stages lead from uniformity to unity within diversity." 

The aha! was seeing that my the tech blogger community was a tribe/clique/echo chamber in stage 2, and many groups I've been part of in last couple of years are Stage 2 too (Portlandia "Dream of the 90s" kind of sums it up hilariously: "You're a little San Francisco right now."--thoroughly tribal).

Moai's as genuinely supportive as they seem are also a form of co-dependence. There's only so much you can veer from the "box" before you'd be outcast.

I saw I was veering backward to co-dependence (not necessarily in the Melody Beattie sense of that word), when I wanted to share and create with other people, rather than moving foward to interdependence from my stalwart independence. In the end, tribes have strict boundaries that tend to exclude, whereas interdependence is inclusive, whole, diverse, celebratory, and--the icing on the cake--exploratory: "Diversity produces more chances of exploring the unknown."  

"In the stage of unity within diversity [interdependence] the chances are maximized for individual growth to contribute to the growth of the group within a stable environment." - Almine

That was what I was trying for--interdependence--something rarely seen--being allowed individuality within a whole WHILE having the "stability" and "support" of a tribe. This interdependence I found best described in Scott Peck's The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace, where a group moves from psuedocommunity to community. The crucial shift (if it happens, some don't make the transition) in the stories Peck shared of actual groups involved a willingness to accept other people as they are without fixing, converting, or "offering advice" (usually forms of fixing and converting). In all honesty, I've seen this with the miracle partnerships, and also in some longer-term (versus one-evening) writing workshops--but that's about it.

Anyhow, I was bouncing between a few different materials, and copied the below into a newsletter I'm working on.

"And if you're operating as yourself, you can always take advantage of the program. And you know how to find the right allies. You follow your [inner] Strategy and Authority. That’s how you get the right allies in your life." - source forthcoming in a future post

Simultaneously, I hear, "All we had was each other, and we made it," streaming from my Mom's TV in the other room. Billy Crystal's voice in some movie in background as I cut and pasted the above about "right allies." That instant, I wondered then about the "center for possibility" (a nickname as the name hasn't formulated itself yet).

The "center at the edge" or whatever has been the back-burner the past month as I wasn't sure it was actually a project that the Universe was insisting I do. (I am not interested in pushing against life and the world. I work from inspiration, not external motivation.)

I shared recently that I use writing for exchange, and feedback on the fertile verge, and to keep pushing edge of ourselves. By "exchange," I don't interpret this in terms of letters, or email or Tweets. It's much deeper, more encompassing.

So, next, I decide to use the I Ching (my result) to confirm whether the "center" project should be pursued or dropped. At this point I was finally unattached to the outcome, just simply wanting what's best for all. I drew Hexagram 58, with no changing lines.

The online I Ching I use (above) interprets 58's symbol as Joy.

Joy's nothing to sneeze at.

"When it comes back to teach you
or you come back to learn
how half alive you've been,
how your ignorance and arrogance
have kept you deprived --
when it comes back to you
or you yourself return,
joy is simple, unassuming.
Red tulips on their green stems.
Early spring vegetables, bright in the pan.
The primary colours of a child's painting,
the first lessons, all over again."  - Thomas Centolella

However, my verymost favorite online interpretations always come from LiSe Heyboer. Here, Hexagram 58 is a symbol for Exchange, and Expansion.

Ah! Now we're are getting somewhere...

The actual Chinese letter (from what Lise shares) appears to represent "interdependent lakes", such as "Rice paddies or Wadi's, the perfect place for meeting each other and exchanging." I think that's also an apt symbol for a community--each of us are our own lake and reservoir of well-being and sovereign unto others, yet completely interlocking as well with every body of water as one body.

Here's a peek at an average "six impossible things before breakfast" gathering at the "center at the edge of possibility and ?":

"A cat is dangling by the screen door daydreaming of darting outdoors. Wood floors are soothed by warm rugs and vibrant colorful plush pillows piled by people. A circle of folks that one would rarely see gathered together is gathered around lounging on the floor, or sitting languidly on a deep couch.

There is laughter and unbounded hunches colliding and mingling. Someone says that they once read that art is ideas brought into form. The circle is itself enclosed in a complete circle of glass and screened doors on a ridge overlooking the gentle bosom of undulating hills.

