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papercastlesalon-blog · 11 years

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PARADISE

YOU ARE INVITED

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P A R A D I S E

paradise |ˈparəˌdīs| noun

• an ideal or idyllic place or state

• a place in which existence is positive, harmonious and timeless.

It is conceptually a counter-image of the miseries of human civilization.

• in paradise there is only peace, prosperity, and happiness.

• paradise is a place of contentment, but it is not necessarily a land of luxury and idleness. It is often used in the same context as that of utopia.

ORIGIN Middle English : from Old French paradis, via ecclesiastical Latin from Greek paradeisos ‘royal (enclosed) park,’ and ultimately from an Old Iranian root, attested in Avestan as pairidaēza ‘walled (enclosure).’

On August 14th, Paper Castle held it’s fourth Salon dinner party under the awnings of Tucker Robbins’ magnificent showroom in the New York Design Center. Our guests explored the theme ofParadise, one of Tucker’s suggestions weeks earlier, and perfectly timed for the height of summer when all was in fullest bloom. (One of my favourite moments in preparation was driving into New York with a lapful of gladioli and Indian milk sweets for our guests.)

Traditionally, a Paradise is a walled enclosure designed for royalty. In discussing the topic of Paradise, I realized that in language today, we tend to create a spatiality to Paradise. Could Paradise be freed from boundary? Could it be possibly limitless? Many of our table topics suggested this idea, and (as I hoped) stimulated conversations wherein we explored how Paradise could be cultivated for everyone everywhere, here and now.

“We cannot stress how much we appreciate the wonderful work you’re doing and how much we would love to do it again sometime.” – Manman

“The eternal quest for Peace Within is humanities greatest pursuit and I am privileged to share that longing with those of us at the Paradise Salon.” – Tucker

“Thought provoking, inspirational and fully charged with multidisciplinary angles, a great way to make change.” – Manman

ON UTOPIA, by Madison Utendahl

“On August 14, 2012, I sat down at dinner table and shared a wonderful evening with five strangers. While at first, the guests I would be sharing my time with over the next three hours, were individuals of whom I had never seen before, by the end of the evening they were friends, great company, and gracious peers.’

“Hosting the Utopia table at the Paradise Salon was both an incredible honor and indescribable experience. It was my first time hosting a table at a Salon and instantly I knew it would be something I would be interested in doing again. As my fellow peers and I drank wine and ate our dinner meals, we shared stories, anecdotes and personal definitions of what the word “utopia” meant to each of us individually.’

“The conversation commenced very quietly, it quickly progressed into a gabfest of brilliant ideologies and laughter. Our topics ranged from speaking about Utopia as a political total, to personal memories we had about utopian “times” or moments that were “utopian” experiences. Although, we all may not have had the exact definition of the term Utopia, there was a general consensus of respect and admiration of each other’s time and words.’

“Overall, as I draw back and review my experience as a host, I think about how exceptional the group of people were that I exchanged my thoughts and comments with. I can only conclude by stating that the experience was a true honor and a night I will always remember.”

ON INNER PEACE, by Tucker Robbins

“Inner Peace is my heart’s longing. Love is the foundation of all life. ‘Within is where we can know peace’ was the opening for our discussion. Round the table we shared our experiences, personal, unique and influenced by great teachers and Masters. The Landmark Forum, The Course of Miracles, & Maharaji were spoken of as guides to the inner realm, while some had yet to journey within. The discussion came round to our daily lives and the need for Inner Peace. The eternal quest for Peace Within is humanities greatest pursuit and I am privileged to share that longing with those of us at the Paradise Salon.”

“Peace is within. The greatest noise is also within. The thirst for peace brings obsession, ownership, whatever necessary to satisfy the thirst, guidance is needed, as we mirror our beloveds & enemies. Longing for truth, clarity, love and peace brings devotion as the tempest within is quieted but never silenced. In the core there is no difference between the modern & primitive, city dweller, farmer, hermit or performer, the same longing is required. This quest is the Greatest pursuit, from the beginning of time and the earliest records, we seek the true beloved, who is also within.”

ON COMPANIONSHIP, by Sophie and Isaac Koren

“In initiating a conversation on companionship, Isaac and I asked one question. “Who would you invite with you to Paradise?” When we sat down to listen to our guests, we received varied and very beautiful responses, many of which were surprising and stunning, to say the least. ‘

“First we heard from a talented young director, who said he would invite his mother with him to Paradise. “She knows me better than anyone, she’s been there from the very, very beginning. She loves me no matter what I do or who I am.” We heard from women who said they would take close friends; women who spoke about the bonds they share with other people in their tribe; the connections they have with people in their lives beyond the contexts we tend to travel in when considering a companion.’

“Isaac and I spoke about each other, and the fierce love we share between us; the astounding joy we feel that we found each other. We realize how blessed we are, to be each others’ best friend, coach, lover and mentor. I was asked to tell the magical story of how Isaac and I met, which is always wonderful to tell – particularly the part where I express just how much courage and how much faith it took. I was required to leap, to trust that my path would lead me towards a paradise of companionship, even when I had no light left, but for a dream which I continually rekindled in my heart, mind, and soul.’

“The process of finding companionship, let alone the paradise in companionship, is a path unique to each and every one of us, and one worth traversing every lifetime. Perhaps most profound was when Damasa and Daniel spoke of the companionship one can find within the soul, the companionship of the Self. This is true paradise – when one can feel at home, safe, content, beloved, within themselves, outside of all restraints, demands and external realities.’

“Co-hosting the companionship table was incredibly heart-warming. May we each continue to connect with companions of all kinds. In the words of Joseph Campbell, “FOLLOW YOUR BLISS.”

ON SUSTAINABILITY, by J. Manuel Mansylla

“We shared a table with a great group of global champions – we got to meet a professional dancer, a rocket scientist, an independent producer and talent consultant, a legal recruiter, someone setting up an NGO in Rwanda, and a climate change activist. Thought provoking, inspirational and fully charged with multidisciplinary angles, a great way to make change.’

“We started off as a salon on sustainability but quickly shifted to a think-tank on social change. By the time we got to dessert we were a do-tank ready to kick some corporate ass! Here are some thoughts and summations from the guests present at our table.’

Norena: We can all do something.

Kory: We need to focus on what has the most effect on the world.

Lidia: We need to be able to forecast the future and be ready many steps ahead. We need to plan if we want change.

Roger: It is important to think about how to leave the planet better than how I found it; and how we can think about today while taking care of tomorrow.

James: We need to acknowledge the fact that things are messed up. The world has failed to react to climate change; yet we need to find a way through this.

Jimena: Cultures are corporations. Great things, lead to great ideas, which must lead to great collaborations. We just need to make people aware of these things.

ON HAPPINESS, by Alex McCarthy

“Taking the role of the host for the Happiness table was an honour for me as I was representing not only my friends and family who create happiness in my life and others but the whole world and its experience and fulfilment on Happiness. Throughout my preparation for hosting the Happiness table I questioned others around me. Some winced at the word Happy, as if the word was much to ‘gooey’ for their reality and others simply laughed and said “Yes, just perfect, but where do you start?” Some of the questions I asked myself and then my table during the Salon night were:

What is the possibility of Happiness?

How do we measure Happiness?

Do I see Happiness as a world together?

Has the First World figured out what Happiness is?

What have you discovered about Happiness?

What do you love about Happiness?

What frustrates you about Happiness?

And why do we sometimes find it so difficult to find Happiness?

As a designer and artist, I wanted to bring my creative side into my research, so I started asking people what colours they associate with Happiness. I have always been a colourful person. This year I have been lucky enough to see the true passion of colour in the fashion world whilst working at Diane Von Furstenberg. It’s amazing how a pair of patterned red trousers or bright blue dress with a print on it can make someone smile.

Here are a list of colours the different individuals said reminds them of happiness: Orange, yellow and green; Baby blue, white and Orange; Irredescent colours; Blue, yellow and purple; Magenta, citron; Orange, blue and green; Navy, Red and Beige. Throughout my research and preparation I also came across quotes that stood out to me as being powerful voices of happiness. I learnt that the pursuit of happiness is not complicated, but dwells in the understanding that we may find it in the most simple things in life. As my Mum told me:

“On the subject of happiness, all I can say is it is not found in the big things in life. It needs to be recognized in the small moments, such as noticing the first snowdrops, primroses on a bank, the different greens of a woodland, a cup of tea in a beautiful old cup with a real friend, someone smiling at you for no reason, the patterns in the sky, a quiet yoga class. Nothing big, just living in the moment and taking time to see what you have, and what is around you, rather than always looking to a future that may not happen in the way you want.” – Mrs McCarthy

Although we want the best in our future and others around us, we also need to remember to live in the present, otherwise it will disappear before we realize.

“I believe that the very purpose of life is to be happy. From the very core of our being, we desire contentment. I have found that the more we care for happiness of others, the greater is our own sense of well-being.” – Dalai Lama

One of the main topics I wanted to discuss in the evening was Joseph Peter and the International Day of Happiness. Over the last few years Joseph Peter and his colleague Jayme Illien have been making an incredible difference to the world. Their Happiness Project is not only going to allow the pursuit of happiness and well being to be in development around the world, but it will allow people to recognize the importance of happiness as a universal goal.

Joseph Peter in the ever epic “Happiness Factory”

Joseph’s Happiness images and photographs have made an aesthetic difference to grasping the publics’ attention through his Happiness Project. I took inspiration from this idea and created my own Happiness look book for the Paradise Salon. It is amazing how just one image can produce a million smiles. Taking the creative theme to the evening I decided that I wanted to do a creative exercise with my table. Throughout the evening we had all exchanged our own possibilities of Happiness, and how contagious it can be, but, for five minutes I wanted to take away words and replace them with imagery. I asked everyone on my table to close their eyes with a pencil or pen in their hand.

For the 1st round I asked everyone to draw a happiness memory from their childhood, allowing them not to worry about what they were looking at. Some fantastic fun pictures were produced.

For the 2nd round I asked everyone to draw a happiness memory that related to a loved one or member of their family. Again we had lovely results.

For the 3rd and final round I asked everyone to draw how their were feeling right now. This was brilliant, it was a perfect end to the evening. All three stages were drawn on the same page but passed around to the person on the right hand side. Here is a collage of the images together and I leave it up to your own imaginations what you think they all are.

