Keller-Einstein game

Hello Dialogue Artists,

We’ll meet for our weekly café dialogue this Wednesday March 27 at Vendome starting at 6 PM.

Don Harris has been in the Foothills Hospital and we’ll share updates on how he’s doing. Rob has been to visit Don at the Foothills, and may be at Vendome on Wednesday to give us first-hand information.

Last Thursday I hosted a meeting of my team for this year’s Social Transformation Tournament and we generated ideas for projects that could make Calgary a better city. (This was the first time my team had played the Keller-Einstein game.) I’ll append below this message ten ideas we came up with, and invite each of you to consider doing one of the projects (or one based on an idea of your own) perhaps even entering that project with your team in the Tournament this year.

Arthur

A Café Dialogue Table. This team project connects with a coffee shop to designate a table in that café a “dialogue table” for certain hours during the week. The team would guarantee that at least one of their members will be there during those hours. A sign at the table invites customers to meet a stranger and share stories of life’s journeys. This project carries the potential to enhance the reputation of the coffee shop and improve business for the owner, as well as providing a meeting and dialogue spot for Calgarians. It could be spiced up by adding a telephone to the table to which the team members arrange for friends of theirs in various parts of the world (or even the occasional celebrity) to call in for a short chat during the dialogue hours.

Good Listening. Team project in which each team member takes responsibility for connecting with someone who is potentially isolated and in need of empathic listening (a good listener), then offers that person support they need. At the monthly team meeting each team member shares the story of their experience providing support.

Community Garden. Using an available plot of land owned by our co-housing group, offer a community garden to those who pay a modest monthly fee, thereby bringing Calgarians together in the experience of growing their own food and connecting them with the co-housing group that owns the land. (This project also has the potential to address the carrying costs involved in owning this land, which is currently unused.)

Hello Neighbour. Project in which each team member makes a point of introducing themselves to people who have recently moved into the neighbourhood, and of attending community social events (and perhaps hosting such events).

Common Space in Community. Inspired by the warehouse where refugees could pick up donated furniture – but different – this would be a comfortable space in any community where community members could either drop by any time or book the space for certain hours. The project might be spiced up with a weekly book share in which members of the community meet to tell others about an interesting book they are reading, along with a small community library.

Volunteer with an established Calgary organization such as Calgary Seniors Society. For that particular Society, a police check of your background would be necessary. You can choose to serve for any of various aspects of the Society’s work, such as visitation or getting groceries.

How Cities Work. This theme has been of interest to Jane Jacobs, Naheed Nenshi, and many others. For the team project, members would attend at least four city council meetings each year AND each team member would take on a specific topic or issue their city (Calgary) is currently dealing with, and become sufficiently knowledgeable about that issue or topic to give a (TEDx) talk on it.

Zero Hunger. This was a general theme suggested as starting point for project ideas, and one project using this theme was a team project to walk around downtown and offer snacks and beverages to anyone interested. Another was to drive a van and knock on doors to ask if the occupants need anything such as groceries. (A version of the second idea is well established in North Winnipeg.) Another idea was a project to learn about how famines arise (causes) and how they are most effectively reversed.

Turning a negative into a positive. This is a game-like project in which participants hear an expression of opposition or dislike, and turn the negative statement into a positive counterpart. (For example an expression of dislike for immigrants might prompt the response that immigrants are cooking some of the best food in some of the best restaurants in town.)

Appreciating another culture. This might involve such things as learning the language of another culture with the help of Calgarians from that culture; studying the history of that culture; perhaps even a travel-study program to another country, informed by cross-cultural appreciation.