It hardly matters that it's the crack of dawn, and Joey the rooster heralds another day as slats of light softly fleck the night sky and tinge the mountain silhouette. Heralding the fresh golden age, day by day."

Thanks to everyone who's been along for any step of this seven year journey. This blog, remarkedly, has outlasted any other group endeavor I've undertaken--be it a job, business start-up, dwelling arrangement, or marriage!

This is just me expressing like a seven year old my birthday wish. And blowing the candles with you.

HOW TO FUND Interdependence Projects like ye olde center at the edge of possibility: The old adage: "The answer to how is yes." I don't know how this will unfold yet. Walking into the unknown one step at a time...

Here are two models that might click, and that might be useful to your or other community projects as well.

A few years ago, I was hanging out with a friend in Pacifica, and because I'm always the one with plenty of time (I think it's just that I stress less), he sent me to Starbucks to get some coffee while he wrapped up some business e-mails from his home office. While there, I noticed an article facing up on a table that caught the corner of my eye on my way out of door. This is only significant in that I don't read newspapers unless I spot them in passing, and I didn't read the San Francisco Chronicle (I lived actually 50-60 miles south of SF.)

I've kept the original newspaper through many moves, and here it is online: "A Means to a Home." It outlines a cooperative financing model for buying homes that don't involve a traditional bank: "A key distinction with Ameen's form of finance is that, unlike a traditional mortgage company, the cooperative shares risk with the homeowner. If a home's value increases, they both profit. But if the home loses value, they both take a loss."

I also like Elizabeth Gilbert's organic banking concept: "Take my money out of the bank and fold it, instead, into my community."

"In the past few years, a couple of locals have surfaced with bright ideas to help revive our economy—for instance, by opening a bakery, like my friend Patricia. Or a coffee shop, a Pilates studio, or a pair of funky gift shops, like my friends Maria, Sarah, Kate, and Meg. These entrepreneurial women were talented and passionate. The only thing they didn't have was capital..." - "The Power of Organic Banking", Oprah Magazine

So Gilbert stepped up, and offered them all loans herself. 

p.s. I have an entire category in "footnotes" blog where I collect excerpts about true community and interdependence. You can subscribe via RSS to the feed, "Community."

BONUS: This was in my inbox today via Brain Pickings. Hmmm,....Center for Possibility... Museum of Possiblity... and love this: "...inviting visitors to share their dreams and visions for the future of the space."

"We love public space, that priceless petri dish of human interaction. It’s the lifeblood of any city, and the reason we left LA for New York. Unfortunately, much of it remains un- or underutilized, with cities failing to engage people in interacting with and in public space.

To prevent this disconnect when inaugurating its Quartier des Spectacles, the city of Montréal came up with an exceptionally inspired solution: The Museum of Possibilities — a wonderful daylong pop-up installation inviting visitors to share their dreams and visions for the future of the space by jotting down their ideas on pieces of paper and attaching them to colorful balloons."

BONUS 2: Peer exchange rocks. Check out the diagram in Beth Kantor's announcement of a peer exchange Salon for nonprofits learning social media. (Great way to exchange!) The diagram shows--for those not clicking through--Retention Rate of Lecture (5%), Reading (10%), Audio-Visual (20%), Demonstration (30%), Discussion Group (50%), Practice by Doing (75%), Teach Others (90%)

ART CREDITS: Outstanding in the Field (pop-up outdoor restaurant gatherings held at farms by artist Jim Denevan) photo via Seattle Met;  stiill captured from video by National Geographic's David McLain of an Okinawan moai;  Amish girls Flickr photo by Las-Initially; Jim Denevan's artwork--when it's not a group outing; Hexagram 58 rice paddy via my favorite I Ching site; 1934 photo of three kids and a cake by Conde Nast via Foxtongue on Flickr

Leonardo Fingerpainted, and Bon Voyage to Burma

A friend of mine, 0, is a Burmese artist, residing in the San Francisco Bay Area. Although he prefers abstract trumpet blasts of colors and swirls of dancing texture to realism, in order to raise money for his village back home, he'll often dedicate many canvases to meticulous reproductions of the da Vinci's Mona Lisa.

