villages and dependency...was second space in istanbul (long)

[Christy Lee-Engel]

Celebrating you, dear Chris heart, and the piece of creation you are
cultivating and paying attention to and holding up to us to show its
breathtaking beauty.

love to you,
Christy

On 6/1/06, Chris Weaver <chris at springbranch.us> wrote:
>
> Raffi,
>
> To your thanks, I say "de nada."
>
> As you define the p, i'm happy to claim psh as a non-pejorative term.  I
> can't say it's "where we are at," but it appears to be where I am at.
>
> Is it time for psh to dissolve like the early morning fog?  Perhaps.  & as
> all things dissolve which dissolve properly, psh will dissolve through
> walking awake into its heart, like a doorway.
>
> I thank the subbotnik story too.
> Enjoy your meeting with the Africans.
> And while I am still scratching my head about FIV, I don't doubt that at
> some moment in the future I will find myself letting you know about it.
>
> ~c.
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU]On Behalf Of Raffi
> Aftandelian
> Sent: Friday, June 02, 2006 12:59 AM
> To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
> Subject: villages and dependency...was second space in istanbul (long)
>
>
> Chris,
>
> Thank you for a piece that invited me to reconsider dependency in an
> appreciative light. I can almost imagine oil pastel drawings going
> with each paragraph! Whoosh!
>
> Like you and many, many other people on and off this list, I too was
> probably born to be a space-holder by birth through initiation. And like
> potting, drumming, story-telling we
> all have our lifecraft. And maybe for some of us it's professional
> space-holding (psh).
>
> I am not sure psh is necessarily a pejorative term, as I suggest and
> as you seem to think. It just might be where we are at. I'll give this
> more thought.
>
> The meaning of professional that I have been holding most recently is
> "a person who takes care of herself."
>
> I am giving much thought, Chris to how you and Zelle recently are
> inviting this man who has lived in some of the world's largest cities
> (Tehran, Moscow, Washington, DC) to be more of a villager. And
> curiously, one of Moscow's pejorative nicknames is "Bolshaya
> Derevnya", "a big village."
>
> Might your message be an invitation for Moscow to reclaim her village
> spirit? Like with your reinhabited notion of dependency, for us who call
> her
> home to be proud to
> call her a "big village"?
>
> As I write this, I recall a village experience that I blogged about
> recently. The story invites retelling.
>
> I was walking in Sokolniki Park, one of my favorite parts in Moscow
> and a five minute walk from my apartment building. The park is also 5
> minutes by metro from the edge of downtown. This makes Sokolniki Park
> a special location for Moscow- there is no other big park so close to
> the center.
>
> The park used to be the tsar's falcon hunting grounds. It is a park that
> is
> slowly dying, yet
> I experience much beauty here. Can I find total solace here? Not yet.
> Even in the middle of the park you can hear the cars and in the summer
> they insist on playing very loud rock music in other parts of the
> park. There is lots of trash in many parts of the park. And that said,
> I hear the sticks, the leaves, the pebbles, the birch bark. Sometimes
> they invite me to take them home.
>
> I guess you could say I go here regularly for my experience of the
> shamanic when I am not visiting a shaman.
>
> So, I was about to go home after my walk when my friend Natasha called
> me on my cell. In a very urgent voice she said, "Raffi, Raffi, run,
> don't walk to the Africans! The Africans have organized a subbotnik,
> they are raking leaves in the park. Please, go see them and say
> Natasha said thank you." I decided to go see the Africans raking
> leaves even though I had seen many more unusual things in my short
> life. I consciously chose to step out of what was routine for me.
>
> Subbotniks ("Saturdays") were days when citizens in the Soviet period
> came outside and because the law of two feet had not been passed yet
> by the Soviet government citizens showed up in the worst way they knew
> how, allowing non-passion, non-responsibility to non-self-organize
> into a non-voluntary public space cleaning day- raking leaves, picking
> up trash, etc. outside.
>
> This was a different subbotnik and on a different day. May 9th is the
> day Russia celebrates its victory in World War II. A very important
> day as the USSR lost more than 20 million citizens in this war alone.
>
> African refugees who have lived in Moscow many years wanted to say
> thank you to Moscow for letting Moscow be home for them. Moscow's main
> daily, the Moscow Times covered it. One of Russia's national channel
> covered the event (http://news.ntv.ru/86692/).
>
> For me, the subbotnik was also an invitation to all of us to engage
> differently.
>
> The shared intention and invitation that Moscow has extended to those
> not originally from here is not always understood. Beating and killing
> Africans, people from the Caucasus is increasingly becoming a common,
> everyday phenomenon here. Makes me wonder at which point does such a
> disturbing and troubling thing become accepted? Just this week an Armenian
> was killed on the
> metro by skinheads.
>
> Of course, such honesty from a co-convenor of an international
> conference invites confusion. Might I say the obvious? That perhaps we
> want the OSonOS XIV for us to begin reclaiming Moscow's original
> village spirit? I also want to say that my experience of Moscow is
> that it is safer than any other major city of similar size I have been
> to on any continent.
>
> I lived about 8 years in Berkeley. Many more juicy things happened in
> Berkeley to me and people I know than here in Moscow.
>
> I am having my second meeting with some of the Africans in a few
> hours. I think you might guess why we are meeting.
>
> raffi
>
> p.s. chris, when you do know about FIV, let me know, ok? ; ) <toothy grin>
> p.p.s. i want to thank the story for inviting retelling. Thank you,
> dear subbotnik story.
>
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