During the evening I left out paper for my guests to write whatever they felt and here is a quote from Astrid and her own feeling on happiness:

“Times when I’ve been most happy seem physical, strongly felt in my chest, a good tension, a sort of tingling. It is when I am entirely aware and in the present – usually dependent on the natural environment I’m in, and the people I am with. I’ve only felt wholly happy when I feel as though I’m in a place, a situation, in which I entirely belong . . . the rest of the time, I am seeking this sense of belonging, to be aligned with who I am suited to, where I am “meant” to be . . . so that this happiness endures . . ‘

“The pursuit of Happiness may be honourable, may be selfless, may be some sort of key to sustaining a worthy and full life, but I worry the emphasis on happiness somewhat devalues other emotions, often seen as “negative” but these emotions may give happiness its “sweetness”, its substance . . . I search, unintentionally, for melancholy and sadness, and in these things I think happiness can be found, or at least appreciated more fully in contrast with and in my own personal paradise. I think these emotions would have a special place, I would welcome the whole emotional spectrum of which happiness is just one part.” – Astrid O’Neill (guest at Happiness table)

“Happiness is the very opposite of selfishness. It involves conscious choice every second of every day. Much of my life has been spent either unhappy or in a kind of neutral state and I now realise that one can make a conscious decision to be happy. Happiness follows from a sense of living in harmony with oneself and with others, and turning one’s mind to the present.” – Anthony Seldom

We did discuss the negative and frustration of the reality of happiness. It isn’t as easy as it always seems and people are often put off by the comedic and easy approach to the word Happiness. It can sometimes produce more stress than enjoyment. We realized that people take and experience happiness in their own way and time, and all you have to do is respect and share in each others experiences. However, if we notice or realize that we can help an individual or group of people gain happiness or develop towards this then we should rise to the challenge and make a difference. I found this quote of happiness that made me laugh:

“If you want happiness for an hour – take a nap. If you want happiness for a day – go fishing. If you want happiness for a month – get married. If you want happiness for a year – inherit a fortune. If you want happiness for a lifetime – help someone else.” – A Chinese proverb.

Hosting the Happiness was an absolute joy and pleasure, it gave my guests and I a chance to exchange stories and discuss the possibilities and difficulties of happiness. I want to thank my guests and new friends Astrid, Alex, Ryan, Betty and Carol for a wonderful evening and sharing our stories at the beautiful Paradise evening. In our busy lives today we rarely have a chance to exchange stories and discuss topics that don’t relate to our everyday lives and these Salon nights are the perfect way to express and discuss these fascinating topics.

I am going to pass on and share the tradition of the Salon evening in London, and continue sharing my stories of happiness that I have experienced in New York.

“Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.” – Buddha (563 BC – 483 BC) Founder of Buddhism.

#Alex McCarthy #companionship #happiness #Inner Peace #Isaac Koren #J. Manuel Mansylla #Madison Utendahl #paradise #Salon #Sophie Ward #sustainability #Tucker Robbins #utopia

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papercastlesalon-blog · 11 years

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PROSPERITY

Sophie Ward, author and founder of Paper Castle Press, and her husband Isaac Koren, of rock band The Kin, host monthly salon style dinner parties centered around a theme, within which several tables discuss sub-themes. This is Ward’s third review of the third salon dinner which took place in New York on May 29th, 2012, at The Randolph on Broome Street.

Our third salon was again another life altering success. I am consistently inspired by the gratitude that our community expresses to us each time we create this space for conversation and collaboration – an exploration of topics that mean something to each table guest. This particular salon was especially inspiring too, given that Damasa Doyle’s table on Giving catalyzed a domino reaction of gifted objects and acts of supreme generosity.

I was inspired by the number of hosts, by their passion, their commitment, their engagement with the discussions they had chosen to charter. I was also excited to see familiar faces joining us for the second or third time. One of our guests shared the glowing success that she’d had in hosting and producing her own salon with her school friends, some 50 years later. This thrills me; it’s very exciting to witness the salon moving out in the world; a grass roots experience spreading via osmosis into communities encouraged to circle around a table of food and wine, before sharing, encouraging and activating important thoughts held deep within them.

There were seven tables available, each of which circled a unique conversation, inspired by the theme of Prosperity. Work was hosted by Isaac Koren of The Kin; Courage was hosted by Sophie Ward, author and founder of Paper Castle Press; Inner Peace was hosted by Soho oracle Madeleine McRae; while author Damasa Doyle hosted a table on Giving; and personal trainer Will Torres of WillSpace hosted a table on Health. Molly Magdalain of StarStrings discussed Manifestation (Mind); while entertainment lawyer John Rosenberg explored Equality. A review of each table discussion follows below. Understandably, Inner Peace sold out faster than any table we’ve ever offered! Obviously a quality in high demand. It will be reprised at the fourth salon, on Paradise.

YOU ARE INVITED

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PROSPERITY

prosper |ˈpräspər| verb [ intrans. ]

• succeed in material terms; be financially successful: his business prospered

• flourish physically; grow strong and healthy : areas where gray squirrels cannot prosper.

• [ trans. ] archaic make successful : God has wonderfully prospered this nation.

ORIGIN late Middle English : from Old French prosperer, from Latin prosperare, from prosperus ‘doing well.’

Soon after this evening, I realized that while I strive to retrieve as many details from each host about their tables and the discussions that occurred, there are certain things that many of us will simply never know about. What alchemy synthesized between each host and their guest? Surely each individual holds their own treasured memories, and these become incredibly personal and unique. It is these ‘uncapturable’ moments that are what give the Salon such value, I believe.

For those who are onlookers, who may someday join us (inquire via info (at) papercastlepress (dot) com if you would like to host a table, or join our next salon) I invite you to engage with the reviews, creating your own imagined or anticipated memories. Those who have experienced the pleasure of intentional conversations will know how they fizz on. It’s been such a pleasure to provide the opportunity for these memories to be created.

ON INNER PEACE AND PROSPERITY: MADELEINE MCRAE

We were in the middle of a heat wave. I walked the hot, dirty streets of NYC in 95% heat to arrive at the premises where the event was to take place. Immediately I knew it was going to be a challenge. Your regular restaurant/bar is extremely noisy and not conducive to an intimate chat on inner peace. It reminded me of the human condition: We must be like the lotus and grow through the putrid water to sit on top and shine.

The room started to fill with the faces and hearts of those who had come to partake in an almost lost art, that of true communication. I was hosting the table on inner peace. I have been meditating or visiting the world within daily for thirty seven years, a gift and opportunity I do not take lightly.

My first question was,”Have you ever asked the yourself,who am I…?”

“And if so, how old were you?”

This opened up a beautiful sharing. I then went on to speak about how inner peace or meditation had become so cliched in society these days. It’s a bit like, ‘I must get a Gucci handbag, I must get a dog, I must have a child, oh, maybe I should have inner peace.’ Everything seems so negatively geared, coming from the outside in, instead of from the inside, out.

My last question was, “What truly belongs to you in this Life?”

Of course you will have to attend my table on inner peace sometime if you want the simple answer to that! Maybe my table hoped I would share my experiences more in depth, or that I would show them the simple techniques that I use to focus on the energy within. This I cannot do, for the journey within starts only from true thirst and never from curiosity. Plus it is an organic process and every step is paramount. The soil of your heart needs to be tilled so it is ready to receive the seeds of technique. If not, your worldly eyes may remain blind to the inner vision and your ears, so abused by worldly clamor, fail to catch the subtle vibration of the sounds of the energy within. So individual is this path of reconnection, and so universal.

My objective was merely to awaken the individual thirst and to touch on the incredible fact that if you want something with all of your being, you can have it. The possibility to know that energy within exists, now that’s a miracle. I was thinking today, that without that ability to connect inside to the universal truth, or God, or the cosmos, or whatever you want to call it, without that, we are all homeless in this world.

Thank you to everyone at my table. It was so beautiful to hear you all speak from your hearts and to see that twinkle in your eyes.

THE BREATH DRAWS IN LIKE AN ANCIENT FISHING NET

BURSTING WITH UNBRIDLED LIFE,

THEN SWEETLY, SOFTLY SLIPS AWAY

TO THE QUIET SHORES OF GRATITUDE,

ONLY TO RETURN, AGAIN AND AGAIN.

SUCH IS THE BLESSING.

by Madeleine McRae

ON THE PROSPERITY OF WORK: ISAAC KOREN

We sat down in a noisy restaurant ad immediately ‘got down to business’; the business of figuring out ‘work’ as such, as it related to our lives and our view of the world. We set out to understand ‘how is it that we work?’ and perhaps ‘how is Work possible for us’ and as a shared perspective. We started the night by heartening to a well loved poem ‘On Work’ by Kahlil Gibran (from The Prophet)

“You work that you may keep pace with the earth and the soul of the earth. For to be idle is to become a stranger unto the seasons, and to step out of life’s procession, that marches in majesty and proud submission towards the infinite. When you work you are a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours turns to music. Which of you would be a reed, dumb and silent, when all else sings together in unison?

“Always you have been told that work is a curse and labour a misfortune. But I say to you that when you work you fulfil a part of earth’s furthest dream, assigned to you when that dream was born, and in keeping yourself with labour you are in truth loving life, and to love life through labour is to be intimate with life’s inmost secret.

“But if you in your pain call birth an affliction and the support of the flesh a curse written upon your brow, then I answer that naught but the sweat of your brow shall wash away that which is written.

“You have been told also that life is darkness, and in your weariness you echo what was said by the weary. And I say that life is indeed darkness save when there is urge, and all urge is blind save when there is knowledge, and all knowledge is vain save when there is work, and all work is empty save when there is love; and when you work with love you bind yourself to yourself, and to one another, and to God.

“And what is it to work with love? It is to weave the cloth with threads drawn from your heart, even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth. It is to build a house with affection, even as if your beloved were to dwell in that house. It is to sow seeds with tenderness and reap the harvest with joy, even as if your beloved were to eat the fruit. It is to charge all things you fashion with a breath of your own spirit, and to know that all the blessed dead are standing about you and watching.

“Often have I heard you say, as if speaking in sleep, “He who works in marble, and finds the shape of his own soul in the stone, is nobler than he who ploughs the soil. And he who seizes the rainbow to lay it on a cloth in the likeness of man, is more than he who makes the sandals for our feet.”

“But I say, not in sleep but in the overwakefulness of noontide, that the wind speaks not more sweetly to the giant oaks than to the least of all the blades of grass; and he alone is great who turns the voice of the wind into a song made sweeter by his own loving. Work is love made visible.

