November 13, 2016: Business Call

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Sunday Agenda

NEXT BUSINESS MEETING

Check-in

Opening Blessing

The experience of life is delightful, sometimes. The experience of life is wondrous, sometimes. For those other times, something more than just appreciation is needed. We come here today to find comfort and strength in our shared community. May we be here for each other. --Blessed Be

WW(W)s from last time

WWW(s)

Weekly Events Logistics

Service rotation: Eric, Ben, Shelley, Brandon

Flight in a Cage Update

I described in a video message how PTeros is now under attack. I’m trying to figure out how to use my experiences from the election to understand how Erin feels about trying to give and receive comfort in a seemingly hopeless situation.

Yesterday I didn’t work on the novel, I decided instead to start a new short story set in the same universe but very near future, describing the origin of the green goo catastrophe. And the originator is now going to be a guy who was trying to undo damage from the election that just happened.

Practices Maintenance

Flight in a Cage blog post

Brandon's title suggestion: Into a new Cage … adversity and the upward spiral in “Flight in a Cage”

My friend Ben is writing a novel. He is seven chapters in (although considering shortening it) and it pains me that I can't share them with anyone. It is also painful to have to wait for an author to write each chapter as I want so much to follow the adventure. The novel is about the adventure I yearn for. The adventure of setting out with Life toward other suns. The novel is about the adventure with the motivation that I find so inspiring. Not a desperate search for a place to survive but for the beauty of the fruit of such a journey; the spreading of Life to a trillion barren worlds.

Yet the story is more complicated than that. There are characters with all different motivations. Those who seek survival in the face of persecution. Those who care more about human history and myth than the Great Story of Life in the Universe. Those who fear difference and diversity. Those who worship technology. Those who desire money and power. Those who desire only safety and freedom from fear. Through all of these differently motivated and conflicting characters and their interactions, the story pushes forth Life toward the stars. I love the way that the story uses common enemies as a catalyst for alliance, repurposing adversity toward the emergence of allies. Without enemies there is no motivation for alliance and no possibility for the greater accomplishment that alliance brings.

It reminds me of trees, able to grow taller because of buttress roots that grow in reaction to the adversity of wind. It reminds me of fire which destroys diversity and then opens small patches of forests to new growth, increasing overall diversity. It reminds me of predators which push prey into developing defences, maybe armour, which also becomes structure and allow for bigger, more powerful animals. It reminds me of creatures falling from trees to their deaths, pushing the adaptation of gliding membranes, and then wings emerging and resulting in true flight. The cycle is adversity, adaptation, repurposing of adaptation to new abilities, creating new adversities for other species. This cycle repeats and drives Life continuously out of one cage and into another. But each cage is different and each new cage provides the opportunity to escape into yet more cages in an upward spiral of ever growing possibilities.

Responses to the Election

How’s your courage now compared to the start of the call?

Evaluation

Closing Blessing

Blessed be, blessed be … those are words of wisdom blessed be. --Blessed Be