He leaves for Burma next week (his visa confirmed), so I’m helping him directly because I know him to be a person who lives The Gift.

In a blog post months ago, I mentioned that I had a small cluster of friends that helped each other out. If anyone sells a painting, while yet another's scrounging for scraps to eat, they'll share the money, and/or cook you a home-cooked simmering soup and Burmese noodles supper. "Artists gotta help other artists," 0, my Burmese friend, would instill in me.

Normally, 0 self-funds his visits to Burma (loaded with medicines, water purifiers, energy drinks and foods, books and educational materials) with his art work sales, but this time he'd only just returned from a 5-week trip in April with $5 in his pocket. Then Cyclone Nargis hit.

If you'd like to help, I'm taking donations.

What Twitter friends are doing: Pissyrabbit is donating 100% of all art sales (Warholesque stuffed animals) at www.basilandantimony.etsy.com through May 21st to the cause. Charlotte created a Facebook group. Pistachio is collecting information on how social media can help Burma. Michelle is shows you how you can buy calling cards for Burmese refugees in Austin, TX to call home. Evrideva donated his $85 in barista tips last night (his tip jar told his customers that it was for 0). TRUE suggested a long-term Etsy store for Oliver and other artists to sell creations on behalf of Burma relief at Art4Burma.etsy.com (not ready yet).

Or, best yet if you are in the Bay Area, missrogue is hosting 0 this Saturday.... come wish 0 a good send-off to Burma.

San Francisco, May 17th, 6-8 p.m. Bon Voyage to Burma. My Burmese artist and humanitarian will be the guest at a fun-raiser (do-it-yourself fingerpainted gift cards) and art show at Citizen Space, thanks to Tara Hunt. Address: 425 2nd Street, #300, San Francisco, CA. 0 does some really glorious fingerpaint (yup, handmade!) cards - watch, and/or do your own.

Scrumptious Burmese food will be served. Donations requested, (never mandatory) $7-10. Simply come by to show your support of an individual headed to help Burmese cyclone survivors next week.

Bonus:

Finger Painting: "Throughout history a small number of artists have rejected both palette knives and brushes. A few used their fingers to spread the paint. Artists turned to such primal means for various reasons, including display of skill, experimental playfulness, or nose-thumbing at convention."

...The young Leonardo's use of his fingers can be linked to the properties of the newly available medium of oil painting. ... It should not surprise us that he played with the tackiness of the new oil medium, palpating the paint as he sought new effects." - Seeing Through Paintings, Andrea Kirsch and Rustin S Levenson

Art credits Elephant Family, by 0 ('m declining mentioning his name at this time as he frequents the country, and I don't wish to jeopardize those visa-dependent visits. Graffiti With Homemade Fingerpaints, by Pilgrim Parent

p.s. In next few days, I'll share how you can help through active prayer, or intention alone.

The Gift, The Gift Gift

"And there are those who give and know not pain in giving, nor do they seek joy, nor give with mindfulness of virtue;
They give as in yonder valley the myrtle breathes its fragrance into space." - Khalil Gibran, from poem Giving

---

"Originally published in 1983, The Gift is an inquiry into the place of creativity in our market-oriented society. Starting with the premise that the work of art is a gift and not a commodity, Lewis Hyde's revolutionary book ranges across anthropology, literature, economics, and psychology to show how the "commerce of the creative spirit" functions in the lives of artists and in the culture as a whole."

I was already thinking along the lines of this little book when I read the first few chapters this summer. Tara Hunt gifted it to me (Tara's two cents on The Gift).

This book tends to be more scholarly and philosophically denser than spritely visual poetry of graphic novels that capture my lilting lyrical life these days. However, I dare anyone to say the chapter on Walt Whitman and his gift wasn't pure magic. The book itself was  written by a poet exploring the themes of how an artist thrives in a world that takes priceless to mean worth zilch at the market stall. So it's close to home, for Lewis Hyde himself.

Does art flow through you like a gift? Yet it doesn't feel like other things, including money, are flowing in?

If you've ever wondered if there could be a "better" way than the current set-up to share your gifts with the world without compromising the inspiration plus keep a roof over your head, this book is a good foundation to have that kind of conversation that results in direct action in the world. Nigh, a revolution in the world.