“And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy. For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man’s hunger. And if you grudge the crushing of the grapes, your grudge distils a poison in the wine. And if you sing though as angels, and love not the singing, you muffle man’s ears to the voices of the day and the voices of the night.”

We each took a dip of wine after a group toast to his divine genius and continued to share.

We immediately realized we were of a similar creative ‘world-hood’ and livelihood and all sought to solve the inherent tension between our ’sustaining work’ and our art work. Over half of the table were creatives in advertising and in some way compromised in the time they would like to spend on their works of art. Those on the table who had committed to preserving the integrity of the work in art, in all cases had a long line of unrelated ‘jobs’ to fund their self sufficiency along the way. We found that no situation was stress free and each had their different effects on us as people and as artists. We shared experiences of ‘expectations’, ‘pressure’ and ‘artist guilt’ associated with the divide between art and commerce, expression and necessity. We were all exploring the field of potentiality between doing what we love to do and doing everything else we do with that same love.

We then looked for common ground in ‘re-creating’ the word ‘work’, which we agreed was loaded from the start, to something more encompassing, harmonizing, and expansive for us as a perspective. We looked to see how ‘work’ could encompass ‘everything we do’ and spring from our desire to contribute and ‘make a difference’ in the world around us. Prosperity, as a possibility, is then a factor of work itself. Dan stated that “work had perhaps become synonymous with function” and suggested that instead, “work could be the reward of prosperity itself.” Brian added that, especially in a wounded economy, “work is a privilege, afforded by prosperity.” Brian, Dan and Sara have all experienced the positive side of that privilege of good work that honors and rewards their creativity and ideas. Brian went on to suggest that “work is a constant in an idea economy, where boundaries around the concept of work can be blurred.”

This ties in well with another point of inspiration for our table, the scientific definition of work:

Work (scalar quantity in physics) “The transfer of energy from one physical system to another, especially the transfer of energy to a body by the application of a force that moves the body in the direction of the force. It is calculated as the product of the force and the distance through which the body moves and is expressed in joules, ergs, and foot-pounds.”

The formulae for computing work are W = f * d or W = P * t

Work = Force applied * distance travelled. Work = Power * Time applied

This brought us closer to a more inclusive definition, blurring the distinction between the value we placed on our everyday work and our art work, our ‘day jobs’ and our passion – such that it is ‘ALL WORK’.

Subsequently, we came to the topic of PLAY vs WORK. We found a desire to play, and a perspective on work that didn’t include play was at the heart of our dissatisfaction with work as such. If we could perhaps find the work in play and the play in work then we could perhaps marry the two sides of our brain while in our office and up against our canvas in the same way. This is not new information. Big technology companies, for example, have highlighted the power of ‘play at work’.

Sara and Ben then elucidated on the primal urge of art as made possible when “our survival work is done.” We agreed that work used to be more pinned to acts of sustaining and survival. Art-work is that decompressed time after the hunt and the harvest. In the idea economy that had brought our table together, the lines are less distinct. There is now a possibility for a freer movement between work and play. Work as Prosperity. Love what you do, and point everything you do towards the world with your love intact. Prosperity will make itself available by proxy. Work is both the means and the end of what it means to thrive and prosper.

Thank you for making this space for social change.

ON THE PROSPERITY OF GIVING: DAMASA DOYLE

Giving is the beginning of life. It is the growing of the trees, the fruit, the fish, the animals and plants that we eat, use and harvest, without which, we would perish. Giving is plentiful. Giving is that which allows us to survive as mother, father, family, community, and friend. It is birth and death. Yes, even that thing that brings tears and sorrow and pangs brought on by memory. Giving is one, in the end, of acceptance.

Giving is the sun and the moon, it is the rain, and the stars. As you look to the sky for answers, are they not also giving? And yet, giving too much, with no regard or responsibility for the burden or weight of what is given; pollution and overpopulation to the earth, economic freedom to the few, poverty to vast others. Giving must be checked and balanced so as not to create disdain, poverty, or war. Giving needs awareness.

Giving is love and devotion. It is inside a smile from one face towards another, in a lovers hug, the tinkle of laughter on joyous holidays made just for the giving.

But giving with conceit, control, or disrespect of humanity and our inherent emotions can manifest resentment, creating oceans of fear, heartache, and loneliness.

Giving needs no condition.

Giving comes from the instruments of musicians, the melody of a song, the point of a ballerina’s shoe as you watch her dance of absolute perfection, the swirl and splash of the artists brush. The loss of the ability to share these things, these joys, these free yet monetized modes of expression can create depression, confusion and frustration in the soul of the creative. Giving is Divine in it’s right to give.

Giving is truth, honesty, commitment and devotion to others and to self. Ah the self! Where would giving be without inner belief, faith and confidence in one’s own light and its God given right to shine? The gift of ones self onto the world in full glory should never be wasted. Evidently, giving from the emptiness of an uninspired vessel, gives not. Giving lives on nurturing self-fulfillment.

Giving is an outstretched hand that needs to find its home inside the heart and hands of a receiving other. This receiving home should be humble, accepting, appreciative and willing to continue the cycle, by reaching out again and again to another thus insuring the symbiotic necessity of giving/receiving duality. When this marriage is achieved, it in turn naturally yet mystically manifests abundant receiving, allowing the receiver to give abundantly.

The possibility of giving is infinite, perfuming the Universe with love. The prosperity of giving therefore is the heartbeat of humanity and a noble pursuit in the dreams of life.

The seeds of giving when truly a gift must come from within the fruit of the soul and spirit alike. To be pure, the gift of love generates from the love of self. To be true, the gift of faith must manifest from the God within. To be accepted, the gift of humanity grows from the soul of one, flowering Nations, and continents. So to begin a cycle of giving of the thing that one dreams to share. Give yourself first the gift of love.

Give yourself first the gift of compassion. Give generously he gift of acceptance and non-judgment. Give the gift of peace. Give without ego, but much humility. As we give, we are given, receiving in a cycle of abundance and prosperity. By planting these seeds within, we begin to grow in ways that cannot be contained and thusly the world will grow with us.

ON THE PROSPERITY OF (MANIFESTATION) MIND: MOLLY MAGDALAIN

I had a wonderful experience at the Prosperity Salon and wanted to pass along some impressions and ideas which have been affecting me in the days since. We focused on the ‘story you tell yourself’ about your life and how this ultimately manifests in your world. While we would all like to live the best life possible – and be as prosperous as we could ever imagine – it seems that we somehow get stuck or caught up in distractions. While one part of us wishes for our wildest dreams, another possibly stronger part of us creates a world which is somewhere in between – a compromise so to speak.

We had such a nice conversation at my table – it was respectful yet intense – always changing but it really felt like we were getting somewhere and that was my ultimate goal. At some point it occurred to me that it’s actually quite a revolutionary act to be truly prosperous. Prosperity is not about the numbers on your bank statement or the items on your resume – it’s a state of mind and a sense of freedom to pursue the life you truly want – which is, of course, a moving target.

It was really interesting how we are all so different in some senses and yet we had such similar feelings about our experiences with manifestation and mind. While we are a group of self-acknowledged ‘seekers’ – it still makes you wonder how this kind of confusion must afflict every single human being in some way. We identified a few key ideas which might help us get where we want to be going.

The first one was taking action – just taking that first step in a new direction, regardless of your attachment to the outcome – can lead you to a sense of freedom and understanding. I likened it to the idea of ‘muscle memory’ which I’ve learned through athletics and singing – just putting yourself out there and taking a step can create a momentum and sense of purpose which makes it easier to do that new thing the next time. Sometimes you have to just take an action instead of thinking about it – and this kind of courageous step can help propel you forward in a new direction.

A friend of mine once said ‘pray for what you really want or something better.’ The simple act of taking a step forward can help you feel the sense of freedom that you long for – and the hope to dream about what you truly want. And you can’t be attached to the outcome – you have to be willing to take a risk and learn from what it brings – ‘if you can’t fail – you can win.’ This sense of adventure can set you free from the daily worries and sense of stagnation which we all fear and dread. And you might even find a bit of light-heartedness in it. Walt Disney once said, ‘if you can dream it, you can do it’. It’s very possible that we are the only thing standing in our own way.

Another key point was the importance of the details – and how all those little things really add up to something bigger. If you want to talk about making change and taking action – start with the details. I like to refer to the concepts of feng shui which can apply to all areas of life and how by shifting those little grains of sand, you can make a huge difference in how you feel on a daily basis. As one member of the table said, ‘always try to speak what is true’ . . . . because every action you take has an effect in the world and the little thoughts you think ultimately create the life you experience.

Perhaps we just need the courage to truly listen to ourselves and take small but meaningful steps towards the places that we really want to be. Even if those steps may seem ridiculous or random at times – they will lend us a sense of freedom to identify and celebrate the beautiful individual beings that we already are.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

(Editors note: The origin of this passage is often attributed to a speech given by Nelson Mandela. It was in fact originally written by Marianne Williamson in her book A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of “A Course in Miracles“)

ON EQUALITY AND PROSPERITY: JOHN ROSENBERG

“The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, or to steal bread.” (Anatole France)

“The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal.” (Aristotle)

Our country’s Declaration of Independence proudly declares that “All men are created equal,” although those bold words were penned by a slave owner. Our Constitution, in the wisdom of its Fourteenth Amendment, guarantees all the “equal protection of the law,” but contains provisions elsewhere that valued slaves as 3/5th of a person. Our country has thus always coexisted, albeit uneasily and perhaps interstitially, between the aspirational goal of equality, and the reality that, particularly in a capitalistic society, any true sense of equality may be difficult, if not impossible to achieve.

The tension between these competing extremes became profoundly apparent as our discussion on “Equality”– in the context of the broader topic of “Prosperity”– progressed, robustly, openly and candidly. Our group consisted of an individual once described by a friend as “an ex-hippie//lawyer”; an engaging and highly successful business woman involved in the fashion industry, who brought us a unique perspective based on her British origins; her equally successful husband, an American-born music producer who had decidedly more conservative views on these issues than his outspoken spouse; and a young student, also of English origin, whose first visit to New York had introduced her to the sounds, rhythms and energy of this uniquely American city.

