After a long vacation from writing, I return with new found vigour.
I am really quite pleased with this new iPhone/iPod application that allows me to write from anywhere. I have always wished I could write on the spot, when I am most inspired and WordPress’ leap into the mobile world seems to be my answer.
So onward with my new found vigour, I hope that it allows me to break the procrastination chains and bring you more wonderful stories about community!
Categories: Inspiration · Motivation · Passion
Tagged: Community, iphone, ipod, mobile, wordpress
Continuing education by the community, for the community.
Seeing a need to respond to the needs of a community constantly fluctuating and striving to cope with blinding and often confusing transition, Simon Fraser University’s Continuing Studies Department created the Philosophers’ Café.
Meeting together throughout the lower mainland, the regular café gatherings are open to the public with no pre-registration. The environment is attractive to a diverse crowd of formal academics and academics of the heart. Each session is moderated by a pre-selected individual hailing from one of many universities or colleges. Topics have ranged from sex talk to poverty, politics to poetry, never shy on exploring the issues that strike us all at one time or another.
The goal is simply to bring people together for one common purpose: To learn. It is a creative and innovative way to discover meaning in a manner that seems to always leave behind the byproducts of camaraderie, unity and enlightenment.
Comfortable in casual surroundings, lifelong learners teach each other through the every day discussions about real life experiences. The Globe & Mail said “The Philosophers’ Café might be the most successful continuing education program in the country” (October 27, 2003)
In a time when many are struggling to belong in our community in a meaningful way, the Philosophers’ Café series provides a unique circuit to build interpersonal connection.
The next False Creek Community Centre edition of the Philosophers’ Café is on December 6th at 7 pm. The topic is “The Art of Dying.”
Philosophers’ Café
False Creek Community Centre, 1318 Cartwright St, Granville Island
Everyone welcome. No pre-registration required. Admission $5.
The Art of Dying Constantly relegated to a taboo status, the encounter of personal death is possibly the single most pressing and crucial moment of our existence. Can we face it straightforwardly? Joyfully? How? Further, how does society with its current values and customs help (or hinder) us to die peacefully?
Moderator: Miguel Rodriguez is a writer and poet from Spain, currently residing in Vancouver with his partner and daughter, where they coordinate and live at a settlement house for refugee claimants. He has written numerous essays (long and short, but not very good ones he says) on many different topics, including Eastern and Western philosophy, religion, art and literature, politics, economics and science. He publishes periodically in a variety of journals and magazines.
Categories: Community Development · Community Event · Education · Passion · Solutions
Tagged: Community Development, Community Event, Community Unity, Comunity, Continuing Education, Enlightenment, False Creek Community Centre, Globe & Mail, Granville Island, Life, Lifelong Learning, Miguel Rodriguez, Philosophers’ Café, SFU, The Art of Dying, Unity, Vancouver
It’s a simple sign and a simple idea that has, in its own way, changed the world.
Juan Mann (a pseudonym and a homonym of “one man”) had a mission. He wanted to brighten up one person’s day with a hug. He didn’t hug someone he knew, he simply began offering free hugs to total strangers on the streets of Sydney, Australia.
On September 22, 2006, a music video featuring Juan’s endeavor was posted to YouTube, kick starting the phenomenon that today is Free Hugs. The footage, shot in 2004 at the Pitt Street Mall in Sydney, showed Juan’s walk through the mall holding a sign that read “FREE HUGS.”
It started with one hug from a stranger. One year after the YouTube release, hundreds of Free Hugs campaigns have sprung up from the grassroots of communities worldwide. Even Oprah invited Juan to her show. Today anyone can join the movement by signing up at the Free Hugs website.
Free Hugs Worldwide:
AUSTRALIA
NORTH AMERICA:
EUROPE
MIDDLE EAST
SOUTH AMERICA
ASIA
List reposted from Tribe
Categories: ARK (Acts of Random Kindness) · Community Event · Inspiration · Motivation · Passion · Solutions
Tagged: Act of Random Kindness, Community, Free Hugs, Inspiration, Juan Mann, Life, Oprah, Pitt Street Mall, Tribe, YouTube
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