The Crawdaddy's inaugural Philosophy Cafe included two groups, a total of 20 people, who all fully participated. Well, it's inaugural for the 21st centruy. I used to conduct philosophy cafes back in the '90's and they sold out for two solid years.
Our question for this cafe was, What is Security? No hypotheticals or conventional definitions are allowed (which would only lead to dry, academic conversation), but instead, we build our conversation on true, personal stories. Everyone told a story of personal experience that somehow embodied the notion of "security", and may I say, the stories were quite colorful. I want to thank all the participants for having the courage to share their often revealing tales. The stories themselves remain forever confidential to the group, but here are samples of the personal definitions of security that were distilled from these stories. Security is...
A need to physically protect oneself and others.
A sense of comfort based on having necessities that create a safe personal environment within the larger, wild environment.
The realization that everything is ok as it is, which shows up as an internal attitude of non-attachment.
A choice to become reliant on something or someone other than yourself.
The presence of home and family.
The outcome of good planning.
Trusting that things will work out as they are supposed to.
The result of developing a relationship or bond with others over time.
Letting go the need to be secure.
A feeling of safety created through increased knowledge and experience.
After a break each group reconvened and begin looking for similarities, contrasts, and other attributes among the personal definitions that came out of the stories. As facilitator I can say that the Friday night and Saturday afternoon groups were unique in thought stream. As the respective philosophical dialogues unfolded, the Saturday group left the definition of security open, intuitively not feeling a need to come to a consensus definition. Members of the Friday night group did arrive at a sort of big picture definition, which I have paraphrased:
Security is an attempt to create a reduction in uncertainty, in order to prevent undesirable change. But since change is inevitable, security is never anything more than a moment in time when your assumptions about the world seem to work. Thus, security is a series of comfortable plateaus you get to enjoy temporarily, as you move through a life of continual change.
So in our first Philosophy Cafe, we created some sweet conversational art on the spot. I hope more of you can join us next month. It will always be the First Friday of each month, and for overflow, First Saturday. Next Cafe is March 5th. I will send details and a new question later this month.
Our question for this cafe was, What is Security? No hypotheticals or conventional definitions are allowed (which would only lead to dry, academic conversation), but instead, we build our conversation on true, personal stories. Everyone told a story of personal experience that somehow embodied the notion of "security", and may I say, the stories were quite colorful. I want to thank all the participants for having the courage to share their often revealing tales. The stories themselves remain forever confidential to the group, but here are samples of the personal definitions of security that were distilled from these stories. Security is...
A need to physically protect oneself and others.
A sense of comfort based on having necessities that create a safe personal environment within the larger, wild environment.
The realization that everything is ok as it is, which shows up as an internal attitude of non-attachment.
A choice to become reliant on something or someone other than yourself.
The presence of home and family.
The outcome of good planning.
Trusting that things will work out as they are supposed to.
The result of developing a relationship or bond with others over time.
Letting go the need to be secure.
A feeling of safety created through increased knowledge and experience.
After a break each group reconvened and begin looking for similarities, contrasts, and other attributes among the personal definitions that came out of the stories. As facilitator I can say that the Friday night and Saturday afternoon groups were unique in thought stream. As the respective philosophical dialogues unfolded, the Saturday group left the definition of security open, intuitively not feeling a need to come to a consensus definition. Members of the Friday night group did arrive at a sort of big picture definition, which I have paraphrased:
Security is an attempt to create a reduction in uncertainty, in order to prevent undesirable change. But since change is inevitable, security is never anything more than a moment in time when your assumptions about the world seem to work. Thus, security is a series of comfortable plateaus you get to enjoy temporarily, as you move through a life of continual change.
So in our first Philosophy Cafe, we created some sweet conversational art on the spot. I hope more of you can join us next month. It will always be the First Friday of each month, and for overflow, First Saturday. Next Cafe is March 5th. I will send details and a new question later this month.
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