It initially appeared that our question, how can equality survive and indeed flourish in a brazenly capitalistic and materialistic society, virtually answered itself: On the surface, those interests collide, and are not readily reconciled. Where is the equality, it was asked, in the fact that, during the housing crisis, a hedge fund manager who bet against the housing market personally earned $1.5 billion in compensation in one year, essentially for hoping that Americans of modest means would lose their homes. But even leaving such dramatic examples to the side, there was a clear recognition that it is not possible, nor, for that matter, is there a right, for all of us to be “equal” in every respect. We come from different backgrounds; we have different levels of intelligence, experience and drive; we possess varying degrees of creativity and insight; and we are both cabined and propelled by a host of other variables that define the essence of our personalities. Obviously, not all of us can achieve uniform “equality,” whether educationally, professionally, economically or otherwise. But that rather self-evident conclusion ultimately begs rather than answers the question.

It is not the attainment of equal financial status that is the measure of true equality in our society, we offered. Rather, it is an equality of opportunity that is required, i.e., that each of us is afforded the platform, if (and to the extent) we choose to embrace it, necessary to achieve the full measure of our potential. With the conversation thus redirected, it was our British participants who perhaps provided the most clarifying moments. In England –a country with a robust capitalist economy–two essential societal components are equalized by government intervention: education and healthcare. Our English friends enlightened us that any qualified English citizen can attend the country’s colleges and universities, including Oxford and Cambridge, with little economic burden, as those educational opportunities are largely subsidized by the government and are thus within the financial reach of any student. At the same time, high quality healthcare–another component that we deemed essential to any “equal” society — is available equally to all citizens, at no cost.

It was legitimately asked whether, in our country, an individual of substantial financial resources—with more expensive, and thus more comprehensive health insurance or simply more funds– had the right to obtain medical care of a higher quality than might be available to those of more modest means. The answer framed the “equality” issue in perhaps its starkest form. If a Wall Street titan earning tens of millions of dollars a year, and the custodian who cleans his office both have a sick child, it would seem axiomatic that they both love their children “equally.” And it also would seem self-evident they each have the “equal” right to obtain the same level of healthcare to address their child’s health issues. Who among us would sentence the poorer child to deteriorating health or even more dire consequences because of her parent’s financial resources? Even the most conservative participant in the conversation was moved to concur that high (if not the “highest”) quality health care should be available to both families in those circumstances.

It soon became apparent, however, that as long as educational opportunities are dependent on financial resources, there could be no baseline equality in healthcare. After all, it was pointed out, a doctor who spent (or borrowed) hundreds of thousands of dollars to attend the finest medical school, where he or she graduated at the top of the class, one who had many available and financially attractive professional opportunities, can hardly be compelled (and is in any event unlikely) to accept compensation capped by the government (as is the case in England) at a level “equal” to that received by less capable doctors with far less stellar educational backgrounds. That doctor, in turn, might not be accessible to all patients without regard to financial resources and scope of insurance coverage. Thus, in order to fully revamp healthcare, it would appear that our educational system would have to be similarly revamped, “socialist” sounding constructs that likely are not achievable in this country, either pragmatically or politically. The issue was further complicated by the reality that the only way for the government to finance healthcare and education to this degree is to impose higher taxes on the wealthy, an issue that itself raises questions of equality and politics of a different sort.

Ultimately, it was the questioning, the probing, the point and counterpoint, that propelled our conversation, rather than the ability, in a short and casual gathering, to resolve these questions of fundamental concern. Indeed, in the final analysis the questions were more evident than any ready solutions, a nonetheless extremely gratifying exercise. And the irony was not lost on us that, while our British counterparts are from a country that was founded on royalty and a class system, while our country, in breaking free of England, was premised on concepts of liberty, freedom and equality, it is England, the land of the monarchy, that appears to provide more “equality” for its subjects than our democracy does for its citizens.

ON THE PROSPERITY OF HEALTH: WILL TORRES

I started the conversation with a few quotes that really got my thoughts going on the topic of health:

“The greatest wealth is Health.” (Unknown) “Health is like money, we never have a true idea of its value until we lose it.” (Josh Billings) “Your body is a temple, but only if you treat it as one.” (Astrid Alauda) “Mainstream medicine would be way different if they focused on prevention even half as much as they focused on intervention…” (Anonymous) “Our bodies are our gardens – our wills are our gardeners.” (William Shakespeare) “The best and most efficient pharmacy is within your own system.” (Robert C. Peale) “Health is not simply the absence of sickness.” (Hannah Green)

My original thought was on the importance of health because it is our most important asset. Coming from a fitness mindset my thoughts on health circle around three areas, rest, nutrition and exercise. Rest is so important. Without it the body can’t truly repair and build itself. Not to mention that lack of enough sleep consistently will begin to negatively affect the endocrine system on the body’s ability to regulate its hormone levels.

So many come to New York to “make it”. We become obsessed with work we lose touch of the things that truly make us happy. Sixteen-hour work days has become a badge that we wear on our chest. It’s common for New Yorkers to pull a long work day and then do something social in the evening involving alcohol and eating big meals late at night followed by a few hours of sleep and extra large cup or two of coffee to wake-up. This downward cycle of living is one of the things that robs us of our true physical health. Along with it comes poor eating-habits because the body is looking for immediate energy to keep going.

Many people and studies suggest that most of the disease in the body comes from the food that we put in it. If we put in health, vibrant foods that body will be that way and will be able to ward off anything that may harm it. On the other hand if we put in poor quality, low nutritional foods the body not be vibrant and full of energy. “Take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live.” (Jim Rohn)

One of the guests brought up his newly developed habit of creating spiritual health. He found solace in meditation. A main topic that continued to come up was the idea was the one of stopping and making time for oneself. We spend so much time at work or taking care of others or being distracted that we have become disconnected from ourselves. Taking the time to stop and take care of one self. Some thoughts were meditating or going for a hike or preparing a nutritious meal or just being present. By stopping from doing doing doing we all decided to slow down and just be. This reminds me of something one of my coaches shared with me, “We are ‘human beings’ not ‘human doings’.”

“To insure good health: eat lightly, breathe deeply, live moderately, cultivate cheerfulness, and maintain an interest in life.” (William Londen)

ON THE PROSPERITY OF COURAGE: SOPHIE WARD

I’m interested in how we each practice courage; how we sustain it; how we find it; how we draw on it. Is it an angelic source we draw upon; a God; an inner voice; a rational knowing and perception of our abilities? Or is it just a state of being? A practice? A muscle? I began by asking the three women at my table three questions: Their name, their place of birth, what they do in their life that they’d like to do more of, and most importantly, where in their life had courage led them to prosper?

I heard many different stories. An artist taking advantage of the free flowing wine, her dress loose and free on this summer night, spoke of how her profession as an artist requires courage. A model from New Zealand spoke about what she is afraid of, and where she has no trouble doing things that others might find frightening. She has left her home town and traveled the world, continuing to do so, which is something she has no reservations about. Jumping out of a moving vehicle above the clouds and plummeting towards the earth below, however, is a different story.

Another young woman spoke of the courage it takes to enter a relationship; to begin again; to take new steps and to have faith. I surely understand this. I spoke of how certain actions I have taken in my life seem to have required immense courage, however, in many instances, just like the traveler, there wasn’t much thought given, only a recollection of the consequences further down the track. I left Australia with a large spring in my step, motivated by love and the presence of my sister abroad, in an exciting city that promises endless reward. It took courage to face the delivery of that reward showing up in unexpected ways, in ways I didn’t expect nor plan, and in ways that ultimately took me on a wild and raucous, sometimes worrying, mostly ecstatic, journey.

It takes courage to face the future with all of its uncertainty, and potential pains and dangers. How would we ever grow, however, if we weren’t to set forth with intrepidity and fortitude? I enjoyed researching the history of courage prior to the Salon, finding many interesting twists and turns in the etymology of this quality or ability. For example, the dictionary defines courage as ”the ability to confront fear, pain, danger, uncertainty, or intimidation (courage also = bravery, boldness, fearlessness, mettle, fortitude, or intrepidity)” In Roman Catholicism, “courage was referred to as “Fortitude” – one of the four cardinal virtues. (“Cardinal” in this sense means “pivotal”; it is one of the four cardinal virtues because to possess any virtue, a person must be able to sustain it in the face of difficulty).”

In Western Antiquity and the Middle Ages, a definition was pronounced in light of the observation that “its vice of shortage is cowardice and its vice of excess isrecklessness” [I explored the word “Reck”, which means ”a regard or reckoning, particularly of a situation.” Therefore, “a reckless individual would engage in an activity without concern/ with indifference to the dangers of a situation, or for its after-effects/ consequences.”

This interested me – the fact that too much courage breeds recklessness – having little concern for the after-effects of one’s actions. Too little courage breeds cowardice. Being cowardly, it seems we have too much concern for the after-effects of our actions. Both appear to be vices, both seem to be untimely choices to make in the face of a possible action. We must monitor ourselves in the face of these vices, however ”recklessness should not be confused with BRAVERY although the two could sometimes be connected, bravery is usually applied to cases where a person displays a more reasonable reckoning of the inherent danger, rather than none at all.”

“Physical courage” is courage in the face of physical pain, hardship, death, or threat of death, while “moral courage” is the ability to act rightly in the face of popular opposition, shame, scandal, or discouragement.

So, I asked myself, what is “acting rightly?” Who says what is right or wrong? We say, we humans. Yes, there is a code of behavior we have agreed to follow and honor, and yet we are also constantly updating, evolving, and adjusting our cache of thoughts, judgements, opinions, laws, rules, regulations and so on. To have moral courage is to ‘act rightly’ – but isn’t the individual the ultimate lawmaker of his own self?

Furthermore, the dictionary defines “cowardice“ as “the perceived failure to demonstrate sufficient mental robustness and courage in the face of a challenge. Under many military codes of justice, cowardice in the face of combat is a crime punishable by death (cf. shot at dawn). The term describes a personality trait which is viewed as a negative characteristic and has been shunned and disdained (seenorms) within most, if not all cultures, while courage, typically viewed as its direct opposite, is generally rewarded and encouraged.”

“Cowards are usually seen to have avoided or refused to engage in a confrontation or struggle which has been deemed good or righteous by the wider culture in which they live. On a more mundane level, the label may be applied to those who are regarded as too frightened or overwhelmed to defend their rights or those of others from aggressors in their lives.”

Words associated with cowardice: failure, avoidance, refusal, frightened, overwhelmed, weak. Viewed by culture as insufficient, crime, punishable, negative characteristic, shunned, disdained.

Words associated with courage: an ability, confront, bravery, boldness, fearlessness, mettle, fortitude, intrepidity, virtue, important, grace, robustness, good, righteous, right, self-affirmation, strength, honor, perseverance, honesty, zest.

