This is what community looks like.
It’s getting late and I have a headache and am running out of time to practice cello, so I’ll just write quickly. I want to remember this day. Today I am not alienated or lonely. First I spent about 4 hours engaged in thoughtful conversation about society, history, economics, and social change in a group of 6 at the salon/meetup. Then I got my rear brake pads replaced at a bike coop and biked over to the Occupy site to check out the tail-end of the daily open forum. A speaker was just finishing a presentation for a group of 3 about switching to a gift economy and creating a database of resources for it. After he left, I ended up conversing with a couple of the participants-well-educated, open-minded, insightful people interested in both analysis and praxis. We spent about 3-4 hours discussing financial and ecological collapse, economics, politics, history, the media, and what direction society might take. (Incidentally, we all have council communist and anarchist sympathies-something I’ve been encountering repeatedly lately.) We exchanged e-mail addresses and recommended books and blogs to each other, and we all seemed to learn something from the conversation.
(With one, a social worker who has spent a couple of nights at the camp, I felt I formed a personal connection as well. After the others left, we continued talking about our personal lives, the nature of human cognition, relationships, and other sundry topics. Listening to him describe his relationship with his significant other restored some of my hope for romance and partnership.)
I also met a person who is doing independent reporting on serious air pollution problems right here in Portland that I hadn’t heard about. Who says journalism is dead?
Even if the people I met don’t stay in touch, I am inspired by the existence of community and communal space in which I could meet such people-without the mediation of the internet. I also had brief exchanges with other people around the camp and their empathy and goodwill moved me even if we didn’t engage in deep analysis. I've had my share of doubts about the effectiveness, analytical rigor, and consensus process of the Occupy Portland movement. But in this moment, I feel hope and connection and a sense of community, and I won’t forget that in a hurry.
(With one, a social worker who has spent a couple of nights at the camp, I felt I formed a personal connection as well. After the others left, we continued talking about our personal lives, the nature of human cognition, relationships, and other sundry topics. Listening to him describe his relationship with his significant other restored some of my hope for romance and partnership.)
I also met a person who is doing independent reporting on serious air pollution problems right here in Portland that I hadn’t heard about. Who says journalism is dead?
Even if the people I met don’t stay in touch, I am inspired by the existence of community and communal space in which I could meet such people-without the mediation of the internet. I also had brief exchanges with other people around the camp and their empathy and goodwill moved me even if we didn’t engage in deep analysis. I've had my share of doubts about the effectiveness, analytical rigor, and consensus process of the Occupy Portland movement. But in this moment, I feel hope and connection and a sense of community, and I won’t forget that in a hurry.