Has Cultural Fusion emerged from the wrong question? [or 'I' vs 'We']

[Anders Abrahamsson]

In many entry levels of describing of what CF "is", the intro is

"Cultural Fusion is a response to the Question -

- What Can I Do?"

--

Time to reverse, and retrospectively turn the question from maybe a more Eastern oriented view-of-life-and-humanity.

"What Can WE do?"

Peace,
Anders

PS. Three phrases for installation of a new US administration, in a country focused on "I" thorugh its cultural legacy of 200 years of the immigrants, and maybe 50 000 years before on "we";

- Hope
- Change
- Yes We Can

Nota bene. Yes WE Can!

...Anders signing off this time, with a pledge for more co-la-bo-ra-tion - co-dis-cover-y: Co-Laboration for Co-Discovery. DS.

:)

[Yvette Dubel]

I LOVE the comments you have posted, Ron, Erik and Liz.....I feel as if you all speak to some part of what I feel. Thank you for giving expression to what I feel ultimately connects - convincing me that we are indeed part of the One...One humanity with six billion faces.

[Liz Gilbert]

I'm so delighted to have found you all through Yvette and Yvette through Twitter ! I have been posting this for a few days on Twitter and somehow felt that it fit into this thread.
From bitter searching of the heart,
Quickened with passion and with pain
We rise to play a greater part.
This is the faith from which we start:
Men shall know commonwealth again
From bitter searching of the heart.
We loved the easy and the smart,
But now,with keener hand and brain,
We rise to play a greater part.
The lesser loyalties depart,
And neither race nor creed remain
From bitter searching of the heart.
Not steering by the venal chart
That tricked the mass for private gain,
We rise to play a greater part.
Reshaping narrow law and art
Whose symbols are the millions slain,
From bitter searching of the heart
We rise to play a greater part.
-Frank Scott

[Erik MacEachern]

I was not able or ready to become a useful contributing participant in the "We" until I had met and got to know the I (or "i") in me a little better than before.
That process of "getting to know" is an ongoing process, a lifelong process even, and it has had some step changes of darkness and illumination. In other words been through the burn and come out the other side with the battle scars healing.

[Ronald Wopereis]

all too often
when replacing I for WE
it is a statement of waiting
yes
waiting for YOU

there is no stronger WE than I
or - in my writings - i

many people ask me why i write i in lowercase
and if it is perhaps a typo

no it is not

the i is the we in me
best regards, Ron

[Yvette Dubel]

How do we connect I to WE?

Certainly a reasonable question perhaps that points to the following.
Personally, in connecting with others in the States who not only share similar vision and are working on complementary projects I have been reminded that the administration is not the same as our country. The connections recently made have been reminders of what is possible when we join together to remember we are not alone.

This is what the artists that can create- this context to form an inventory of bridges that also encompass a way to develop the needed skills without requiring anyone to change to begin participating.

But that collaboration may need new contexts that can only emerge when each of us focus on clarity of the contribution we want to make and where it fits with what others are doing. And it seems to me now that we have the opportunity to find new ways of getting things done that can support greater efficiency and international collaboration between communities that will yield greater results (meaning).

So even in exploring "I am" we emerge with lessons learned and perhaps it is only when we encounter the limitations of that perspective that one can see the value of WE and know its rewards?

Because one can not know the essence of individuated "I" until the layers of conditioning have been peeled away, or so it seems to me.


what can i do?
That was the first question and the pbwiki site has emerged from the ones that have come up since...

For example if each one of us has own project that needs our attention to move them forward it is only when each person is paying attention to what they are doing that the convergence can be seen/found/experienced. Is this a lesson in the quest to unearth "I"?

As in life, partnerships and collaborations don't work when WE don't allow the other I to be self defined within the union. It is for each person to know who how and where I want to distribute my Ingredients and Attention. You point to the question where it started but it is where that question has led that is the point, the first question is the foundation but it is not more important than the questions that have emerged since. That is very much the point in the experience as Process Art.

Crossover:Mapping
Radical inclusion is quite the opposite of widely accepted , for this Project seeks to embrace that, which will not let itself embrace.

But each of us can only ask/answer these questions for ourselves. If each one is not clear on what the one is doing where does the clarity come from in the WE?

While some conversations flounder and seem to struggle for direction others immediately click and the plan of action and feeling of WE is easily accessible. I am not presuming to know I am learning and reflecting/exploring what I find, observe, get inspired by.....

In some directions I see that projects come together quickly and with minimal hassle while in others there is not this feeling of ease and natural flow. The way forward is not made clearer and I don't think it is a matter of fault but of timing....skills acquired through lessons learned.

It like working to build anything else. if you are an electrician or an end user, there isn't much you can do until things reach a point where you can do what you do. BUT if you do not keep sight of that there is alot of wasted of time, energy, etc associated.

I think it is important to see what we learn from the experiences that challenge us as well as the ones that eliminate challenges and increase efficiency/meaning/impact etc.....For example, after several conversations and posts about this project that needed a partner in the realm of fabric from recycled plastics but nothing happened for more than a year. Within a day or so of sharing with some PR contacts that I was looking for interesting people for the new radio show within whatever areas I listed I had more suggestions than I thought I could handle.

One of the companies, Atayne, I was introduced to makes sports apparel from recycled plastic and green materials throughout their supply chain. Jeremy Litchfield, the founder and CEO already had an interest in something interesting to do with their scraps and worn out clothing customers returned as part of their approach to taking responsibility to the life cycle of their products. The click was immediate and connecting our programs was "plug-n-play" and the WE experience was not a struggle.

The company had sponsored a running program for people transitioning from homelessness, so Jeremy immediately connected to the Cultural Fusion project of providing arts intervention programs for people transitioning from homelessness and other challenging situations. He had an internal plan in development for handling the materials and establishing a liaison on their side, while I was working with some people in homeless advocacy and transition programs. The collaboration was able to immediately leap forward from the progress we had made on our own because we had and continue to pay attention to our own Ingredients.

One of the first radio programs was with Ron Modro who is a homeless advocate, journalist, documentary film maker, and event planner...who started the Brotherly Love Project.Ron brought with him a documentary project with alot of extra footage, a homeless transition program open and ready to try something like this and his own talents, plus his relationships with other advocates locally such as Councilwoman Blackwell (who will be a guest on an upcoming show).

The pieces of a project I have been talking to many other people about for many months came together in a matter of weeks with the other pieces needed already operational and with an immediate feeling of connection. It seems it was a matter of timing....

There are many questions associated with Cultural Fusion and most of them have emerged from dialogues that have resulted in the first set of planned projects. I think that increased progress individually (or within our own country/region) is the key to linking our efforts successfully to realize the dream of that Global WE.

Thanks, Anders!

All the best :-)