What maps do we need now?

For four years now, we’ve been holding these online series, gathering folks from around the world who are drawn to the work of regrowing a living culture.

For four years now, we’ve been holding these online series, gathering folks from around the world who are drawn to the work of regrowing a living culture.

One thing I’ve learned is the importance of teaching from the tip of my tongue: starting from whatever is most alive just now in the conversations that Anna and I are bringing together around our kitchen table. So this autumn, we start with a question that’s been running through these conversations lately: what kind of maps are called for now?

How do we name and share the patterns that emerge in the work of regrowing, creating and tending pockets of habitability in what can seem like an increasingly uninhabitable world? How do we help each other navigate along the small paths, the ones that go on making sense when we turn aside from the big path that was meant to lead to the future? And how do we attend to this kind of way-finding, without reproducing the patterns that brought about the trouble we see around and ahead?

In these times, it won’t be enough to rely on the satellite’s-eye view, the kind of map that claims to present the view from everywhere and nowhere. Chances are, what’s called for is something humbler, closer to the ground. More like the map you draw for a friend on the back of an envelope, in a late night conversation, or the mud map that a farmer draws in the dirt for a traveller who has stopped to ask for directions.

So I’ll bring some of the maps and stories that have helped me find my bearings, we’ll share encounters with people, places and projects that embody this call for pockets of habitability, and we’ll attend to the patterns that connect this work and the practices that build our capacity.

The format of a series like this is intended to allow for more than one way of showing up. So you can choose to lean in and start making connections and finding possibilities for collaboration, or you can sit back and follow along quietly and listen for where all of this might connect to the questions you are carrying. For those who want to get started, there will be optional exercises to take away and try out in between the weekly sessions, and the chance to share what you find.

The culture into which most of us were born lacks categories for the kind of work we do at a school like this: there’s no set of deliverables here, no curriculum outline. But over time, I’ve seen people put words to their intuitions, find the courage to speak and to act, and step further into the work that is theirs to do, as a consequence of being part of these series. So sit with the invitation, listen in, and if you hear it speaking to you, then I will look forward to having you among our company in November.

Dougald Hine

This series is now underway