Sure-footed on a Narrow Path
Thanks for giving me the job of Pre-World-Conference Conference organizer. Thinking about the whole is something I like to do. It raises all sorts of questions for me, and I want to get them down on paper so I can go back to sleep. How well I think about this conference and organize the details will have a good effect on the outcome. Gratefully, I am beginning to think less like a workhorse and more like a real organizer.
There are many dichotomies that have to be kept in mind all at the same time. It reminds me of the image you once described of walking on a narrow path with a sheer rock face on one side and a hundred-foot abyss on the other.
How do I 'grow' my Community? So far, I can reach some people by personal charisma, but that is ultimately insufficient. How do I give people the session that allows them to look at things in their life and the larger world that they are afraid to look at? So far, with many that I introduce to Co-Counseling, I am not yet able to let them see that they could re-emerge but that it will require facing what they thought was unfaceable. Sometimes they can see it about me or someone else, but not about themselves.
I think the answers to these questions lie in keeping both sides of the picture in my mind at the same time: remembering the past while standing in the present with my eye on the future; discharging my oppressor distress while holding out reality to those I oppress; growing the Community by teaching fundamentals while deepening everyone's understanding of theory and solidifying relationships.
How do I push beyond timidity-my own and everyone else's?
All of these questions come to mind as I think about how the folder should look and what will be in it. I want to have many laptop computers at the conference. We have the technology to get much more of our thinking down on paper quicker. The schedule: I want designated times for the International Liberation Reference People, the Regional Reference People, the Area Reference People, the editors, and Community builders to meet. I want topic groups around the goals for the conference, Regional caucuses, constituency caucuses, and something else (don't have it yet in mind). I know you are also thinking of these matters, but it helps if I map it out in my mind.
Oh, another good thing: I am setting up my local folks in a committee around me, something I often forget to do. I may be a girl from a small town, but I have big ideas and lots of friends.
I think I can go back to sleep now. I'll write again and call.
B-
USA