On 7/13/07, the day I received "The Gift" I wrote a conspirator (conspire: inspiring each other):

"We get to create a parallel universe that coexists w/ the service to me mine my economy... until the latter collapses like berlin wall. A velvet revolution. or vermilion. the art currency is just the entryway to temple of future now."

I believe the lines between artist and patron have blurred altogether. I believe we are in dire short supply of either these days.

In this day in age, we're all the Medicis. No matter if you envision yourself as the prototypical starving artist. Yes, you too. Me too. So, I'm sending "The Gift" to artists creating the next Renaissance. For every dollar you contribute, I'll contribute a dollar to buy and ship the book out up through a grand collaborative total of $1110.00, or Christmas Day, whichever comes first. 

I've never one to mix giving with Christmas before - foregoing the exchange of presents as prescribed, obligatory event, this includes Valentine's Day and birthdays - but this year is an exception. If you would like a copy of The Gift sent to you, please include your Twitter account below in the comments or direct message me via Twitter, and I'll get back to you for your full mailing address. Please don't email - if you email me, it's more than likely lost in the avalanche and in the spam.

How It Works: There are no strings attached. No quid pro quo expected. No thank you notes necessitated. There is no catch. The criteria is that you must write your request in comments on this post before Christmas Day, Tuesday, December 25th; and you must supply US address; and I'm limiting the absolute total USD to a matching gift challenge so that the giving cycle engages many more people than just the two of us.

Only one book per person, or per USA mailing address (share). (That ought to go without saying, and I trust my regular readers, but this is  public after all. If you're even fluttering a thought about gaming or finding loopholes just remember I'm an artist too; this will thoroughly stretch the bank for December as it is...$555's more than my rent.) The book may or may not arrive by Christmas Day (it will be ordered by Christmas Day) depending on when you asked the universe.

Chip in for the matching gift fund here. Nutcracker Suite nutshell: So, if you chip in $15, then I'll match another $15, and so forth up to $555 in matches.

Enjoy all your gifts this season!

p.s. Does this mean you need a Twitter account? So far, yes. (It's free.) I might extend the offer later to non-Twitteristas, but this is my sneaky way of getting you to join. I'll be using Twitter to spread the actionable part of the The Gift ideas further in 2008 more so than this blog, so that's the plot if you're wondering. I'm over at twitter.com/eve11, btw.

Art credits. Why it's from the fresco cycle in the Medicis' Magi chapel, of course. Lorenzo was a fine supporter of the arts, and a poet himself. A detail from the "Journey of the Magi Cycle"...that magi trio being another fine set of givers.

(I have to wonder if we'd have Michelangelo works at all in this day and age without Lorenzo's support. Hmmm....)

Next, "Figures of Peace and Music" from the Salon of the Muses in the Villa Medici in Florence.

perhaps consider what life would be like if we truly lived by what we believe

"Perhaps consider what life would be like if we truly lived by what we believe." - Lost & Found on The Hierophant

When I first got to the Marigny neighborhood of New Orleans, and saw that there were no full-on grocery stores, that's when I first got a clue that the trip was going to be a tad more expensive than I'd anticipated.

That old flashback anxiety came up the first day or two when I went out to eat, paid the bill and then flash forwarded into the future calculating in my head the total spreadsheet amount for food expenditures  for the two months (plus in actuality).

It didn't take me very long to get into the New Orleans' laidback vibe, however, and feel that somehow everything was going to be alright.

What I ended up recalling (my life flowed with grace and miracles in Thailand and Sri Lanka the winter of 2005 too) was when I take the initial, if faltering, step, the Universe takes at least 99 on my behalf.

Small example. I rarely needed to take cab rides while in New Orleans. I would simply decide where I wanted to go  - be it in Tulane or Magazine Street or the Mapleleaf Bar - and voila! someone would inevitably offer me a ride - typically without me asking.

The first time, I'd only been in town for two days so I took a cab to the Jung society meeting on the Enuma Elish myth in uptown. There I met Dan and Diane - literally right next door neighbors to where I was staying - voila! a ride home materialized.

I had no idea when I got there how I'd get home (it was a church tucked off the beaten path; a cab would definitely need to be called out.) Yet I did know I needed to be at that particular meeting. That was the step. When you listen and hear, "Go." You don't balk, "But that's all the way in uptown. It'll cost $25 roundtrip. And...."

