Summer 2009 Imperfect Initiation Weekend

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Permalink Reply by Benjamin Dennis on March 8, 2009 at 10:39am

reading this I am thinking it is an invitation to a wonderful event. To continue the discussion, are there any questions or thoughts regarding the intention of the weekend? It seems to me that it is pretty well fleshed out and established. However, I also sense that there is some underlying question or concern about what is happening. The first thing I notice is the need for "criminal record checks." No judgment, just an eyebrow lift--"well Huh?"

I hope there is more to discuss here.

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Permalink Reply by Michael Scott Brooks on March 8, 2009 at 11:44am

Hi Tembo,

Thanks for putting this out there. I want you to know that I heard your invitation. I could have responded sooner than I did, but felt that I needed more time for reflection. Please know that my silence up to this point is just that. I do see now that I could have let you know what I was up to. My apologies. Sorry for leaving your post hanging like that.

I did go and check out the web site. Looks like a good thing that they are doing there. I also hear your vision for a possie of conscious men showing up at this gig. Maybe I'm a little concerned about how such a presence would be perceived by the leaders of this particular group (raiding party?, hostile takeover?, disrespectful? ... I really don't know, but it could be threatening for them). Anyway, it seems to me that they are happy with things staying just they way they are. Is that something that you would like to change? My sense is that you want something deeper. Again, I don't know ... but if it is, then trying to make that happen inside of someone else's dream might be asking for the wrong kind of trouble. To the extent that you know these men, and are able to exercise your influence and operate within the limitations of the structure they have created, my hat is totally off to you. Ha Ho Mitakuye Oyasin!

... As for my own involvement, my intuition tells me that my personal business lies elsewhere and that I need to reserve my time for that which lies just around the corner. I don't know what that is yet, but my "spider sense" is tingling like crazy. Something is gestating in the woods and I intend to be there to celebrate the birth.

Shanti,

Scott

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Permalink Reply by Daniel Deardorff on March 8, 2009 at 1:58pm

Tembo, in the general comments outside this discussion you said "it would be great to arrive with a posse of mythologists to spice the flavor!" I'm just about always ready to join a posse, especially of the mythic variety. For others interested here's the link http://ymaw.com/

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Permalink Reply by Tembo Chinook on March 8, 2009 at 1:59pm

Thanks, Scott and Ben . . .
First, Scott, it is just showing up for a weekend and the educational value of participating with such a group of diverse men is fantastic . . . as a newcomer and from out of town "outlander" a man is not involved to the degree the local men are in the nuts and bolts of organizing and orchestrating the weekend. My hope is that all men get to be involved with something of work with a group of men and young men at least once a year just to retain psychic sanity.

Ben, the criminal record check is a point of accountability since the invitation to participate is a public one, and not all the men who come are known. Just a standard operating procedure in the world of working with young people like if you applied for a counseling job. As far as the presence of a concern about what is happening it is just my usual beef that the awareness of the reasl initiatory function and methodologies is lower than I can imagine it being. On the radiclly positive side, I have been doing it for five years - 5 Vancouver, and 3 Portland. I've got status and credibility in the group,
AND it is an amazing example of how DD points out that the "Other" is always an outsider. Within the framework of a tension between the Full Yes of including what I bring, there is also a Full Yes to the need to just deliver a proper dosage of the Other World so it is a healing medicine.

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Permalink Reply by Tembo Chinook on March 8, 2009 at 2:31pm

Posse - a force of constables; a company ( of persons, animals or things). Yeah, on the Friday night, I have been trying to influence them to start out a little more seriously so the depth can be greater on the rest of the weekend, with mixed success. I would love it if it could evolve to the point there is a story on the Friday night.

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Permalink Reply by Michael Scott Brooks on March 8, 2009 at 3:18pm

Ok ... I think I'm understanding the situation better now.

Mostly I just wanted to acknowledge your post ... and I will keep checking in to stay posted on what happens here.

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