)(( hannah mello ))(

Adventures in Conversation. <>

Tonight I leaned my head against the green post at this very NJ light rail stop pictured here. The wind. As I waited, the wind was life and breath in the heat of the night. I love the Wind.

Tonight I found myself swept by the Wind into a hot room a few blocks from Times Square, sitting on a very crowded floor, a few stories up from street-level, watching a wall-projected documentary, with about 20 twenty-somethings.

Having intentional conversations about things that matter are hard to do sometimes. Every twenty-something falls into the idealistic coffee-shop discussion stage with friends. The college years are a time of that.

But, being an after-college twenty-something, now in the working world and in another life stage altogether, having these intentional conversations looks different. It's easy to fall in with fringe groups or too-fanatical or too religious or too extremist types. There's a lot of relevant local and global issues to talk about and act on, but the HOW and the WHO are big deals.

Here's some of the WHAT:

• Water availability and purity.
• Famine and world hunger.
• Global poverty.
• The environment and global warming.
• Recycling and use of resources.
• Lack of positive corporate and political leadership.
• Human trafficking.

All these and more more more are relevant and important issues for the now of this, my generation, to address.

I really care about NOT being a part of groups that are:
-- too extremist, fanatical, religious, or fringe (like communicated above)
--too into theory without any follow through
-- too into action without really thinking things through practically
-- too hip and trendy in this age of "green is the new black"

I really care about being a part of groups that are:
-- practical, realistic
-- well-informed about the big picture of how the world works in all its spheres (having multifaceted knowledge and understanding)
-- time and process sensitive with solid priorities
-- wise with money and resources
-- holistically minded when it comes to people and human health and quality of life
-- life-balanced in terms of those who participate in various forms (even those that are giving the majority of their days to the cause being as life-balanced as possible for them and their life choices...)
-- honest and straightforward and over-communicative
-- well-spoken, sensitive, and culturally-relevant/intentional in their way of presenting the issues-- being good communicators, using the resources of technology and communication

There are more and more of these kinds of groups forming. I want to be a part.

I'm grateful to have been a part of a weekly Santa Cruz, CA group-- (led by a woman I really respect who writes grants and used to be a director of a major grassroots humanitarian organization) -- that met to talk about issues of genocide, orphanages in China, and others. The group's participants are now spread all over the world literally (I was in Europe, one of the girls is now in the Middle East, one in Africa, others in the fields of education, grassroots humanitarian organizations, etc.)...

I'm grateful to have gone to this group tonight. Talking to some of those who were there, the group had an actor, a pharmacist, an art dealer, a Wall St. businessman, an architecture restoree, among about 15 others. Each person there really were informed in the conversation of the night (which changes with every meeting, as I understand... and they meet bi-monthly for this conversation night-- and will be starting more active projects in the fall).

We watched "Who Killed the Electric Car?" and the specific issues present in the film, some of the participants being knowledgeable about the specifics the film did or didn't mention. We then talked about how we can make wise consumer choices as being people who seek to value the earth and value human life.

The girl that invited me out for it made a closing comment about how important being informed is. Knowing.

I found this "knowledge map" on images.google.com and it really impacted me. Sure, it's about only one realm of life, matrimony, but I really like the idea...

Being a visual person, I feel inspired to draw one, if not literally then mentally, mapping out the areas of the world that I care about being more informed about. Not being raised in a politically minded family, I know immediately that it would occupy a corner of my knowledge map... so much. So much. There's so much to know....

On that note (about there being SO MUCH to know)--- More and more, as experience teaches me how limited our hand of time and space is in this life, I am valuing more and more TIMELINESS. I really see that there IS a time to read a certain book. There IS a time to see a certain film or to meet up with an old friend or to meet someone new. There IS a TIME to fall in love and a time to stay alone. There is a TIME, on this subject, of being a part of these issues. I feel like each one of us has a season for being in the INFO stage. A season then for being in the CONVERSATION stage. A season for being in the ACTION stage. Sometimes they combine or overlap or are crazy-organic like seasons are, but times are timely nonetheless.

And... also, you can't MAKE a time be the Time. I wish that was the case. And... I think you can't FORCE preparation for a time to come. It just happens sometimes... whether or not you're "ready". And... sometimes you wish it was another time, other than what it was. You spend your time pretending it's that time, when it's really NOT. All in all, the issues of Control, Surrender, and Self deception when it comes to life's Times and Timeliness.

Rabbit trail. :) Sorry.

So here I am in this time of all 3. Info, conversation, and action. I'm grateful to be a part of a group that is healthy and active and all that it is. ... So, Wednesday night cheers.

Cheers to caring and doing something about it. I raise my water bottle beside me in the toast. :) Goodnight.

posted by )(( hannah mello ))( @ 8:58 PM