Don't give up even before you start. You move in the direction you're being pulled despite appearances that you ought to wait until all the ducks are in the row, and you've lined a ride home, and the stock market is, and the...

I don't wait for evidence to present itself that I'm on the right path. Evidence comes, if it does at all, in hindsight. You move because the wind blows you that way.

"The only thing that will move you (and I don't mean to be too poetic about this) is the same thing that moves a leaf hanging from a tree. It's simply because the breeze blows that way. So you always know what to do: The breeze blows that way, and that's the way you go. You don't ask questions anymore. You don't evaluate why the breeze is blowing that way because you know that you don't know why. And you know you can't know why. There's never been a leaf anywhere that knows why the wind blows that way on that day at that moment. That breeze changes the orientation of your life, moment to moment to moment, simply because that's the way life's moving. And when you're living in your awakened self you have no argument with the way it's moving because it is the same as you are." - Adyashanti

Actually, that's the way I met my friend Wyatt. I didn't know how I was going to get home that day I met him busking on University Avenue either. That was our opening exhange. He asked for money. I walked over, lowered my voice and explained that I'd give him something but I didn't have enough for bus fare home myself. (Tended to go through these feast and famine cycles in the past.) I only know that something was compelling me to go to Palo Alto that day. I followed that whim. Of course, I ended up getting a ride home from my friend that works at IDEO... yet I didn't know that apriori.

I found that New Orleanians were generous, sharing and less of a "me, mine, and my" frame of mind than I'm used to observing in the US.

It's there it all dawned on me that money would end up becoming extraneous.

Call me quixotic, idealistic, dreamer. (I cannot explain the how's) I've seen into the future. (Though yes, the future keeps shifting because we change it.) Surprising myself, I feel moved toward "collective" (for lack of better name) and cooperative ways of sharing which don't necessarily involve money, or monetary systems.

I want to play in that realm. Live by that belief that we can take care of each other.

To me, art isn't to be merely visited, watched...it's more like a space you inhabit, you absorb, you be. Doubt I've said this, but I'm into social art. Not social as in we're going to exchange comments, trackbacks, and I'll add you to my buddy list.

Social as in art that creates civilizations...like this...

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world

- John Lennon, Imagine

I witnessed so many acts of collectiveness in Nola, ah, where to begin. Okay, here's one I witnessed: One evening I run into a cool pianist I've met at Mimi's upstairs. He is giving away a newly inherited piano to a fellow pianist sitting there at the counter. They'd met the week earlier at Mimi's. It's an extra piano, and she doesn't own one.

That logic doesn't resonate with everyone. Why not put the piano on Craigslist? Why not eBay? Why not donate it to the ___. Because he met whom it was intended for.

Last week Donna wrote in comments: "For some real fun, try giving money away, and watch how fast it comes back to you. ;^)" Yes. (The Diamond Cutter is a marvelous true story of this in practice. If it matters, he ended up a multimillionaire in the process.) Obviously one doesn't give with any expectation of getting. I don't give for quid pro quo or karmic brownie points.

Anyhow, once I got the lesson of giving, I found another lesson was waiting.

& it has to do with truly living by what I believe. As runners are wont to say, though, your mileage may vary.

There are those who give little of the much which they have - and they give it for recognition and their hidden desire makes their gifts unwholesome.

And there are those who have little and give it all.

These are the believers in life and the bounty of life, and their coffer is never empty.

There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward.

And there are those who give with pain, and that pain is their baptism.

And there are those who give and know not pain in giving, nor do they seek joy, nor give with mindfulness of virtue;

They give as in yonder valley the myrtle breathes its fragrance into space.

Though the hands of such as these God speaks, and from behind their eyes He smiles upon the earth.

It is well to give when asked, but it is better to give unasked, through understanding;

And to the open-handed the search for one who shall receive is joy greater than giving

And is there aught you would withhold?

All you have shall some day be given;

Therefore give now, that the season of giving may be yours and not your inheritors'.

You often say, 'I would give, but only to the deserving.'

The trees in your orchard say not so, nor the flocks in your pasture.

They give that they may live, for to withhold is to perish.

