Meeting new people

"When you have a great and difficult task, something perhaps almost impossible, if you only work a little at a time, every day a little, suddenly the work will finish itself."

- Isak Dinesen

If last night at Kawa was an indication of what we can do in the future, then our Tuesdays at Kawa will certainly help make Calgary a moveable feast. Mary-Ann brought her friend Erica and we learned of Erica's life as a Special Olympics cross-country skier and her other accomplishments despite her learning disability. The book share was about what appears to be a major breakthrough in the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer's disease (The End of Alzheimer's by Dale E. Bredesen, M.D.); the author has actually reversed significant cognitive decline in some of his patients and had well-documented maintenance of benefit over more than five years of follow-up. From the participants we also heard true stories of astonishing coincidence and about the Chinese Association of Zoological Societies. Zoe led us in writing more than a dozen collaborative haiku (5 syllables in the first line, 7 syllables in the second, 5 syllables in the third), and as we did the fourth round I realized we were actually getting better at it and might be able to use haiku as a cultural Swiss army knife. We heard a short story by James Joyce ("Eveline") and a poem by Elizabeth Bishop ("One Art"). I introduced the scoring system for the Social Transformation Tournament and right away Zoe began looking for ways to increase the score of the Calgary Social Capital Society. (Tuesdays at Kawa is an initiative of CSCS and Zoe is on our Board of Directors.) We were on a roll.

People don't take the time to meet new people, learn from them, and imagine a better future in collaboration with them. Everyone is much too busy, so we let our chance to change the course of history slip away. But now there's a weekly forum in Calgary where we will soon be doing exactly that thing that people don't take the time to do.

I won't be at Kawa myself next Tuesday, but others will be there and it will be better than a box of chocolates.

Arthur "When you have a great and difficult task, something perhaps almost impossible, if you only work a little at a time, every day a little, suddenly the work will finish itself." - Isak Dinesen f last night at Kawa was an indication of what we can do in the future, then our Tuesdays at Kawawill certainly help make Calgary a moveable feast. Mary-Ann brought her friend Erica and we learned of Erica's life as a Special Olympics cross-country skier and her other accomplishments despite her learning disability. The book share was about what appears to be a major breakthrough in the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer's disease (The End of Alzheimer's by Dale E. Bredesen, M.D.); the author has actually reversed significant cognitive decline in some of his patients and had well-documented maintenance of benefit over more than five years of follow-up. From the participants we also heard true stories of astonishing coincidence and about the Chinese Association of Zoological Societies. Zoe led us in writing more than a dozen collaborative haiku (5 syllables in the first line, 7 syllables in the second, 5 syllables in the third), and as we did the fourth round I realized we were actually getting better at it and might be able to use haiku as a cultural Swiss army knife. We heard a short story by James Joyce ("Eveline") and a poem by Elizabeth Bishop ("One Art"). I introduced the scoring system for the Social Transformation Tournament and right away Zoe began looking for ways to increase the score of the Calgary Social Capital Society. (Tuesdays at Kawa is an initiative of CSCS and Zoe is on our Board of Directors.) We were on a roll. People don't take the time to meet new people, learn from them, and imagine a better future in collaboration with them. Everyone is much too busy, so we let our chance to change the course of history slip away. But now there's a weekly forum in Calgary where we will soon be doing exactly that thing that people don't take the time to do. I won't be at Kawa myself next Tuesday, but others will be there and it will be better than a box of chocolates. Arthur