Greetings (soon to be "Howdy")!
No group has ever showed up in dandy duds complete with bandanas, swayed to-and-fro, and sung Happy Trails to me in unison before. There were even claves for the sound of shod hooves. It was EPIC (in the contemporary sense) and amazingly cool. I felt loved. Brief fond words of appreciation were exchanged. It was the best. So much so that I forgot to announce the fundraising part of it, but remembered to give away some stuff and recorded some pretty cool video (coming later). Two people donated anyway toward helping us fix our van and get a rented truck all the way to Texas. THANK YOU! The food was particularly fine and the company was even better, as always. It feels so odd to bid adieu to a community that has been such a huge part of my heart since 1998. My final classes will be this Saturday at 10am and 12pm. Please come if you can! I'll be back Aug 22-24 because I'm organizing the Takamura ha Shindo Yoshin ryu (TSYR) seminar at Aikido of Berkeley with Toby Threadgill, Kaicho, and then I'm not sure when I'll be able to visit next.
Speaking of communities that are an inseperable part of my heart, we are looking forward to a choral extravaganza and goodbye potluck at Epworth UMC on August 5th. That will be our last community gathering before departure, and we've been doing our best to make sure we spend time there whenever possible.
My trip to Texas bore all kinds of fruit.
Most unexpected and fascinating, a 10 inch by 5 foot hive of bees was removed from the floor between the garage and its apartment at my mother's house. The beedude captured and re-homed (?) around 20,000 bees (pictured in full capture box) and harvested 30-40 pounds of honey-packed hive. The workers have been building a home full of sweetness for seasons, and are now being abruptly relocated (mostly without harm), which has no metaphorical significance whatsoever and should not be harvested for the making of nourishing psychological meaning of any kind. Naturally.
In the Home News, we have rented a house in Mesquite (on the eastern boundary of Dallas) into which we will be buzzing on August 8th. The house is two miles from White Rock Montessori so we can ride our bikes to school! I have opportunities in the works but no job yet (prayers and referrals appreciated). Professional info at https://www.linkedin.com/in/bdwilliamscraig
Until we go...
If you'd like to take the kids for several hours, please let us know your availability on the following dates:
Mon July 30
Tue 31
Thu 2
Fri 3If interested in packing and loading, either at our storage unit or at home:
Mon July 30 at 11am
Wed Aug 1
For the mythopsychology geeks in the crowd
I think we are in the midst of Nostoi. Metaphorically speaking, the verbatim text of our epic seems inaccessible, perhaps lost to history, available only in summary by others, but is following classic patterns. Various heroic returns (homecomings) are still possible, both comic and tragic, but will remain problematic [beginning to sound a bit like a horoscope... Hmmm.], subject to the brooding resentments of logistical or automechanical gods, perhaps afflicted by familial storms or professional magic (or the lack thereof). Various categories of Return present themselves, and the challenge is to end up in a comedy.
Doing our best to be foolishly wise,
Brandon
P.S. If you’d like updates about Peace Practices, Conflict Done Well, and my other adventures in teamwork and social justice, please be sure to subscribe at http://abcglobal.net/Find_Us and follow https://www.facebook.com/brandonwilliamscraig/.
There is more to all of this, obviously. If you want to connect with me, move the work I do forward, or read more and deeply into what is happening now, I cannot ask sincerely enough that you stay within my circle of friends:
- I write at Culturesmith.com, with the more detailed and personal material protected by signing-in. Please request an account via http://culturesmith.com/account/signup or sign in, if you already have an account. I will approve and welcome you, after which you will also have access to all kinds of fascinating materials for cultural study, should that interest you.
- I will use this newsletter format for communicating the ways that this transition connects our inner lives with the wider world. As recommended by TinyLetter, I'll be clearing out email addresses and must ask that you opt-in again. If you haven't yet, please re-subscribe to my newsletter to continue receiving messages from me.