Surely he who is worthy to receive his days and his nights is worthy of all else from you.

And he who has deserved to drink from the ocean of life deserves to fill his cup from your little stream.

And what desert greater shall there be than that which lies in the courage and the confidence, nay the charity, of receiving?

And who are you that men should rend their bosom and unveil their pride, that you may see their worth naked and their pride unabashed?

See first that you yourself deserve to be a giver, and an instrument of giving.

For in truth it is life that gives unto life - while you, who deem yourself a giver, are but a witness.

And you receivers - and you are all receivers - assume no weight of gratitude, lest you lay a yoke upon yourself and upon him who gives.

Rather rise together with the giver on his gifts as on wings;

For to be overmindful of your debt, is to doubt his generosity who has the free-hearted earth for mother, and God for father.        

- Kahlil Gibran

UPDATE: As soon as I hit publish, I get this about circles of sharing and generosity entrepreneurs in my inbox:

"Imagine walking down the street and a woman comes up to you and says, 'Hello. I have an offering for you.' Puzzled, you look up and in your palm falls a $7500 check. 'Why me?' 'Serendipity,' she says. 'What should I do with it?' 'Whatever you want.' 'How did you decide on $7500?' 'We sat in a circle of silence, wrote down a number on a piece of paper and it averaged out to $7500.' And then she walks away. Now that's a pretty ridiculous story, but that's what has brought us together here." - "A Radical Experiment in Generosity Launches," CharityFocus.com

images Visit (detail of entire painting above) by Mari Klarwein; Breath of Gaia, by Josephine Wall (btw, discovered via a cool art blog by Melissa Ulto you may enjoy, Multo.com::Visual Magic); Tree of Fruitfulness, by Lieve Prins; can't find origin (from Myspace page while surfing) but probably one of those fantasy games

Bake Cause Marketing Into Product

I nearly went to the Cause Marketing Forum this week. Their site defines its origins: "It was 21 years ago today (approximately) that cause marketing was first unleashed on America’s teeming shores in the form of the 1983 American Express Statue of Liberty Restoration campaign."

"Cause marketing" in an informal sense certainly goes back further than 21 years. My opinion is that the strongest offering is when your cause is baked into your product and/or service, rather than have it as a do-gooding add-on. Some companies that come to mind are Flickr and Craigslist, often cited in blogging circles.

But I'm challenging myself to look beyond the digerati for inspiration. This post from Fortune's Business Innovation Insider blog last November has had a very profound ongoing influence on me. It challenges Ben & Jerry's: "Does encouraging charitable giving, environmental responsibility, and fair labor standards compensate for the obesity encouraged by its products and marketing campaigns?" And continues:

"Based on that excerpt from Rushkoff, What example can you provide of a company that does its good works from the inside-out, as its primary function rather than merely a portion of revenues? Some examples Rushkoff includes in his book are Honest Tea, conceived from the inside out as a way to reduce sugar intake and provide jobs for aboriginal people, or Voxiva, a successful for-profit company born out of a non-profit idea to provide healthcare connectivity in developing regions." -- "Goodness, Outside and In: Douglas Rushkoff Contest #4", Fortune Business Innovation Insider, November 25, 2005

I've already written that I'm feeling about the food and drink options at Starbucks precisely how I feel about McDonald's. This might lead you to assume I've cut all sugar and caffeine from life. (Mantra: Middle way, middle way.) Not so, for instance, I eat more chocolate now than ever before (that's up from near zero). Yet I'm more finicky about my chocolate. It needs to feel and taste as natural and high quality as possible.

The famous artist and potter, Beatrice Wood, once quipped, "My two great joys in life are chocolate and young men." Of course she lived to be 105. (There, I finally found an opportunity to use that quote ;-))

In the Asia Spa Nov/Dec 2005 issue, there is a writeup on the innovative and successful Soneva resorts and Six Senses Spas. One of their newest creations is an "Earth Spa" that doesn't use air-conditioning, is built from rice husks, straw and local mud [which itself to be honest is not so new and is exactly the kind of "terrabricks" that Habitat for Humanity and other NGOs are used for tsunami relief homes]. The resort spas have organic gardens onsite with their own perma-culturists so that their salads are served ripe and fresh. They distinguish themselves from other resorts because they innovate from the inside-out. People I know who've stayed there, gush about the experience.

