One object, one place, ten people

Knowledge Collection Networks and Allies
, ,
1

I’m lucky! I have no doubt about it, because in my transition I have diverse allies for different kinds of support: moral, financial, motivational and also support to encourage my resourcefulness.

The allied object: a book given to me by my first theatre director with the dedication  “perché pochi sono al mondo i ‘favoriti’ dalle storie” (because there are few people in the world who are “favourite” from the stories). This sentence makes me feel with magical protection and it gives me a lot of courage.

The allied place: my island of happiness, a Sicilian village between the sea and the volcano. When I seem to have strayed off course, I go back there because in that place I can always bring together the pieces of my puzzle.

The allied people:

the man I loved most in my life who forced me to make a categorical choice. So I figured out what I really want to do and to be, what I was not willing to give up.

My parents because they give me all the financial support they can, even though they often didn’t agree with my choices and we still unable to understand much, but I earned their trust. The desire to reward them is a very strong incentive to do always better.

My 3 best friends because they insult me ​​when I say that I’m not able to do something, they helped me when I had financial problems and they make me laugh a lot.

My thesis supervisor and an economist-musician known through an interview because thanks to them I often do things that seem bigger than me and maybe some really are, but so I can understand if I have the potential to do what I want to do, if some of these potentialities have already become true abilities and work to improve them.

Two sicilian women with bright eyes who went back in Sicily after many years abroad because they love our land and they believe that we can improve it. I’m working with them inside The Hub Sicily, that they founded,  and their brightness makes me thinking that we can make Sicily one of the most beautiful place in the world.

2

A special glow

Gratitude is very powerful force. It can lead to happiness… (Looking for what exists, and appreciating it, helps us to see other opportunities — instead of just seeing what doesn’t work). I feel a lot of gratitude when I read your list.

Keep it up. If you can think of other people, or see a new allie enter your life, update the list. Being open to possibilities will open up your horizons as well.

I like how you associate the good people of your network with special words, like ‘magical’ or 'happiness. We know what glows (ie what works for each of us), and what doesn’t, don’t we? Not many Edgeryders participants wrote a ‘Bring on the Allies’ mission report. I’d like to read more…

3

W the gratitude! :slight_smile:

Thank you, Lyne! I agree with you: the gratitude and also the admiration could be a pure fuel for our happiness and our actions.

I often ask to the people if they found their island of happiness ( it could be also a room of your house or your car or a wardrobe where you can hide or a bycicle) because I think that having also a safe place/object where you can reconnect with yourself is really important.

I’m talking like Pollyanna :slight_smile:

Yes, it’s true: there are few missions about the allies. I’d want know why. I think that writing this mission is also a possibility to say thank you.

4

Negative events vs positive ones

I am not surprised at all that few have done this exercise. There is more whining going on than jumping up of joy in this world!

I recently came across this article: Why People Remember Negative Events More Than Positive Ones.

People probably remember the bad stuff that happens to them in life, and must therefore focus on this, instead of feeling thankful or even noticing what good other people do for them.

I like the conclusion of this article. The author, Alina Tugend, came up with a strategy that really pleases me: ‘It turns out that a strategy I started years ago apparently can be effective. I have a “kudos” file in which I put all the praise I’ve received, along with e-mails from friends or family that make me feel particularly good. That’s a good reminder that we all need to engage in more acts of kindness — toward others and ourselves — to balance out the world.’

Isn’t that great? This is kidda… what we try to do here, at Edgeryders. The Shine some light mission reports remind me of the ‘kudos’ file suggested in this article, and I find that the Bring on the allies are a form of acts of kindness…

5

the kudos file

I really like this strategy. And I think that it could be useful also during the very bad periods in which we aren’t very well in order to recover the smile.

thank you, Lyne :slight_smile:

6

Lucky indeed

… but also the people you mention must be lucky to enjoy such special relationships with you.

Interestingly, in my own rendition of “Bring on the allies” I mentioned, like you, academics. For all its shortcomings - eloquently highlighted by Giacomo - academia does seem to be a powerful home base for launching weird, oh-what-the-hell stuff

7

the ambivalent position of academic student

I agree with Giacomo, but referring to the high school.

Instead, about the academic world, I recognized myself a lot in your words because, like you, my professor of Cultural productions’ organization asked me when I was 21 to do my thesis supervisor.

it was an unexpected request because I had criticized, during the lesson, her theoretical paradigm of reference i.e. the cultural diamond made by W. Griswold. The diamond represents six kinds of relationships considered the fundamental ones to produce cultural projects. I don’t agree with this schematization, above all if it is referred to selfproductions or bottom up productions, and so I drew different kinds of diamonds referring to different kinds of ongoing projects around Venice.

And so she asked me to continue together and to go in depth with my intuition.

After the bachelor degree, we are continuing to work together also if I have to finish my biennal/specialistic degree yet and she would like that I could be continue with a PhD.

I’m writing this story in order to explain my point of view about the academic world, considering that I’m into this world in a very ambivalent position because I’m a student yet, but I’m working on my own projects and at the same time I’m writing papers and a book with my thesis supervisor (this is also the reason why I have never time to finish my thesis).

The academic world is without doubt one of my ally, but I think that also I am an ally to the academic world, because , as my professor says, I’m the operative arms and the eyes opened on the contemporary world. So in the academic space I’m learning the research method, but I bring interesting projects to study, contacts to enlarge the network, “out-of-the-box” thinking because these are my life and my work and probably for the academics could be difficuolt to access to these spaces and keep in touch with this people.

On the other hand I’ve never earned money for my academic work, because I’m not a researcher, but I’m a student yet. But I have the possibility to publish papers and books also if I haven’t finished the university and I think that this could be important when I’ll try to do a PhD and I’ll ask for a scholarship.

I don’t think I’m the only one in this strange position…

I could make another digression on how to change even the analysis of a case history in a research in my field, which often consisted of projects made ​​by young people, when doing the interviews is not an academic but a person the same age or nearly , who also works in the field and then the interview becomes a confrontation with the interviewee.

I’d like to read the story and the thoughts of other people who live in my same condition.

8

That sums it up

I guess I agree with you: Giacomo’s critique is consistent with my experience of high school, not so much of university.