<div dir="ltr"><p class="">Good
morning,<br></p>
<p class="">my mind comes back to a conversation invited by Pernilla last Wosonos in Krakow,
in which she asked us, more or less: "<i>what
everyday situations do you know in which the OS spirit is present?". </i>These days I realized <b>funerals can also be open space.</b></p>
<p class="">Last Sunday
some friends of NY based scientartist Greg Rivera's met to celebrate having had
him as a friend, some days after his unexpected dead (Nov 26th). <a href="http://www.saatchiart.com/gregrivera">Here you canenjoy some of his paintings</a>.</p>
<p class="">He had been
living in the Basque Country during the period 2007-2013 and made a big
impression on and built close relationships with plenty of social innovators in
the area (always a happy spirit, he coined terms suchs as “underground mayor”
=UM...:).</p>
<p class=""><span lang="EN-US">So, deep in
pain and far in the distance, I wrote a message to a bunch of the ones that had
related to him:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:35.45pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Hi, how are you? <b>Next Sunday Dec6 (12:00) some
friends of Greg´s will be meeting in Mundaka</b>, near La Bañera (the house they
used to live in) to celebrate the joy of having shared life with him. </span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:35.45pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:35.45pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Feel free to bring something to eat and drink, as
we plan to share lunchtime, after a walk around the village. We´ll be bringing,
as well, any object, story, song, paint, idea,... that connects us with him and
with each other.</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:35.45pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:35.45pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Please, forward the invitation to whoever that
would like coming. </span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:35.45pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><i><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Eleder 638733223</span></i></p>
<p class=""><span lang="EN-US">So, some
days later, we met last Sunday (Dec 6th) on a beautiful field over the sea and shared some food and drinks around a table.</span></p>
<p class=""><span lang="EN-US">The agenda was
completely blank. There was nobody in charge and lots of passion on the clear
issue: saying goodbye to the big friend.</span></p>
<p class=""><span lang="EN-US">As we ate
and drank, last people arrived and joined the small groups that formed and
dissolved spontaneously now and again, people using their two feet.</span></p>
<p class=""><span lang="EN-US">Then, some
time near the end (the end time, I realized, was fixed by the amount of food
and drink we served :) someone said he wanted to share a poem inspired on
Greg's last days, reflecting on the relationship between life, dead and art.</span></p>
<p class=""><span lang="EN-US">We listened
standing in a circle the 20 folks of us. Then someone put the issue; <i>“would you like to share the story on how
you met Greg?”</i>. People spoke from their heart and listened deeply,...</span></p>
<p class=""><span lang="EN-US">Someone sang
a verse following the long tradition os singing improvised verses. Then he proposed
to get close one to the other, hugged in a closer circle now. Then he invited
us: <i>“would you like to share the
feature(s) of Greg you liked and would like to see expanding in the world?”. </i>A
wise collective response emerged: playfulness, generosity, love, courage,
artfulness, open mind, social awareness, being a “hub”, simplicity, peacefulness,
humour, calmness,…</span></p>
<p class=""><span lang="EN-US">We laughed,
cried, chatted, projected, dreamed, hugged, loved (with) each other...</span></p>
<p class=""><span lang="EN-US">When people
left there was a deep agreement: this was great!</span></p>
<p class=""><span lang="EN-US">Simple,
comfortable, enriching, participative, self-managed, joyful, emotive,…</span></p>
<p class=""><span lang="EN-US">And: it was for
me very empowering and releasing to know that we ourselves could manage the
mourning in such an elegant way, in a region and time where almost every
funeral goes under a catholic tradition, completely in another way.</span></p>
<p class=""><span lang="EN-US">Many of us were familiar with OS and familiar with what
had just happened: this was great and simple.</span></p><p class="">This was
just life just open space.</p>
<p class="">Cheers,</p>
<p class=""><a href="https://twitter.com/Eleder_BuM"><span style="font-size:9pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,132,180);background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">@<span class="">Eleder_BuM</span></span></a><span lang="EN-US"></span></p></div>