The culture elevates and supports, encourages (inspires with more courage) those with courage. However, couldn’t it be possible that those who are ‘cowards’ in the eyes of the wider culture, may be acting in accordance with their own personal reckonings of inherent danger laying in a possible action? Who are we to label coward or courageousness? That labeling is merely an objective conclusion based on personal observation, whereas the choice of action we take in any given moment, is purely relative to the choices available to an individual, his or her perceived abilities, the perceived threats, and the desires he or she has in life. Being courageous, or being cowardly, are two possibilities of being in the face of the course of ones’ life.

We are the best judge of whether an action we take is true to our self or otherwise. Being shot at dawn in military service because one retreated in the face of an enemy is not cowardly. The reward and punishment cycle needs to be recreated on a more personal level, rather than at the level of the state.

Some interesting notes:

The Tao Te Ching states that courage is derived from love (“慈 loving 故 causes 能 ability 勇 brave”) and explains: “One of courage, with audacity, will die. One of courage, but gentle, spares death. From these two kinds of courage arise harm and benefit.”"

In Modernity, ”courage is the self-affirmation of being in spite of the fact of non-being. It is the act of the individual self in taking the anxiety of non-being upon itself by affirming itself … in the anxiety of guilt and condemnation. … every courage to be has openly or covertly a religious root. For religion is the state of being grasped by the power of being itself.”

“In 2004, Christopher Peterson and Martin Seligman’s book, Character Strengths and Virtues proposed a uniform way of classifying positive traits that highlight the elements of humanity that uplift humanity, Courage being among the key virtues. In addition, Seligman and Peterson founded the Virtues in Action (VIA) Institute and created the VIA survey which hope to bring this uniform categorization of human strengths to the masses.

“The VIA classifies human strengths in six, broad categories: Wisdom and Knowledge, Courage, Humanity, Justice, Temperance, Transcendence. Courage is broken down into four main subcategories: Bravery, Perseverance, Honesty, and Zest.” So naturally, I looked up the definition of zest. It is one of my favourite words, after all. Here are some en-couraging words to whet the appetite (my italics)

WORDS ASSOCIATED WITH ZEST: Spirited enjoyment; gusto. Invigorating or keen excitement or enjoyment. Encourage, inspirit, hearten, embolden mean to fill with courage or strength of purpose.Encourage suggests the raising of one’s confidence especially by an external agency, inspirit, somewhat literary, implies instilling life, energy, courage, or vigor into something. Hearten implies thelifting of dispiritedness or despondency by an infusion of fresh courage or zeal”

In conclusion, there seems to be a spiritual element to courage, to zest and enthusiasm. It seems to be something we can call upon, draw upon, massage, inspire, draw in or cultivate. It seems to be a breath, a lifting, something that brings energy and vigor. Like a plant that does not see air, sun, or water, it wilts. We wilt without courage: without zest, bravery, perseverance and honesty. May we all continue to cultivate these qualities in our lives.

Please inquire via info (at) papercastlepress (dot) com if you would like to host a table or join our next salon as a guest!

#courage #Damasa Doyle #Equality #Giving #health #Inner Peace #Isaac Koren #John Rosenberg #Madeleine McCrae #Manifestation #Mind #Molly Magdalain #Will Torres #Work

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papercastlesalon-blog · 11 years

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GENESIS

genesis |ˈjenəsis| noun [in sing. ] the origin or mode of formation of something : this tale had its genesis in fireside stories.

ORIGIN late Old English , via Latin from Greek, ‘generation, creation, horoscope,’ from the base ofgignesthai ‘be born or produced.’

It must be said that each Salon we host becomes increasingly enjoyable, lasting, and far-reaching. When Isaac and I host such occasions – the purpose of which is to inspire, commune, and share thoughts and feelings around multiple themes united by a common one – we experience an infinite expansion. Our second salon, held at the Kingswood restaurant on the 18th night of this years fourth month, leapt across the threshold of our imagination and into the hearts of those who joined us to celebrate, before a new moon captured the weekend.

I had the honour of hosting a table on Storytelling; whilst mother and author Damasa Doyle, heralded a table on Motherhood; James Slezak (of Purpose) spearheaded a discussion on Social Movements,Simon Isaacs (of TaskForce) looked at the power of Brand; and Elizabeth Kennick (from the Space Frontier Foundation) – joining us by request for the second time, held space for an exploration of Math & Music. The remembrance of each of our hosts conversations follows below. It is my pleasure to present to you this much anticipated review of our second Salon.

“The most invigorating, enlightening and stimulating night I’ve ever been to. Thank you so much for including me.” –

Roger, recruiter at Mestel & Co

“There aren’t enough opportunities for us to share our thoughts and feelings in this way, where they are heard and honoured. Thank you for doing this, it is very rare.” – Alex, graphic designer at DVF

“Our table was so wonderful, so many different stories. Thank you.” – Obie, documentary filmmaker

ON THE GENESIS OF MOTHER, BY DAMASA DOYLE

“I am hosting a table at a Salon Dinner, and I am nervous. Such a silly thing to be, but the curling and twisting of my core is unquestionable. What have I to fear? There are many friends surrounding me, and many more to come before the evening ends. The intentions of kindness and grace can be felt amongst the crowd of about thirty vibrant souls. This is special. I relax and mentally pocket as much of the feeling, the essence of this energy carrying it gently to my table.

“There are five people in all and on the surface more different could we not be. A lawyer and proud father of two grown yet still growing women; a gypsy poetess, rock and roll mother of lyrical music makers; a filmmaker, questioning excess, while exploring the true meaning of self; A media guru, the fresh scent of motherhood permeating her being; and me, a writer, hostess for the evening and mother of two young boys. We note our curiosity of where this discussion will lead us. After brief introductions over glasses of wine and appetizers, served up appropriately “family style,” we dive in. The question being asked: What is MOTHER… to YOU?

“And there is not, for those hours, more than a few moments of silence.

“We speak first and candidly of our own mothers, memories and relationships. The newest mom confesses to just learning, and understanding the time it takes for this becoming. Her road has been long before embarking on this particular journey of motherhood, this creation of Grace. We talk about the movement from not knowing, to the surprise of knowing for sure when to embark on this long road of mothering/parenting. For some surely it comes instinctually, for all who are present however, we acknowledge the moment of choice.

“And now, the spirited gypsy speaks of this idea of choice. Consciously declining the boxes, labels or pre-conceived judgments of the type of mother SHE chooses to be.“It is a Doing word,” she says husky voiced and sure. “It opens in you a wound from which you will never recover.” What madness! you may think; but for those of us at the table who have created life in the form of flesh, we understand she speaks of FEAR. This parental fear of loving then losing that which is so unique and irreplaceable, is felt by us all.

“We marvel at the fragility of creating life. We see love, strength and understanding as key for all that dare to mother. Allowing space for a child’s growth no matter its form. The exploration of boundaries can be admittedly nerve-wracking to watch. It is a partnership of both joy and pain, this life of creation, of sharing our “babies” with the world. Yet we decide from experience that over-protection, control or domination will only destroy that which is longing to grow it’s own wings, to fly away and create life on it’s own terms.

“And what of the single soul at the table, who had not yet a chance to bare down to birth a child of flesh, bones and blood. “Well” says she, “I am mother of my own creations and ideas, and I nurture them, giving them space to grow. This is what I mother: my art, my relationships – but most of all myself.” We all nod in unison having done this birthing before, some of us still in the creative throes of labor as we speak. I tell her part of this “Mothering” is called Maieutics: “The art of giving birth to ideas…(and) the method used by Socrates in bringing forth knowledge through questions and insistence upon close and logical reasoning.”

“We speak of nature versus nurture and such possibilities that a man – never born to carry anything more than the seeds of life – may feel the compulsion to express the desire to nurture his offspring, to be as close to a Mother as possible. “It may not be as natural or innate” says one. “But,” says another “it can be learned out of necessity because the original mother has not the instincts, nor want to mother. Most of the time,” he says, “my love really inspires the ability to nurture, teach and comfort. The trick is finding a balance between my discipline and their freedom. But never do I feel the possibility of replacing their mother.”

“And now the question becomes: what happens when we lose our matriarchal creator?

“We sigh collectively and there are tears that spring forth when we speak of the loss of Mother. Whether through abandonment, death or symbolic loss, it feels to us something beyond inconceivable which leaves a chasm of inconsolable emptiness. For as there can be stand-ins and guides and representations, she that has created, she is the one for whom we dream. She can be a demon, an angel, a hugger of shoulders, and a holder of hands, confusing and confused, a giver of life, a respite in the eye of a storm. She can be a fantasy or a nightmare but the longing for her is unending, for she is timeless, and eternal. She IS the beginning of life, her fertile nature an archetype for all that is living.

“And finally we see on our horizons a time when we must shift into totems of wisdom, watching our creations fly beyond our reach but never from our hearts. By doing so we join the circle of life, now becoming that matriarch, that elder, that spirit or angel. Yes, our time will come when our surface selves will be re-born back into the earth. It is our destiny to embody the mythical properties of the Phoenix. To the Mother from which we came, once again we shall go.

“But not just yet, for we are beckoned to partake in song, music and dance. A mother smiles proud listening to the enthralling voices of her adult sons, as I ponder the future of not just my sons but of their creations as well. And thus, in this way, the Genesis of Mother will begin again.”

ON THE GENESIS OF STORYTELLING

“Truth is one, the sages speak of it by many names.”– Rigveda

After seating myself in the middle of the edge of our table, I asked my guests to share with the table three things: their name, what they do or love to do, and how they are a storyteller. The responses we received were astonishing in their difference, and catalyzing with their commonality. To start the discussion, I told the table – a mixture of old friends, family friends, and new friends, that my name is Sophie Ward, that I am a writer, an author, a storyteller, a publisher. I told them about my love of storytelling, which begins for me at a young age. I told them how I love the ability of humans to make meaning from non-meaning, to create realms within which our imaginations may dance, sing, run, cry, laugh and gain expression.

At my right was documentary filmmaker Obie Benz, who spoke about the challenges he has with telling his story. While Obie has traveled the world as a philanthropist, tipping much of his time, energy and resources into causes for social and environmental change, he is in the process of writing a non-fiction book about the wilder side of this life. He was struck by the challenges of balancing truth and ‘dishonesty’ in storytelling. He doesn’t necessarily want his children or parents to know certain things about his life, which might in fact make great stories. Where is the line between fiction and non?