The quote that struck me from the Soneva folks: "As a team we all love dreaming up things. But the future of luxury is in nature and natural things. Organic, clean, pure; that is really a getaway."

Theo Chocolate is new chocolate factory that's baking their cause into their products.

The key things I noted from an article below are 1) founder's personal mission and passion stems from an irrevocably life-changing experience 2) current chocolate market is "hot" so it's getting harder to stand out; they're unique, distinguish themselves by being first factory in US devoted to producing 100% Fair Trade chocolate 3) they attempt to make what is ordinarily an industrial workspace whimsical, "loud and beautiful", for instance by painting machines a cheerful lime green 4) the writer begins this story very sexily, because chocolate is inherently sexy 5) aligned with current trends of freshness (short shelf-life because lack of preservatives) and use of local suppliers with personal connection, such as organic family farms. Snippet below:

"Standing inside a cavernous building in Fremont [WA], I inhale the rich, dank smell of fermented cocoa beans as lime green machines throb  all around me - crushing, melting, tempering and conching. A decadent square of mint ganache made from dark chocolate and fresh organic mint leaves melts on my tongue.

It's hard to believe that this is the old Red Hook Brewery, now home to Theo Chocolate, Seattle's first and only chocolate factory (the name is short for Theobroma, Greek for "food of the gods")...

For the past year and a half, Theo Chocolate founder Joe Whinney - along  with  Music (his ex-wife), chocolatier Autumn Martin and production manager Dan  Donahue, a former Caffe Vita roaster - has been buying chocolate-making equipment, importing organic cocoa beans and assembling the first factory in the country devoted to producing 100 percent Fair Trade [indicates the grower is receiving fair market price and engaging in responsible labor practices: no child labor, no discrimination, no union busting]. 

Whinney, 39, (Known as Whinney Wonka around the factory), traces his interest in the chocolate business back 20 years ("30 pounds ago," he jokes), when he was working as a conservation volunteer in Belize.  "There were a lot of do-gooding gringos like me who wanted to help out," he says. "I realized that social and environmental degradation were economic issues and thought that a market approach was necessary."

The chocolate market was a natural fit. "I fell in love with cocoa," Whinney says. "Cocoa is one of their main crops, and it had tremendous cultural relevance for them, which really resonated with me.  And at the time, the organic market was much smaller, and there was no organic chocolate that  I was aware of."

Though grown organically, the Belize cacao was not certified as organic, which was the case in many of the countries where cocoa beans were grown. [Article goes on to recount how Whinney taught himself the chocolate business in 1990s to supply certified organic chocolate to companies such as Newman's Own Organics. More about the process of creating chocolate bars and confections...]

The mint [used in one of their 13 confections], which I eagerly sampled, comes from an organic farm in Duvall, and [former pastry chef Autumn] Martin infuses it into the cream to make the filling...

At press time, Theo is expected to be selling its chocolate bars locally this spring and internationally by the end of the year. But the confections, which have a two-week shelf life, are confined to the Northwest (find them at Whole Foods and PCC) and certain specialty shops outside the region. Which is fine by me - they're too good to share." -- "Candyland", Seattle Magazine, May 2006 (not online)

Bonus: Background reading, try Trading Up: Why Consumers Want New Luxury Goods...and How Companies Create Them and Get Back in the Box: Innovation from the Inside Out, by Douglas Rushkoff (blog)

p.s. Hooray for Bill Gates devoting and committing his full time to his foundation. I wonder though what a for-profit like Microsoft could do from the inside-out, baking goodness within, though...hmmm....

images Flickr photo by Kiki J, Soneva Earth Spa, Theo Chocolate art logo. Alas many intriguing chocolate Flickr photos are 'all rights reserved'; check out this artful plateful from Laederch Chocolatier Suisse, the fairytale Gaudí chocolate factory in Barcelona, the beautiful chocolates from "Cacao Et Chocolat, a wonderful Paris chocolate shop", and the delicable art of MarieBelle chocolates on Prince St., NYC

We're Not In This to Get Bought

"I’m in this to build something cool, not to get bought."

