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Therapeutic Gathering
Dec. 6th, 2022 12:58 pmI've been chipping away at this idea of what I need socially up here for awhile. When my old company, with its ready-made set of compatible friends in proximity, went away, I was feeling pretty lost. Then covid happened and it kinda didn't matter, I backburnered it. It still popped up from time to time, I chipped away, but I didn't have a solution.
Talking to my therapist the other day, I thought: you know, we do have the arts space in town. They have the pottery studio, sure, but they also host workshops and things. I wonder if they'd be willing to host a monthly or twice-monthly craft night?
One of the big issues in this town is that its super, super patriarchal. The men work and support their nuclear family, which is the woman who cares for the kids outside of school-time and the kids who are present until they grow up and leave. So a lot of the interesting things are done by women during the day, so I can't attend (farmer's market, craft and art stuff) and also there's a bit of a disconnect talking to folks who haven't really navigated supporting themselves with out-of-home work and the accompanying pressures.
There isn't often an interesting workshop outside of work hours.
Hosting something in my home involves dealing with the dogs, dealing with my small space (I can seat 4-5 people easily-ish in my livingroom if not everyone needs a soft seat, but we can't all sit at a table or do a project in the kitchen).
Hosting something in the community arts space, or the women's shelter kitchen (which is a commercial kitchen owned by the women's shelter, not inside the actual DV shelter space), would probably be welcomed by those groups and removes some of the logistics.
I'd got that far with my therapist yesterday, then put it kind of on the back burner.
Except today a friend mentioned that they're reading "The Art Of Gathering" by Priya Parker, and I poked at that a bit, and it gave me a starting point. Her tedtalk says:
1) What is the purpose? Meaning/need it fills? Design it to fit that.
2) Create good controversy (I love this generally, not sure how to apply it here). "Give people a way in to each other"
3) Temporary alternative world through pop-up rules. Think of this after the meaning is sorted out.
Talking to my therapist the other day, I thought: you know, we do have the arts space in town. They have the pottery studio, sure, but they also host workshops and things. I wonder if they'd be willing to host a monthly or twice-monthly craft night?
One of the big issues in this town is that its super, super patriarchal. The men work and support their nuclear family, which is the woman who cares for the kids outside of school-time and the kids who are present until they grow up and leave. So a lot of the interesting things are done by women during the day, so I can't attend (farmer's market, craft and art stuff) and also there's a bit of a disconnect talking to folks who haven't really navigated supporting themselves with out-of-home work and the accompanying pressures.
There isn't often an interesting workshop outside of work hours.
Hosting something in my home involves dealing with the dogs, dealing with my small space (I can seat 4-5 people easily-ish in my livingroom if not everyone needs a soft seat, but we can't all sit at a table or do a project in the kitchen).
Hosting something in the community arts space, or the women's shelter kitchen (which is a commercial kitchen owned by the women's shelter, not inside the actual DV shelter space), would probably be welcomed by those groups and removes some of the logistics.
I'd got that far with my therapist yesterday, then put it kind of on the back burner.
Except today a friend mentioned that they're reading "The Art Of Gathering" by Priya Parker, and I poked at that a bit, and it gave me a starting point. Her tedtalk says:
1) What is the purpose? Meaning/need it fills? Design it to fit that.
2) Create good controversy (I love this generally, not sure how to apply it here). "Give people a way in to each other"
3) Temporary alternative world through pop-up rules. Think of this after the meaning is sorted out.