Tucker Robbins continued the discussion by sharing that he was expected and encouraged by his father to go to Yale during his young adulthood. Instead, he rebelled, and went to live in an ashram for 10 years. “When coming out of that kind of environment, what do you do with yourself?” Tucker posited. Having developed a love for the diversity of life during his years in developing countries, Tucker chose to encapsulate the talent of the uneducated – the weavers and textile designers, for example, and to share these talents with the world. (Earlier in the night, Tucker had led the room in a very animated ‘moving prayer’, something he had recently taken part in with the National Treasure of Papua New Guinea, a storyteller, too.) Tucker spoke of the stories that are passed down between mother and daughter, the eternal story of the Mother, and the stories that exist in the very fabric of our being and our productions. He shared his passion for creations imbued with both utility, beauty and story.

Tucker then spoke of ‘the other world’, demonstrating by example that, “You don’t have to follow what they tell you to do! You can go your own way!!” he enthused. Halfway down the table, Roger Hsia, a head-hunter at a large law firm and dressed dapperly in a shirt with tie and braces, noticed that Tucker was looking directly at him. “Why are you looking at me when you say that?” he laughed. “I’m not the bad guy!”

“You look like my father,” said Tucker. “He wore a suit every day, and I rebelled him.” We laughed, realizing that the table was becoming ever more interesting.

Meanwhile, we went back to a graceful inquisition. Betty Conway sat on Tucker’s right, sharing her name and – looking at Tucker apologetically – the fact that she works as an accountant. Earlier in the night, Betty and I had spoken about her husband’s writing, how his storytelling infuses the house. In this moment, Betty professed her love for the garden she sows; the planting of the flowers, the hands in the depths of the soil and the earth. She spoke admiringly of the animals in the country where she lives, the deer and birds, the ducks and geese. She loves her life in nature. I understood immediately the way in which she was telling a story with her garden. This metaphor became truly fertile ground for our ensuing discussion.

On Betty’s right sat a young head hunter for various New York City law firms. Roger Hsia, Esq, spoke about how he sees himself as part Priest, Rabbi and Shrink. He said he hears the same stories (between 20 and 40) every day from older men moving from one job to another. These men are in a vulnerable state of transition, and they often expect their head hunter to be older. “A lot of the stories aren’t unique,” said Roger, who has a lot of compassion for his clients. Much of his job depends on listening: the quality of our listening shapes the quality of our conversations, and in our conversations, we are telling endless stories. Our table realized the beauty in the way that Roger spends his day listening intently to stories before retelling them to other listeners, potentially intending to hire the new candidate. Roger concluded that that storytelling is a huge part of his job. The table lit up with inspiration.

Benjamin Diamond sat opposite Tucker at another head of the table. He is an acupuncturist and Eastern Medicine practitioner, and shared about his profession first by speaking of the his teacher, an old master steeped in the tradition of Lao Tzu. As his disciple, Ben was taught stories about Chinese medicine over the course of four years. He now practices all kinds of Chinese medicine. Ben said that taking a patient’s pulse is the first part of a diagnosis, and often the hardest part of his job. He can read a lot in a pulse. “Often the patient will lie to me about what is going on for them, so my job is to uncover what is really going on, and to adjust it.” Ben emphasized the fact that he is enabler of healing, not a healer. He posited that the expectation to live up to the term ‘Healer’ and all that it insinuates isn’t beneficial; Ben can help heal some people, and others he cannot. “The body remembers,” Ben said,”and it is up to us to heal ourselves. Each of our experiences in life are here to teach us, all illnesses, deaths, all grief, all pain.” In this way, our bodies and our lives tell stories, whether they are expressed in our pulse, in our pain, or in our pleasure.

Sara Blake, graphic designer and illustrator, also bucks the similarly reductionist label of ‘artist’ due to the expectations implied with such terms. Sara confessed to me that she wanted to be a creative writer in high school, but found greater impact in her expression through imagery. Visual narrative is an integral part of great storytelling, we agreed, and not just as an accompaniment, but in itself: “it leaves so much more to the imagination. It’s very seductive,” said Sara.

Referencing her friend Ben Diamond’s work in Eastern Medicine, Sara also spoke about her work with Ben, and how she has learnt to be still (with needles, mind you). Sara admitted that in the past, she tended to jog her tension off, ‘running around in circles’ rather than just lay or sit with it. “As a 27 year old, I have been pretty hyperactive in my career. Now I’ve really learnt to honor the present moment.” At this point in the conversation, I offered my understanding of the way in which an animal doesn’t have an understanding of time – they completely honor the moment and live fully within it.

“The invention of time for humans has generated a linearity which creates expectation,” I said. “We live with a reimagined past, which we think is behind us, and an imagined future, laid out before us. Where can the present moment live on a linear line, when we are constantly moving away from the past and toward the future?” In truth the present is within us, upon us, and amongst us at all times, and there is no tangible past or present. They are constructs which live in our memory, in the present-moment recollection of such thoughts (‘past’ or ‘present’) (See Eckhardt Tolle’s The Power of Now for more insights into this phenomenon)

Indeed, “the body remembers.” How does the body tell story, and how can we work with it rather than against it? Sara spoke about how she has since come to learn that, in fact, “it’s not mind over matter as we so often hear, but matter over mind in many ways – the body will hold onto things (memories, trauma) and express itself without the brain nor mind being aware of it.” Sara shared about her practice of processing pain in her body, which has now became a form of meditation: “I now allow it to be there, working with it, rather than against it.”

As the night wore on, we spoke about the “beautiful and maddening” ways in which humans make endless meaning of their existence (quoting Roger.) Is there inherent meaning or truth in the world? Tucker spoke: “in the beginning, there was the word – and what is this word? Truth!” I immediately contested that. “We as humans created meaning through conversation! The crux of the human experience is conversation. Everything that we have created began as a conversation. We gave word to ‘truth’ whatever it may be, and we gave word to ‘river’, to ‘love’, to ‘city’, to ‘safe.’ I demonstrated how the reach of our conversations as humans touched all of us at the table too – at some point, our parents, grandparents or great-grandparents had a conversation that went something like, in so many words: “Let’s have a baby.” We didn’t spring from a bush, nor a stork, nor the rib of a pre-historic man named Adam. Not in my book, anyway.

So, we discover how far-reaching are the myths we have been told over the course of our lifetimes. Even if we didn’t have our mother read Cinderella to us as a child – we still know the story. I am interested in how these myths and stories have shaped our culture and cultural expectations. Barbie was originally a sex-toy. “One day something magic will make you beautiful, and you will go to the ball, and the Prince will fall in love with you.” Even young boys know these stories. It is my firm belief that we need new stories for our children and children’s children. I’m onto it.

ON THE GENESIS OF SOCIAL MOVEMENTS, BY JAMES SLEZAK

“We began by describing a time when each of us felt like we were part of something big that was going to change the world. In each case, we described who or what got us involved, that is, what was the genesis of our participation. Galit talked about the start of Global Zero, the nuclear weapons disarmament movement, and the point at which global leaders, Obama and others, began using the language of a world without nukes and making real cuts in their deployment. Ghazal described the rise of the international Car Free Day movement, as it spread from city to city across the world. She had set up the first one while at the UN. Noreena, Ryan and Lindsay shared their experiences with activist, consumer and anti-war movements. I talked about the anti-WTO protests in Melbourne in 2000.

“The group came to the view that understanding the genesis of people’s involvement with social movements is critical if we want them to grow — because each person’s individual experience offers a strong clue as to what can be done to get others involved. Ryan talked about the dual motives for taking part in movements for social change: the explicit motivations around changing the world, and the implicit motivations around personal branding and identity. He recalled bumper sticker campaigns for environmental causes, where participants would pledge only the bare minimum necessary to get the sticker — and never follow up with any further engagement. Lindsay made the point that these different motives may still be valuable ways to draw people in to important causes.

“The table debated the future of “clicktivism” (online activism) and how effectively online activists can be motivated to take real-world actions. We also discussed the extent to which the 2011 middle east uprisings can be attributed to the adoption of social media. The general view was that these media create conditions that make organizing easier, and so contributed to the uprisings, but that the proximal causes were the local conditions and bravery of communities of activists in Tunisia, Egypt, etc.

“Finally, we talked about the prospects for the Occupy movement, one of the most inspiring newly born movements of 2011, and the origin of its broad, cross-cutting appeal. People felt that its reluctance to issue manifestos and specific demands could be seen as a core explanation for its broad appeal. With less to disagree with, more people were attracted to join — in contrast to the more niche antiglobalization protests of the late 90s and early 2000s.”

ON THE GENESIS OF MATH AND MUSIC, BY ELIZABETH KENNICK

“I really enjoyed the second salon dinner. The topic of music and math arose during our first dinner and inspired some of us to learn more before this dinner. During the opening mingle, I found people eager to discuss the multiple proposed topics, and during dinner people moved among tables to do so.

“Discussion began with Pythagoras’ division of a string into eighths, and the repetition of that division in Western music – both in time measures and in octaves. [We] then expanded [the conversation] to the greater complexity of Eastern music: How math is used in music, how that division and pattern development affects brain development, and how music applications bring math to life.

“Guests at our table included musicians with a love of math, and finance professionals with a love of music. We really enjoyed the open format of the conversation and opportunity to mingle various ideas and topics, and to include other guests.

“Particularly for those who work alone, we love the opportunity to have a regular evening with other creative professional adults to discuss difficulties and share success. Thank you for doing this!”

Stories differ from advice in that once you get them, they become a fabric of your whole soul. That is why they heal you. - Alice Walker

Our next Salon will be held the week of June 18th. Write to info (at) papercastlepress (dot) com for more information if you’d like to join us for a discussion on Prosperity. Until next time, love and courage.

#Ben Diamond #Elizabeth Kennick #genesis #illustrator #Isaac Koren #James Siezak #math and music #mother #motherhood #myth #Salon #Sara Blake #social movements #Sophie Ward #Space Frontier Foundation #storytelling #Tucker Robbins #ZSO

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papercastlesalon-blog · 11 years

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EVOLUTION

inaugural |inˈôg(y)ərəl| adjective [ attrib. ] marking the beginning of an institution, activity, or period of office : his inaugural concert as music director.

