Cochrane Field Trip

Tuesday November 27 we’ll be at Second Cup in Kensington / Sunnyside, and we’ll meet on Wednesday November 28 at Vendome. The Wednesday dialogue this week is special because one of the options at Vendome is to carpool out to Cochrane for a dialogue with Four Worlds on building community. For those who prefer that option, we’ll meet at Vendome at 10 minutes before 6 PM and leave for Cochrane at 6 PM sharp. For others, there would be the wonderful every-Wednesday dialogue at Vendome.

The Wednesday discussion on building community is scheduled to begin at 7 PM at the Gentry Espresso and Wine Bar, Cochrane. It would conclude around 9 PM. If you want to receive the detailed email from Four Worlds about the event, just respond to this message and I’ll send it to you.

The Tuesday dialogue will also be special this week. Here’s why.

My mother taught me to make a game of anything important I had to do. That one simple principle has been worth a fortune to me ever since I learned it from her before the age of ten years.

Last year I began writing short stories because I realized the fringe benefits of doing so, including enhanced resilience and observational skills. While I was in North Carolina for a memorial service for my mother very recently, I had an extraordinary experience with what is called “flash fiction” (500 to 750 words, a very short story) in one collection and then found a superb book on how to write flash fiction.

At the memorial service I told the more than 100 people in attendance about that simple principle my mother had taught me. When I returned to Calgary, Zoe Lynne suggested we take more time writing fiction at the weekly dialogues. Soon a great idea came to me for how I might be able to write better flash fiction. You can guess what that idea might be. (As you read this you’re thinking wait, wait, don’t tell me….)

I’ll introduce the idea at our café dialogue on Tuesday November 27.

Arthur