25 November 2010
Dec 18 Party & Discussion
Posted by Admin under: Forum .
You are invited:
Sustainable Leadership Forum
Challenge & Strategy Session: “Reinventing Wealth“
Annual “Potluck for the Planet”
8 Revere Drive, Basking Ridge, NJ 07920
Saturday, December 18, 2010
1-4 p.m. Discussion 4-9 p.m. Potluck & Party
SLF December event: Dec 18th, 1-4 pm.: “Reinventing Wealth,” facilitated by Frank Wennin and Jonathan Cloud. First time participants guests free, or become an SLF member. (More on this below.)
All friends, friends of friends of all ages welcome, including contributions of appetizers, main and side dishes and desserts (locally and organically produced, if possible, or expressive of your aspirations or commitments) are welcome. Feel free to also bring wines or juices. Please RSVP for one or both events at rsvp@slforum.org.
Jonathan’s holiday reflection:
This Thanksgiving it occurred to me to use part of the day to express my gratitude for many things, not least of which is the opportunity to share the planet with each of you, and to share the challenge of saving it from the increasing harm being done to it by our species.
Thank you for:
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- sharing your thoughts and feelings with me
- sharing your time with me
- sharing the work
- sharing the risk
- sharing the experience
- sharing the adventure
And I do have a strong sense of adventure, an adventure of mind and spirit, to seek the keys to a new world of peace, prosperity, and ecological wellbeing for all.
This adventure is both a story we discover, and one that we take up and expand and make our own. We stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before and who sought, each in their own way, to illuminate the path, to point out the disasters we must avoid, the obstacles we must overcome, and the goals of human awareness and enlightenment, of material sufficiency, and increasing equality that are available to us to strive for.
In practical terms, I’ve put forward a mission for the SLF Volunteers. This mission is in turn tied in with the topic of our next conversation, Reinventing Wealth, which we’re hiving on Saturday, December 18, in conjunction with our annual “Potluck for the Planet” holiday party.
The mission – and it’s one in which all can play – is to invent a new economic game, one that reflects our shared values and aspirations and understandings, and one that has a place for everyone to contribute. The game may be one that stays local, or one that takes off and expands to include all of the old games; and like Edison with the filament for the light bulb we may need to try a hundred or a thousand variations to have it alter reality, and nudge it toward greater sustainability.
As with any game, you can remain a spectator, or you can jump in and play. The first thing we’ll need to do is create a platform, and then a test set of rules, and then try out a few moves; if these succeed, we can move forward, if not we go back and try again. Alongside the game there is an interpretation, which evolves more or less simultaneously, though it has something of a predetermined plot line, in that we know where we are and where we want (and indeed need) to get to.
If you want to read more about this, I invite you to review the initiaal game description here: NewWealthGame12-11-10, follow the postings at this site, then ask questions, make suggestions, and choose a role (or a stand from which to watch the action) and a character within this drama.
What should we call this game? I’d call it “The Great Game,” except that this was used historically to refer to the strategic rivalry and conflict between the British Empire and the Russian Empire for supremacy in Central Asia in the 1800s; or “The World Game,” except this is Buckminster Fuller’s simulation of how we need to live together on Spaceship Earth; or “The Glass Bead Game” in honor of Herman Hesse’s Magister Ludi, except that what we’re looking for is not about celestial harmonies. It can be the Transition Game, if we want to build it around the Transition Towns framework; or it can be Mondragon Game, or… well, I invite us to discover the right name for it, the perfect name, the name that fits it and that inspires a generation – or a thousand generations – of players. It is, right now, the Sustainability Game, the “Green Means Go” game that Frank Wennin is developing, the Avatar game, the game of passing on a better and saner world to our children. This is, for our generation, a call to action, to service, to inquiry — and yes, to adventure.
So this is both a thank you, and an invitation, an invitation to take it one step further and join us for a celebration, a feast, and the seeds of a new beginning, for a sustainable future for the earth and for ourselves.
For the Sustainable Leadership Forum event from 1-4 pm on December 18th: Members and first-time guests are free; otherwise attendance is $20 per session. Annual membership starts at $25 with volunteer time, up to $195, which includes our monthly meetings. (Fees waived or reduced for those with extenuating circumstances.)
For the Potluck from 4-8, all are welcome without fee or membership, from 4-8 pm. We are not coordinating potluck contributions, just bring what you want or what you can or just come.