It is my adventure and pleasure to deliver to you a summation on the inaugural salon my husband Isaac Koren and I co-hosted on the night of a full moon which fell on Friday the 9th of this month. We were joined by five co-hosts, including Kin member Thorald Koren and his partner Ashley Maher; CEO of The Illien Group and energizer bunny rival, Jayme Illien; Space Frontier Foundation Project Manager, Elizabeth Kennick; and Pure Project founder and zest-filled entrepreneur Ryan Fix. Each co-host dove deep into conversation with their table – tables full of extraordinary ordinary people up to exceptionally special things themselves.

Our hosts personned a table of bountiful beings – including friends, family, and perfect strangers – amongst what became a gathering of small dinner parties within a dinner party. Isaac’s vision was for the existence of multiple discourses on various thematic overtures of Evolution. The five tables explored such topics as (the evolution of) Self Expression, Business, Space Exploration, Growth, and Women. Here are some of the eggs that were hatched during each conversation: an I-spy, if you will, into each rectangular plateau of human meetings which took place in the den of West Village restaurant the Kingswood that extrasensory night.

ON THE EVOLUTION OF SELF-EXPRESSION, as told to Sophie Ward by Ashley Maher:

“The Salon was a truly amazing experience. We were very blessed to have such an open and inspiring group of people, and enjoyed an incredibly intimate and honest conversation about self expression. We talked of how we seem to live in an age of compartmentalized self expression. We say different things to family, friends, bosses, coworkers, strangers, and so on. We have different versions of ourselves and our expressions. We talked of how this stifles our self expression and makes us a constant judge of others and ourselves: We become ‘cut-and-paste’ people because of it.

“We shared some of the reasons why we hold back our self expression. I found it interesting to discover that we seem to hold back for mostly kind reasons: We don’t want to upset someone; we don’t want to challenge someone; or we maybe don’t want to be judged. We talked of how we and others filter ourselves to make sure we look good and avoid looking bad. This means we are constantly controlling our self expression. So, even though we may hold back for what we think are good reasons – not hurting others or ourselves – we can see how that limits our chances at really deep and juicy relationships.”

“We then talked of expression itself. How it seems to be more challenging to express positivity. Real happiness seams to have been forgotten to many. Joseph Peter shared many inspiring words about his Happiness Project. We talked of the possible affects on the world which each person could have… If we each chose to love instead of wrong, or forgive instead of blame, this world could be a happier place.”

“We talked of the beauty of an infant’s self expression. They are able to so easily cry one moment, and laugh the next. What freedom. We are so in our head, so busy with filtering our behaviors that we seem to have lost our ability to scream when we are scared, and to freely giggle straight after. [Thorald and I] shared about how great it feels to just scream it all out. And we did! A massive free group scream. And you know what, we all just naturally giggled after.”

“We were just letting it out, and then it was out. It didn’t mean anything. It was just expressing a feeling. We tend to hold on to those things for fear of looking bad.”

“We ended the conversation with the notion of finding were we have been limiting our self expression, and talking about how great things happen when someone takes a risk. Transformations are possible. Words are incredibly powerful and if no one is expressing them, nothing is being created. So we all left with one action that makes us go past our line of comfortability. A risk… I thank our table for their enthusiasm and their openness.”

Food for thought: If we have the opportunity to self express, what is this Self we are expressing? Is it a function of nature or nurture, or both? How did your Self dance into creation, and how is it expressing itself? Do you have many selves? Or just one? How do you share this Self with others, with the world? How do you hide it? How might you share it more in a safe and happy, healthy way?

ON THE EVOLUTION OF SPACE TRAVEL, as told to Sophie Ward by Elizabeth Kennick.

Elizabeth Kennick is the Project Manager for the Teachers in Space Program run by the Space Frontier Foundation (SFF) – a “space advocacy non-profit corporation organized to promote the interests of increased involvement of the private sector, in collaboration with government, in the exploration and development of space.”

Liz hosted an overflowing table on evolution and space, posing a fundamental question about the nature of human diaspora: “What drives humans to explore and to emigrate to new lands, even new planets?” Read on for her review of the night (…) as told to Paper Castle Press.

“John Ferrara of Consider the Source (CTS are a Sci-Fi/ Middle Eastern fusion band) spoke of growing up in New York City but spending summers with his family in the mountains. He saw the stars, and felt compelled to reach them. Isaac said The Kin want to be the first band to play in space, while John said CTS do. So now we have a space music race! A Space Music Festival!”

“Talk turned to who is living in space now (the astronauts aboard the International Space Station), how far is space (60 miles), what other companies expect to fly soon (Virgin Galactic, Xcor, Masten, and more) and what type of vehicles are they developing…”

“Virgin’s SpaceShip 2 (SS2) will leave Earth under the belly of WhiteKnight, a duel-fuselage airplane which takes SS2 into the upper atmosphere where launch requires a lesser volume of less volatile fuel than would be required to launch from Earth.”

“Xcor’s Lynx is more like a rocketplane, with room for just the pilot and one passenger. Xcor’s test pilot, Rick Searfoss, is a former Space Shuttle astronaut and commander, who has been working with the Space Frontier Foundation’s Teachers in Space project (www.tis.spacefrontier.org) since 2011, teaching Suborbital Astronautics to high school teachers in our summer workshops, and taking them flying in his training glider.”

“For over 25 years, the Space Frontier Foundation has worked to open the Space Frontier to human settlement. Our Teachers in Space project is providing professional development workshops in Space Technologies and Sciences for 250 teachers. We have taught teachers to design, build and launch suborbital flight experiments. Next, we will begin to fly these teachers into suborbital space and return them safely to their classrooms to inspire their students and communities to join the evolution of humanity towards becoming a multi-planetary species.”

If you are a high school teacher having landed at Paper Castle Press, you can apply for this summer’s FREE professional development workshop, produced by the Space Frontier Foundation and funded by NASA. SFF has room for 150 high school science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) teachers, who, if interested, should apply before the deadline on April 15th at www.tis.spacefrontier.org/apply.html

The Space Frontier Foundation is an organization of people dedicated to opening the Space Frontier to human settlement as rapidly as possible.Our goals include protecting the Earth’s fragile biosphere and creating a freer and more prosperous life for each generation by using the unlimited energy and material resources of space.Our purpose is to unleash the power of free enterprise and lead a united humanity permanently into the Solar System. – Space Frontier Foundation Credo

Food for thought: What sparks your curiosity about space? Is it that it is simply another frontier yet to be explored, ‘The Vast Unknown”? What is it about outer space that takes our senses for a ride and lights the flame of our pioneering romanticism? Science has it that space itself is very volatile, smells interesting, and may be populated by hostile life forms. Would you want to go to Space in your lifetime? Why?

ON THE EVOLUTION OF HUMAN GROWTH, as told to Sophie Ward by Ryan Fix

Ryan Fix is the founder of Pure Project, the mission of which is committed to “supporting a world of pure projects“ which “use creativity and innovation to advance a common good in the world,” each of which have “a ‘pure’ intention at their core [...] wrapped with a fully sustainable model, which includes environmental, social, cultural, and economic sustainability.” It was an honour to have a visionary like Ryan in the melting pot of the Salon. His table ventured into the territory of the evolution of human growth within community, a topic in which Ryan is intricately and passionately involved.

“Regarding our conversation on human growth at our table, I opened the discussion by presenting the idea that much of society, specifically Western society, is currently experiencing a profound shift in our perspective of growth, one that is moving inward.”

“For centuries, growth has become more and more about the construction and accumulation of stuff on our planet. This has lead to many current realities, namely a society that is less happy and a planetary condition that is beginning to react, more and more violently, to imbalances in our ecosystems.”

“As a function of all this, it seems more and more people are looking inward to find more joy. This inward growth can be seen in the rise of yoga, self-help books, tools to help people share and connect more, fabulous dinner parties, and so on.”

“Once ‘the table was set,’ I opened the conversation for our table to discuss this fascination with growth: What was causing it? What are its effects? How do we perceive what’s happening now? People began sharing many personal stories, after which a common theme emerged. We discovered that compassion is critical to inward growth, and that compassion itself brings humanity closer together into harmony.”

I myself am very inspired by the capacity for human beings to experience compassion towards themselves, towards their own inner growth processes, and for this compassion to also radiate outwards, healing others amongst humanity.

Healing leads to harmony, for if we are wounded, we protect, defend, and feel anger in the face of the existence of hurt. The commitment to heal ourselves through inner work necessitates the practice of being compassionate, and this applies whether that work involves truly forgiving your mother, letting go of anger and frustration, allowing yourself to eat what you want, laying in shivasana, corpse pose, dancing the flamenco or boxing your worries into mulch.

Being compassionate to the ‘wounded’ areas of yourself, inner and outer, is the most crucial element in self care and self awareness. And, as my favourite yoga teacher, Bryan Kest, says, “How can I possibly take care of anything I don’t touch? [...]” Harmony is accessed through a divine process which entails ”increasing awareness of the most important place on Earth – my Self.”

Food for thought: When you feel frustrated, angry, hurt or afraid, what do you do to navigate those emotions? Do you lash out at those around you? Do you surround yourself with positively charged imagery, positively charged scents, positively charged people, positively charged foods, positively charged dreams, positively charged actions? Do you have a harmonious relationship with yourself? What is harmony to you? Is harmony possible in an ever-changing landscape of existence?

ON THE EVOLUTION OF BUSINESS, as told to Sophie Ward by Jayme Illien

Jayme Illien is CEO of Illien Group Inc, a human development company “focused on leveraging new technology and ways of thinking in order to innovate around and disintermediate the structural, economic and informational asymmetries that separate people from opportunity and a higher standard of living.” Illien is also working tirelessly with our friend Joseph Peter on delivering his Happiness Project to the world.

“The evolution and future of business is set against the backdrop of a giant secular shift characterized by the confluence of several important events and trends. These include a decade long, still-evolving financial and economic crisis (economic compression), a global crisis in governance that encompasses politics, business, and culture; and a social and technology convergence revolution that has generated permanent alterations and opportunities that, all combined, every business must bring to the front of their future plan. This is creating opportunities for businesses and jobs, as well as political and governance ecosystems that were never before possible.”

“Traditional hierarchical models of governance based on top down structures – often determined by number of years of experience, as well as “career track” or “field,” are being replaced by more collaborative, open, cross disciplinary, and results-driven models, with special emphasis placed on a 21st century digital mindset and worldview. Simply put, the enhanced demands and capabilities of companies and people (partly stimulated by epic crises, and newly possible through ongoing and exponential technology convergences) have shifted the skill set needs of an increasingly digital, dynamic, restructuring and re-emerging global economy that will be adjusting for decades.”

