Entry tags:
Eighth Salon: Quality of Life
Welcome to our eighth salon discussion thread. Wander in, invite a friend to come along, and chat! (Not sure what's going on? Here, have a brief FAQ.) You can find previous ones in my salon tag. Please take a quick look at the reminders at the bottom of this post, too.
Quality of life: what does it mean for you?
I was thinking, walking home from work the other day, that there's a lot of different kinds of things that make up quality of life, the "This is a good day" and "I like how I'm living".
In my current job, I don't make much money (especially given the amount of education required). But I live half a mile from work, in a gorgeous rural New England town where pretty much every view could be on a postcard. (And that's before you get to anything significantly scenic.) There's a downtown grocery store with local produce, and farmer's markets, and all sorts of other things.
I have a job that I mostly leave at work (I mean, I keep thinking about technology and libraries and information pretty much all the time, but that's because I love it, not because I have to bring work home). I have the world's most endearing and adorable cat.
But I also know that these things aren't necessarily what other people would choose (or what I'd choose at other points in my life, or if I lived in a different place, or had more money to play with.)
Things I'm watching: I'm currently rewatching season 3 of Doctor Who (I've been a fan since before I knew you could be: I grew up watching Tom Baker from under a chair in the living room.) Tonight, I'm going to go see the Joss Whedon Much Ado About Nothing for the second time so I can go with a friend (and because, on the whole, I would like to encourage people to do more projects of that kind.) What're you watching? Why is it interesting to or fun for you?
(This means I'll be out from 5ish until 9:30ish tonight. I assume you can all manage in my absence.)
Quick reminders
-![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
jjhunter did a great guide to following conversations here on Dreamwidth. Also a roundup of regular Dreamwidth events.
- If you want to post anonymously, please pick a name (any name you like) that we can call you - it makes it more conversational and helps if we have more than one anon post.
- Base rule remains "Leave the conversation better than you found it, or at least not worse". If you're nervous about that, I'd rather you say something and we maybe sort out confusion later than have you not say something. (I've heard from a few people who worry they're going to say something that's going to be taken weirdly. If it helps, I am usually around and if there's a thing you'd like to get out in the conversation, but you're not sure how, feel free to PM or email or IM me, and I'll nudge the conversation that direction.)
- The FAQ still has useful stuff, and I added some thoughts about getting conversations going a few weeks ago.
- Comments tend to trickle in over the course of a day or two, with a few nearly a week later: you might enjoy checking back later if you're not tracking the conversation.
Quality of life: what does it mean for you?
I was thinking, walking home from work the other day, that there's a lot of different kinds of things that make up quality of life, the "This is a good day" and "I like how I'm living".
In my current job, I don't make much money (especially given the amount of education required). But I live half a mile from work, in a gorgeous rural New England town where pretty much every view could be on a postcard. (And that's before you get to anything significantly scenic.) There's a downtown grocery store with local produce, and farmer's markets, and all sorts of other things.
I have a job that I mostly leave at work (I mean, I keep thinking about technology and libraries and information pretty much all the time, but that's because I love it, not because I have to bring work home). I have the world's most endearing and adorable cat.
But I also know that these things aren't necessarily what other people would choose (or what I'd choose at other points in my life, or if I lived in a different place, or had more money to play with.)
Things I'm watching: I'm currently rewatching season 3 of Doctor Who (I've been a fan since before I knew you could be: I grew up watching Tom Baker from under a chair in the living room.) Tonight, I'm going to go see the Joss Whedon Much Ado About Nothing for the second time so I can go with a friend (and because, on the whole, I would like to encourage people to do more projects of that kind.) What're you watching? Why is it interesting to or fun for you?
(This means I'll be out from 5ish until 9:30ish tonight. I assume you can all manage in my absence.)
Quick reminders
-
jjhunter did a great guide to following conversations here on Dreamwidth. Also a roundup of regular Dreamwidth events. - If you want to post anonymously, please pick a name (any name you like) that we can call you - it makes it more conversational and helps if we have more than one anon post.
- Base rule remains "Leave the conversation better than you found it, or at least not worse". If you're nervous about that, I'd rather you say something and we maybe sort out confusion later than have you not say something. (I've heard from a few people who worry they're going to say something that's going to be taken weirdly. If it helps, I am usually around and if there's a thing you'd like to get out in the conversation, but you're not sure how, feel free to PM or email or IM me, and I'll nudge the conversation that direction.)
- The FAQ still has useful stuff, and I added some thoughts about getting conversations going a few weeks ago.
- Comments tend to trickle in over the course of a day or two, with a few nearly a week later: you might enjoy checking back later if you're not tracking the conversation.
Re: Growing the communities we yearn for
(For people who don't know, I'm a priestess in an initiatory religious witchcraft tradition: Wicca is a close enough first approximation. I haven't done much teaching or any group work since I moved to Maine, but it's a long-term goal of mine.)
And yet, in that setting, there has to be a dynamic balance between 'these are the specifics of the tradition and practices I value and want to do' (i.e. there's stuff bigger than me I don't get to change on a whim), and 'if I want to do them with other people, I don't get to have everything exactly my way' and 'but if I'm hosting in my home (as is common in small Pagan groups), then there's a bunch of practical things I get to decide on, because My House'. Which is to say, it gets a little complicated.
Plus the whole part about 'if I'm going to put energy and attention into this on a regular basis, it needs to be something I find enjoyable, or I won't manage to do it in the bad weeks, or will resent the fact it stops me doing things I enjoy in the bad weeks'.
Re: Growing the communities we yearn for
Apologies for going off on a bit of a tangent -- brain is all over the place at the moment -- but a thing I keep on and on and on coming back to is the Maori word turangawaewae, lit. "a place to stand". I wish I wish I wish I could find a word for it that didn't feel so appropriative -- I first came across it in the context of Te Papa/Our Place, New Zealand's national museum (I would like to take a moment to note how much I love that Aotearoa works so hard at making public institutions - and life in general - bilingual), and as a concept it is actually such a big deal in terms of my quality of life on an individual and on a communal basis. By which I mean, the sense of being rooted, of having place, of being sure in oneself, of self-trust -- that's why I'm so invested in topography and bedrock, because insofar as I have gods these days (I'm ex-Catholic), they are in the high places and in the wild places, and that sense of connection is really important to me. I've mixed this in with my precise flavour of geology, and with the homeland - Cornwall is home to me, and it's lots of granite, of exposed mantle, and it's volcanics rather than sediments that make me feel like I've got a firm enough place to stand that I might move the world. It's the same in community settings - the awareness of what I know, of how I fit in, of being a small person in a large space, is spiritual and grounding at once; it is humbling; and it makes me more useful, and more comfortable, because I know what I can help with, who I can ask for help, and so on, and so forth. Erm. This might be more coherent if I weren't one hefty dose of opiates down, sorry!
Re: Growing the communities we yearn for
(I have been thinking on and off re: possible panel at con.txt or Wiscon or elsewhere re: Online Community Building 101 where people might share tips & tricks re: creating vibrant communities that are also set up in a way that's sustainable to admin / facilitate; the
Re: Growing the communities we yearn for