This quote really stuck in my head because it resonated with my values. I've remembered it since so it was easy to find now four months later when it seems that the right price just hadn't been struck yet: $750 million, naw.

I'm fine with people making a profit and having a roof over their heads, and perhaps Facebook was just a hobby that took on a life of its own. It probably never sprung from a seed desire to better the world or to help people realize their innate potential.

If it's Donald or Martha, I have the expectation that it will be about being bought, and that's upfront and transparent.

Still it's not really a big deal that the Facebook founder changed his mind, but I ran into pre-beta Facebook-like site that purports to really be about changing the world. But something seemed disingenuous when I read between the lines of the investor profiles, biz model, etc. I just wasn't buying "we're not here to be bought" story.

The January 2006 Common Ground Magazine insightfully asks in its article "Markets of Enlightenment": "Can “liberation,” “awakening” and “enlightenment” be bought and sold?" Sufi master Llewellyn Vaughn-Lee, whom I saw speak last November, in the same issue says that, "The spiritual values of the 1970s got hijacked by the self-development movement and became just another form of materialism." Yup. (p.s. Vaughn-Lee has some intriguing things there about places of power, women, and the Internet.)

I can relate to why Chris Locke's next book might just be: "No Love Lost: Narcissism & the New Age". Chris is definitely on the right track but goes too far in lumping all spirituality as bogus narcissism. I reckon if Chris actually met an enlightened person he'd expand his view (they're rarely celebrities - all that glitters is not gold; and I'm not either but I have met). The Bodhisattva ideal and felt sense that everyone is your brother or sister or yikes, even seamless to you, was obscured by the me-feel-good god-wants-what-I-want anything-goes rush of bliss ninnyhood. No wonder Jack drank himself to death.

What would it mean, for example, to seriously consider the implications of the "quantum leap" envisioned by Teilhard de Chardin, which, as Combs tells us, "has its own emergent properties that go far beyond the individual minds"? If we are to sincerely grapple with the implications of "living the integral life," then surely it means daring to open ourselves up to a potential "radiance of being" that is so positive, all-encompassing, and infused with purpose that it may propel us far beyond the relativistic field of our personal "needs and aspirations." - Book Review: The Radiance of Being by Allan Combs, What is Enlightenment? magazine

I understand many many many people may be motivated by their own personal desires. Been there and still dissolving those egoic tendencies in myself.

Last night a fellow artist mentions a friend that might be a suitable partner for our plans: "But he's still about making a killing." I shake my head even though I'm on the cell phone: "Wrong person then."

The right persons? She or he clicks with this:

There is an almost sensual longing for communion with others who have a larger vision. The immense fulfillment of the friendships between those engaged in furthering the evolution of consciousness has a quality almost impossible to describe. - Teilhard de Chardin

Update: On second thought my second blog post at Crossroads Dispatches over two years ago pretty much sums it up:

"In Africa, they say there are two hungers, the lesser hunger and the greater hunger. The lesser hunger is for the things that sustain life, the goods and services, and the money to pay for them, which we all need. The greater hunger is for an answer to the question "why?", for some understanding of what that life is for." - from "Hungry Spirit, Beyond Capitalism: A Quest for Purpose in the Modern World" by Charles Handy

I used to recommend Randy Komisar's book, The Monk and the Riddle, years ago and handed it like candy to freshly minted entrepreneurs with dollar signs in their eyes. Now more than ever that should be the first book a founder reads before they've polished up the Web 2.0 biz plan. (p.s. Randy's a VC these days.)

World Water Day Poem

messages in (m)(w)ater
terra mater
earth: planet drops of pooled ambrosia
cadillac deserts of desire

she, the clay jar against crown
well-meeting
water-gathering
he, the tum-pli-nes against forehead
forest-meeting
wood-gathering

day
in
burn
day
out
quench

school-time: children of maíz fields
reading husks
day
in
writing mica-soil
(layers slide like pages in a book)
day
out

where
mammacita, la agua?

actions ripple
day
in
day
o) only
u) us
t) together

Inspired by: Yvonne at Lip-sticking, my friend David who told me about a new 1/2 cent per gallon water filtering technology, desert living, Colorado River and Guatemalan journeys, and Google. (Plus yeah I noticed Starbucks doing the good cause thing in their retail stores.)
photo WaterPartners International