[OSList] an OS that was not called OS

[Therese Fitzpatrick]

Yesterday I volunteered at Berkeley's Karma Kitchen, run by a great
nonprofit working to seed a gift economy called servicespace.org.  People
pay what they want at the end, the food has no price.

Karma Kitchen, and this happens in few cities -- not all in USA! -- takes
over a kitchen on a Sunday. Pro chefs that work at the restaurant prepare a
limited menu, including lots of vegan items so everyone can come. And all
the work, other than cooking, is done by volunteers.

I waited on tables. Initially, the four wait persons were assigned tables
but that approach quickly fell apart. We four servers, backed up by the
awesome support in the kitchen and the couple of maestros whose jobs it was
to keep things going smoothly.

At first, I felt territorial about my tables but it was not long before I
realized my attitude was limiting. Instead of thinking that when someone
else took an order from 'my' tables, I looked around to see what needed
doing. And, not surprisingly to someone like me who lives in open space
most of the time, the entire Karma Kitchen became a step-perfect dance in
open space.

Afterwards, the lead volunteer spoke at the meal all the volunteers shared
together when customers were no longer admitted. He spoke at length of the
power of love. And I think he was right. Love had turned all of us into
loving servers, servers to the people who came to eat, servers to one
another and servers to ourselves.

It wasn't my turn to talk so I politely listened but I was itching to say
"we became a self organizing love machine" and "we were in open space".

There were so many little interactions that happened in perfection, or, to
use the Karma Kitchen language,things that happened in love.

Love. Open Space. Same thing to me.

-- 
Love rays,
Tree Fitzpatrick  (check out my new address)


. . . the great and incalculable grace of love, which says, with Augustine,
"I want you to be," without being able to give any particular reason for
such supreme and unsurpassable affirmation.  -- Hannah Arendt
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