“The fundamentally changing demands and capabilities of customers, businesses, and policy makers are enabling the type of innovation and rethinking – that which sincerely and permanently challenges the most rigorous of accepted and entrenched paradigms and business models – to create and unlock new value that has been previously inaccessible and in some ways, simply invisible, until now.”

“Companies that once defined themselves geographically are now running more virtually, saving millions, and able to access larger, more talented pools of human capital. They are able to engage customers directly in real-time on network level conversations; empowering a more accurate pulse on the evolving calculus of customer needs. By definition, they have an ability to more effectively imagine and create original products, services, and even markets that better serve a more informed, educated, consumer public, with greater leverage in the global market space.”

“Indeed, the enhanced ability to connect customers, employees, and all stakeholders in more advanced and expanded new digital ecosystems (virtually and globally) has profound implications for companies seeking to proactively build and manage their internal and external cultures around the envisioned future of their brand.”

“A democratization of access to information, capital, technology, education, knowledge, markets and relationships, is resulting in more decentralized decision making capabilities and norms, and a more entrepreneurial public. Moral hazard is being eroded as decision-making becomes more collaborative, transparent, individualized and decentralized. This is potentially the most important byproduct of the global technology convergence and the environment of crisis, which we will need to rethink and re-emerge from.”

“Acme Inc. is quickly evolving into John Smith Inc. and in the future, more individuals and fewer companies will become the central nervous system of any business, or political or cultural movement. Entrepreneurs will be able to learn and test ideas more quickly, receive immediate feedback on failure or success from the world, at a far lower cost, and far more favorable risk reward ratios, than previously possible.”

“CEO’s will be younger and more intuitive, acquiring knowledge from greater sources and will be wired differently in the brain. They will be more entrepreneurial and inquisitive about the existing structures, systems and asymmetries that seem counterintuitive and don’t make sense, even to the everyday human – as opposed to learning from one single mentor and moving up through a system.”

“Natural leaders and visionaries will be capable of recognizing new patterns (as well as ‘bending and coding’ everyday reality differently) and will solve complex problems, innovate new markets, and launch “big ideas” from totally new platforms and angles never before possible. This all important evolution, which has created a fundamentally steeper tilt and permanent shift in the human potential curve, has game changing and far reaching implications for companies, people and international institutions taking on the challenge of reshaping and building a better world that more fully incorporates the exponentially expanding realities and capabilities of human development and imagination.”

Food for thought: How many entrepreneurs do you know? Are you one yourself? If we all became entrepreneurs, would the world be a more balanced place? Studies show that businesses and companies in which fun is incorporated into the day, such as Zappos, Google, and Pixar, have higher employee satisfaction, which increases productivity and loyalty, among countless other beneficial qualities. How could you make working and playing dwell alongside, even become (gasp!) interwoven amongst each other?

ON THE EVOLUTION OF WOMEN, by Sophie Ward

As an ex-model and one who was deeply embedded in the beauty culture for many years, I experienced the lagging effects of beauty’s ‘shadow’ – an effect that incorporates not only pressure from the outside to look or be a certain way, but an internalization of that pressure which went right to the core. I struggled for many years with various forms of body dysmorphia, some of which evolved into forms of eating disorder.

Nevertheless, it was that very struggle which led me to explore my internal state and to release myself from it. Embarking on that path was, as with the exploration of any unchartered territory, a frightening, rewarding, adrenalized adventure. At times I wasn’t sure when the light at the end of the tunnel would arrive to release me from the vice grip I had put myself under with easy cooperation from the culture I grew up amongst, and actively participated within for my own gain.

As it happens, I have since met countless women who have ‘tasted’ this shadow of the beauty culture. It is embedded within the very mythology that we are told as young girls. The Cinderella myth, for example, would have us believe that we can rise from the ashes and cinders of an unfulfilling life by the surprise arrival of a Fairy Godmother who can grant her wishes. This external source provides Cinderella (with whom as a reader we are taught to side) with the means to go to the ball and to be seen as something we may not be, to dance with illusion and fantasy. That night, Cinderella wins the Prince because she is now ‘beautiful’ – that is, she looks the part, and has risen to an elite in which love, admiration, even revenge, are the prizes.

Later in the story, women all over town try to fit into a glass slipper after the spell that was woven – a fantasy disguise – has left Cinderella. This farce of women trying to fit into a fixed and set ideal, the glass slipper, is released when at wits end, someone suggests the cinder girl try on the slipper. Like an alien-looking model from a foreign country being chosen by the fashion industry to walk a Prada show (as my sister was) this ‘choosing’ skyrockets the previously outcast girl into the culture of the elite where she may live by new rules. This is the land she tasted for a night in disguise, the land she dreamed would elevate her from her disempowered, domesticated state.

Prada Fantasy Lookbook

This story brings up all kinds of questions and concerns about the culture of girl and woman that females are being raised in today. Little girls love Princesses, they love fairy tales – and yet, we still tell them stories from hundreds of years ago, a time when women experienced different rules and regulations, where to give a woman financial freedom was heresy – heaven forbid a wife had her own money, she would be emancipated from her husband. Oh, the terror! Women on the loose!

Today, we can afford a much broader freedom than the women of Hans Christian Anderson’s time, or the women of early last century. This month’s TIME magazine ran a cover feature on the rising bank balances of the female population, and the ramifications this has for both men, and women, for those with and without families. I am fascinated by women, being one myself and understanding the new room we have to explore (with hips and lips!) the landscape of reality today. We still have a long way to go in many senses, but a huge conversation is occurring between women and about women, and I am proud to be part of that conversation.

During the salon, I initiated a discussion around my table about the evolution of women with three questions: What is your name, what do you do or love to do, and what do you love about being a woman? The answers to these questions were generous and courageous. I introduced myself as Sophie Ward, I said I am a writer, and that I love women’s capacity to love. Amongst everything we put ourselves through, we love. We walk a hundred miles, for love. I love the love of women. The tenderness, the sanctity, the power and joyousness of this love.

Jasmine Golestanah, a very talented artist and lead singer of the band Tempers expressed her admiration of female sexuality, and what she described as “the mysteriousness” of being a woman – the surprising nature of our emotions; how they shift and change like a rapid and forever altering landscape. I loved listening to her description of the witnessing of those emotions: “Oh, okay, now we’re feeling this. Alright, that’s interesting.” I felt this brought a wonderment to the table, that sense that women are a frontier all in themselves. Jasmine mentioned the volatility and chaos that also inhabit women, and that as natural creators indelibly linked to mother nature through the capacity to conceive and bear children, we also share her capacity to destroy.

Antonia Dunbar, Kundalini yoga teacher at Stanton Street Yoga and founder of Prance, “a women’s underwear manufacturing and distribution company” which “helps to address the worldwide problem of ineffective and environmentally unsustainable women’s products to manage their menstruation cycle.”

Antonia spoke of her respect for women in developing and developed countries, particularly their courage in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds and challenges. ”In the third world, a woman’s menstrual cycle is considered her “week of shame”. Sanitary pads and tampons are not widely available and unsustainable, and women are subjected to missing school and work due to their inability to effectively manage their menstruation cycle. This has caused a substantially disempowered female population with fewer choices to better themselves and their communities.”

Radha Agrabar is the founder of Super Sprowtz, and incredibly inspiring children’s TV program set to run before Sesame Street in the coming months in the US. The Super Sprowtz are essentially vegetable muppets, with super powers! Radha also co-owns Slice Pizza, a chain of organic pizza restaurants across New York City. Radha spoke of women as mothers, and how incredible women are with their children, how unstoppable and inspired they are.

Erin Overbey was also with us, a wonderful woman who runs the Archives at The New Yorker and blogs for the online site. Erin shared with us her love of the humour in women, particularly in the face of very serious topics, such as the politics of allowing a woman to manage her own fertility. We were also joined by Oritte Bendory, who wrote The Virgin Wife, a novel inspired by her divorce – the process of which (divorcing) was very liberating. Oritte spoke about finding herself again and having time to feed her soul again.

Liberation and love can be found along any path. We all have our own journey, and the journey of women in today’s Age of Aquarius is very exciting.The road is still long and filled with obstacles, but as all of my table shared, women go to great lengths for the future.

We sat long into the evening discussing women’s friendships, women’s unity, and the importance of supporting women across the board – not just empowering and elevating women to go to ever higher heights, but also supporting them when they are at those heights. We realized how important it is right now for women to remember to support and love each other, not just to fight for personal wins and gender specific gains. The message is in the moment. I closed our discussion by reading Eve Enslers’ voraciously invigorating I am an Emotional Creature, which can be heard via Eve at the TED conference here online.

CONCLUSION

All in all, our first Salon was a great success, with the vision and context of the night fulfilled and multiplying within the gaps between us. Isaac and I were so proud to host such wonderful humans under the umbrella of evolution, to host a community within the context of discussing this topic and (one hopes, possibly) furthering the evolution of humanity as a whole. While we realize there is much work to be done throughout the world, where and how else could we have brought together change agents and tirelessly passionate activists for all manner of causes? New York City is a hotbed of creative dreamers and changers, workers and dancers, drivers and actors. They love to share, discuss, and motivate each other. We chose to donate a portion of the proceeds to The Hunger Project in Peru, where the areas of food security, indigenous women’s organizations, youth development and political and cultural advocacy are being thankfully empowered.

We love people, we love visions and visionaries, and we love bringing dreams into reality. I ask you to consider the question: How else do the things in existence grow into causation without conversation? Everything that exists in the world began with a conversation. Many of us around the world have privileged access to wonderful food and drink, music, people, and the poetry of living. I believe that bringing a community of human catalysts together to discuss the challenges and culture of evolution in society today, is a process which the sparks of thought and imagination generated have the potential to shift and alter ‘the way things are’ at a grass roots level. Which today, as Jayme Illien speaks about, is the way that much of our culture is being reorganized…

Our Salon will continue every month until we expand it globally and dine in many multicultural cities. I would like to encourage others to coordinate and organize their own communities into salons – to discuss what you are interested in, to discuss the possibilities of social change and evolution, and to push the envelope of your dreams into being. The powers of language and community are undeniable. Fuel these with fine food and wine – even a potluck dinner if it serves you – and you have just read the evidence of what happens. The generation of radical new possibilities. It all begins with our words, our thoughts, our inspired actions.

Until next time,

Paper Castle Press.

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