How to Summarise?
So much to catch up on not sure where to start...
Hey friends!
Wow it has been about 2 months since I last wrote and it is difficult to know where to start, one of those things where everything and nothing feels relevant to share. So I am going to do my best but please forgive me if its a little incoherent and I jump all over the place. While the last months have been filled with the typical Schumacher escapades; fire side chats, sing-a-longs, philosophical conversations, long walks in the Redwoods and swims in the river Dart below are the standout moments - or rather the ones that have somewhat shifted the way I am seeing the world around me and the way I live my life… I hope you enjoy:
Wicked problem mapping
The project that we were working on for our last module prior to the Christmas break was all about wicked problem mapping and future visioning. For those who don’t know a wicked problem is the kind of complex problem that once you start to unpick you find that solving one problem creates a myriad of cascading problems with further problems nested within problems; a problem with no clear or coherent solution. Sounds quite familiar doesn’t it? A little like the world right now? Hence the relevance of the project, and the necessity for us to learn how to sit with and work with these types of uncomfortable complex scenarios. It can be a real mind-twister and a deeply humbling experience to meditate on these types of problems, oftentimes we can be left hopeless - I felt a lot of this during this module. The one resolve I would often come back to is that it only feels hopeless when I consider myself as an individual looking to find a clear plan to execute and solve these problems.. but once I almost gave into this overwhelming complexity, humbled myself and came to a deep understanding that as an individual there is no way I would be able to solve any of this, and started to look towards what could happen if whole communities of beings came together orientating themselves towards a kinder, more connected and coherent future, suddenly glimmers of possibility start to appear. This has been a big reminder to me to continually look towards building resilient, loving and honest relationships in which we practice patterns of being that resemble the future we hope to live in. For me this is the only way that I can feel it would be possible to create this kind of future given the complexities that we find ourselves in. So on that note a subtle (not so subtle) nudge to all of you: reach out to that person you have been meaning to get in touch with ;) I truly feel that tending to our relationships with fellow humans and the more than human world is how we bring a kinder more connected reality into being.
My specific project was a study of the current complex scenario that Schumacher College finds itself in while facing an uncertain future. It was quite a wild ride researching the space and place in which I live and starting to see the many layers of patterning that exist within this space. Our tutors encouraged us to research something close to home so I really took it to heart.
For those who are interested to dive deeper into this you can see link to my project below:
Future Visioning Schumacher College
Visit to NYC
After handing in my assignment I then zoomed on a train to London, flew over the Atlantic, landed in JFK and next thing I knew I was walking the streets of The West Village in Manhattan with by brother. Swimming in a soup of loud city sounds, smells and accents, it was a drastic culture shift. Apart from it being a special time to spend with my brother and his family, it was also a deeply fascinating time to be in the heart of the Western Capitalist world witnessing all the systems and structures through my new Schumacher glasses. I guess my biggest takeaway from it all was that one can so clearly see that when we exist in these systems that are so complex that we cannot truly see them for what they are it is really difficult (near impossible) to understand the repercussions of our actions. Without understanding the repercussions for our actions we are disempowered to become active agents for change within these systems but rather settle back into abiding by the ‘rules’ of the system therefor encouraging it to perpetuate, it is a vicious downward spiral that seems to have trapped so many people into working to live and normalised it. I think I will stop there before I start sounding like a complete anarchist - but please reach out if you are interested to have further conversations about this!
A winter super Bug
Coming back to the UK in the New Year for our next module I got struck down in the second week of our residential period buy some kind of crazy super bug. It has been a 3-week long recovery for me and has taught me many lessons. Of course the homesickness also got intensified especially with my social media being stacked full of Bakoven beach sunsets.. South Africa truly is a natural paradise - don’t take it for granted friends! It has been interesting watching my body and mind (not)adjust to the weather and I have found myself contemplating how the environments that we choose to root ourselves in directly impact the capacity that we have to show up in the world…as well as examining how our privilege (or lack of) plays directly into our ability to choose these ‘ideal’ environments.
Space, place & considering home
The above contemplations also link to what we have been exploring this module, the title of which is ‘Design & Place’. We have been looking into how we define place, how we conceive of home within both ourselves and the world and how do we share these spaces and sensations of home with others. The work I am currently doing is looking into how I can share my inner wilderness with others through an experiential art-piece/meditation that would in someway encourage people to further connect to themselves, the natural world and others.. I’m very excited and enlivened by it and will hopefully be able to share it with you soon.
Looking towards the future
These contemplations of home have also got me asking ‘what’s next?’, as I have started to see the end of our course rise on the future horizon. It has induced a bit of anxiety considering leaving this loving, connected and safe haven, but also comes with excitement for what is to come. I have decided to come back to SA in June and it has been quite a clear decision but also comes with a feeling of grief for saying goodbye to the precious relationships that I have built over here, classic life: the grief and the joy always all bundled up in one! So I find myself processing these next steps quite a bit at the moment..
Okay I think thats it.. if you made it this far thanks for reading and I hope you have found these ramblings enriching in some way!
Sending love out to all of you <3
Current projects I am working on:
Schumacher Magazine: a team of us are pulling together a publication comprising of a collection of works that have emerged out of the Schumacher Community in order to attempt to capture and share some of the magic here with the outside world.
EDT Collective: My classmates and I have started having conversations around setting up a collective organisation in order to continue collaboratively working beyond our masters course. It is very exciting and experimental and I feel so grateful to have the opportunity to continue working with these special and talented people.
Schumacher mini-festival: A very fresh idea but we are thinking of throwing a mini self-organised festival here in Totnes as a goodbye to the current Masters cohort in April.. for those who may be in the area get in touch!
What I have been reading lately:
A Wizard of Earthsea : The original Wizard School book, interwoven with Daoist teachings
What I have been listening to, watching: