I want to do more, but I need support

Workspaces LOTE1 “Living On The Edge”
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Hi everyone

I am bit confused: I would like to contribute more to the June conference.

Currently I am one of the volunteer to lead the breakout session on Commons.

But I would like to do more: there are a couple of arguments I would like to talk about and share with you.

  1. the language of the commons

  2. the March to Athens mouvement

  3. the fight for water as human right and as a common good

4, crtical consumerism campaigning

what’s the best way to contribute about these themes either during the conference or the unconference???

Any clue?

thanks and see you soon!

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I am responsible for everything: I Care for Commons

Here is my contribution:

  1. LANGUAGE OF COMMONS. I love to repeat myself, like an old gramophone, that ‘we are all in the same boat’. For me, the language of commons is about RESPONSIBILITY.

I am responsible for the way I think. I adopt good mental habits.

I am responsible for how I feel. Anxiety, OUT! Bad temper, OUT! Fear, anger, OUT of my life! I don’t want to obsess over risks. I don’t want to worry about the future, or believe there is no hope. ‘Foi, espérance et amour, mais l’amour est le plus grand’. - I Corinthiens 13

I am responsible for how I perceive the world. Max Planck: ‘When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at will change’. Shift your perception, and reality will shit too. The more expanded your sense of self, the more possibilities are released. I try to face every problem.

I am responsible for my relationships. Of course there are two sides in a relationship. I can only be responsible for my own part. I don’t wait for other people to change things. Otherwise, I would be pretty disappointed and might end up waiting forever. Otherwise, I would feel dead inside and my live would have no purpose. I try not to impose past relationships on present ones. I try to make people feel enhanced, encouraged, appreciated. Of course, I’m not perfect, I don’t always succeed in doing this at every second of my life, but I make efforts, I try to shine light on people as much as possible. I am generous in giving, rather than in taking.

I am responsible for my role in society. I understand the power of social contagion. I understand the power of my own individual empowerment. I applaud people, when they raise their individual empowerment (I don’t get jealous or scared by them). I know that positive influences have their own infectiousness and far-reaching effects, beyond what my humble brain can imagine. Wherever I go, I try to make a positive, detailed contribution. I always talk about my highest ideals. I hang out with people much more brilliant and evolved than I am… and I don’t care if I might look stupid or say stuff less brilliant than they say. They help me grow, and I am grateful to them. I keep very close in touch with the people that matter to me, and they know that I care about them.

I am responsible for my immediate environment. I know that it does not matter if I just sit quietly and say nothing. My influence vill still be powerful. Most people I meet in person do not know about my real identity, and it makes me smile. I know that the projection of my self is total, and it does not matter if people do not see me for who I am. I just Am. I make efforts to better understand this: ‘We seldom take pains to correct the common error that it is not we who dwell in the universe, but universe dwells in us.’ (Gopi Krishna) I try to stay open for every avenue of information and opportunities.

I am responsible for my speech. Words have an effect on others. Because I take responsibility for my speech, I go beyond its content, I allow for its additional dimensions. I let people read into me, by being open and transparent. Yes, it makes me vulnerable, but people can read in me all kinds of things, beyond my control. Their impressions of me are their own creations. Therefore, I try to shine my light as fully as I can. I am consistent in how I speak. I am not afraid of talking about my experience, even if I know that it might be unusual, or that people might not understand. Speech is supposed to be the window of the soul. I try to have as big a window as possible! This is a hard one for me, because I’m an introvert, and I could be happy by just keeping shut. Social media helps me speaking out, and allows me to find a balance between just saying ‘yes’ and ‘no’ (which is my natural trend) and making my voice heard. I know that am growing and making progress, and this encourages me to speak out ever more.

I am responsible for my body and my life. I realized a long time ago that my body is not just a machine made of flesh and blood. It has a soul. I am linked to consciousness with my body (with what else could I be linked?). Every cell of my body thinks, and is connected to everything else. My brain is not just located in my brain, but in my whole body, and probably beyond. I see that my body is a consciousness that has a material form. I am conscious that I am in a physical state of consciousness. I know that my behavior, my thoughts, contribute to raise the consciousness level of my community. Day after day, I want to live in greater truth, I want more. There is a great thirst that pushes me to be more.

OK, to sum it up, I tell myself that am responsible for EVERYTHING. This way, I truly and deeply CARE FOR COMMONS.

  1. The fight for water… the fight for breathing fresh air, the fight for protecting trees and beautiful forests, women rights, the fight to stop abuse, the end of war, the fight for global peace, making efforts toward a more balanced economy, respecting diversity, celebrating healthy bodies (end of disease), appreciating clean cities, spreading beauty, wishing happiness for everyone, you name it, bring on the causes! I want this world to feel like we are living in Heaven. I would like everyone to be stuck with bliss, and reach a perennial state of happiness, that leads to a modified perception of reality.

  2. Critical consurism campaign. I prefer to propose concrete solutions to replace critical consurism by another model, another way of thinking and living. See my model of a Luminous Man, Michel Filippi, Des hommes et de notre civilisation.

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on responsibility

Nice reflections, Lyne! Thanks for sharing. :wink:

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Maybe team up with other carers for commons?

Hi Betta,

The arguments above are interesting, I am unsure about how to “come in” though and maybe it´s the same for others. I would narrow it down to three areas and then ask the community to get involved. For example if you have noted that the language of the commons is an important issue, make the case: Based on your experiences why and how is it a challenge ? To whom? Who (which stakeholders) has an interest  in addressing it- perhaps there are examples of initiatives where there is some kind of solution or that hint at how things would work if the language of the commons were not a problem? Helene Finidori is interested in the commons and she´s coming. Maybe other´s who posted either mission reports or replies in the Caring for Commons campaign might be able to give some good input or help by asking friends to help build the session. We still have a number iof funded travel places left so if people want to help that are not already in Edgeryders there is still room…

Then I would maybe also ask Feel free to ask the social media volunteers to help formulate questions to push out onto the community both on the platform and on e.g. Twitter or FB to get more input and help us flesh out the background to the topic so when we meet in June we have already gotten somewhere in the discussion and can nail it down to concrete proposals together. What do you think- could this work? I would like to review the material myself so we could maybedo this together  if you like :slight_smile:

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more pratically?

Hi Nadia

honestly I feel a bit stupid now :slight_smile: Yes, what you wrote is exactly what I was thinking about but I do have a lack in HOW to do it.

Being one of the facilitators of the BREAKOUT Session “Caring for the common” I have already done a list of arguments that have been discussed  and I have a ,list of people who wrote something…but I don’t know what to do with it. I tought about posting it in the team page (the one you reach from the volunteering page) but it seems it’s no possible. I don’t even know if there is a way to contact all the members of the team.

On another hand I am still confused about the unconference…

Finally I’ d like to do everything at my best but I am confused in terms of tools (practical ones!)

thank you!

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it’s not you, it’s us :slight_smile:

Ok yes I was unclear :slight_smile: Maybe posting a mission report for Help Build the June conference mission summarising your and our reflections and insights areound the commons we have been having in the form of the mission reports and comments  we have been posting in the Caring for Commons campaign (See links to what others have posted on the “Campaigns” page). If you end it with a call to action  to other  Edgeryders this is a good way to start the conversation around the breakout session. Bridget has posted one here, maybe you could start byformulating something similar around one or more of the questions you want to explore? or collaborate with Bridget to comnbine perspectives?  http://edgeryders.ppa.coe.int/help-build-june-conference/mission_case/two-topics-linked-culture-learning-commons

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:slight_smile:

Tha’s what I was thinking to do but I wasn’t sure about how many people actually look at new posts on the Help Build the June campaign.

However, for sure, I can contact directly other members.

For Bridget we are already in touch since she is part of the facilitation group for the session as well!

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Let me try

My two cents.

For the conference

  1. get in touch with other people already in the Caring for commons session team.
  2. propose to them your vision of what you should discuss, and invite their input. Try to design a process that gets to an actionable policy proposal on the issue of the commons.
  3. reach out to other Edgeryders that you think are interesting and propose they join your team.
  4. get people to take on roles: somebody to take notes, somebody to report, somebody to live tweet, draw illustrations (you will have a whiteboard and paper rolls)...
  5. ideally, when you get to Strasbourg, everybody should know already what to do.
  6. write to the policy makers at the conference and ask them to join in the session. Who knows, it might work.
  7. have fun!
For the unconference
  1. register (I don't think they have a website yet, but they soon will)!
  2. indicate in the registration what you are interested in.
  3. try to get other Edgeryders to indicate the same things, so there is a critical mass of commons-oriented participants
  4. on start, propose a session  with the post-it method (it will be explained on the website)
  5. have fun
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Hello Betta,

I hope you are

Hello Betta,

I hope you are well and very motivated for the breakout session! I have already contacted all the participants of the Caring for Commons session (22 up to now) and i ll do it again in order to get more active and share what they would like to see out of this 2.5h session.

As a general guideline I would suggest to focus on some questions we want to have answered and prepare before we meet (if necessary we could - all the participants- through skype and discuss):

  1. what are the main challenges got identified through the reports?

  2. who are the main stakeholders of the topic and which is their relationship with the challenges?

  3. which transition tools or alies can we rely on? are they universal?

  4. main questions we want to ask the policy makers…

  5. what would be my contribution in the session?

We have 10 days to make it shine and we can definetely do it ! Let’s each of us get prepared before the meet up!

I would like to know what you think about my suggestions :slight_smile:

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we are working on it! :slight_smile:

how

we are working on it! :slight_smile:

how did you contact all the participants? (I still didn’t try the new tools that Giacomo said that have been put in place! did you use that?)

However right now an useful thing would be to know if someone wants to share a specific experience as a testimony…we are already working on the other part.

kee in touch