Humainologie creative dialogue Choosing a Theme for February on January 27

“You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.”

- Mark Twain

After two sessions on Happiness (January 13, facilitated by Naomi and January 20, facilitated by Mary-Ann) that exceeded my expectations, it became clear to me that the choice of a theme for the month can be game-changing and life-changing. If you think about a specific theme and dedicate some creative time to it for a few weeks, that theme grows in your consciousness. This was my experience in January.

At our creative dialogue team practice this coming Wednesday January 27, we’ll choose our theme for February, keeping in mind as we do so how that theme is related to Happiness.

Our guest will be Imam Fayaz Tilly, who will share his experience and his wisdom about where to find happiness in life. Our guests give us a ten-minute glimpse into a lifetime of enlightenment. I will include Imam Tilly’s biographical sketch tomorrow (Monday) or Tuesday, along with the Zoom link for our creative dialogue on Wednesday.

Below this message I have appended once again the menu of options for themes that we developed at the team practice on January 6. Please make your own choice of a theme for February before you join the dialogue this Wednesday. We’ll hear your top picks (I already know what mine will be), and then narrow it down to our top choice. This is important because it means for the next few weeks, we will focus our group genius on that theme.

In our team practices, Brian Seaman has often led us in stretching exercise and Leila Keith has led us in singing. Ideas flow with music and movement, and you might warm up for our team practice on Wednesday with this TEDx presentation by a psychologist and dancer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihCh5wzNjYY

I will be back in touch tomorrow or Tuesday. The menu for Wednesday is appended below.

Arthur

This is the menu of possible themes for February (and beyond) that we had developed at our first team practice of 2021. If we keep going, we will surely make Calgary a moveable feast for our time. I think it's already happening.

· Service to others. This grew out of Helen’s enthusiasm for what Ahmer had shared with us of his life’s journey and what makes him happy. If we choose that theme for February, we might invite a staff member from one or more service organizations in Calgary, for example Inn from the Cold or the Calgary Women’s Shelter, to facilitate a dialogue in February and let us know how we can help them with their work.

· Positive deviance. What makes a person thrive? This contribution from Trina Listanco would shift our focus to those habits and ways of thinking that enable human flourishing. If we choose this as a theme, we might invite one or two people that month - Greta Thunberg, Margaret Atwood, and others come immediately to mind, but it would be fun to come up with ideas for whom we should invite - to lead us in a team practice session, sharing with us how they achieved their excellence.

· Completion. Each of us is incomplete in some way. I’ll take my unfortunate tendency to procrastinate (I’m trying to do better!) as an example. This suggestion from Christina McInnis might turn our attention to ourselves and how we can become more complete, and if we make this a theme for February (or one of the subsequent months) it might generate a process that includes taking stock, perhaps another look at Shawn Achor’s 7 principles in The Happiness Advantage, and even empathic listening all around.

· Love. What does that word really mean? How can we start with ourselves, then turn whatever it means toward others, and how can we become more aware of the impact it has on others and on ourselves? This contribution from Leila Keith should certainly be a theme for one of the months in 2021, perhaps for February. Shinobu Apple suggested a more detailed examination of how to create happiness in others, and we might choose that as another dot and then connect the two dots (Love and How to Create Happiness in Others) as our connect-the-dots game theme for February. You see how our group genius grows week by week!

· Our authentic self. Helen Ostrowski suggested this one as a theme, and we might approach this by asking the question: If you were the writer and director for a movie based on your life’s story, and you wanted to show in that movie who you really are and what effect on others your life has had, how would you write the screenplay and direct the film? Which actor(s) would you invite to play you? There would be other ways to approach the theme, but my guess is that this one could create a lot of interest in our team practice sessions in February if we chose it as a theme for that month.

· Forgiveness and reconciliation. Zoe’s suggestion for a theme included the point that forgiveness differs from reconciliation. Are there people in your own life with whom you would like to be reconciled before you die? How might that happen? And if it is already too late, because the other person has already died, how can you forgive yourself? How can you reconcile with yourself? Perhaps we could choose this theme for one of the months later in the year, when we have grown wiser with our 2021 team practice sessions and we feel we’re up to the challenge of this one.

· Human interactions with other species. It was Zenia’s cat that suggested this one. With Laurie Lin on our team, we are in an incredibly strong position to develop this theme one month in 2021, and we might even make a trip to the Calgary zoo sometime that month. It might be good to do it for one of the summer months when perhaps there will be more outdoor opportunities. Among the joyful memories we might share is our own interactions with other species. In my case, hoary marmots immediately come to mind. My late wife was in tears one day during her terminal illness and when I asked her why, she said it was because she would never see the hoary marmots again. She was recalling an experience we had had on a high plateau in the mountains. If we choose this theme suggested by Zenia’s cat, I’ll tell you more about that.

· Talking with strangers and overcoming racism. I’ll combine a theme suggested by Ahmer Memon with one I hope we can choose for one of the months of 2021. In particular, I would like to build my skills at reaching out across boundaries, to people whose views differ from my own, and initiating conversations with them. How is it possible not only to have a conversation with someone whose opinions differ from yours, but also to actually talk about those issues constructively? How might a dialectical progression be achieved (thesis and antithesis, leading to a synthesis)? I have some ideas, but I’ll save that for later. Contentious issues include such things as universal basic income (UBI). Segregation was a big issue in the North Carolina of my youth, and last night Carl Allen, who joined us from North Carolina, mentioned that he was reading Malcolm Gladwell’s book Talking to Strangers. Other issues include how a health care system should be financed. The theme of talking with strangers and overcoming racism could be a very important choice for one of the months in the year ahead. We might invite someone whose view on a specific issue differs from our dialogue team’s view on that issue, to facilitate one of our dialogues that month.