September 26 - Goodenough Community

On-Line News of the Goodenough Community System:
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The American Association for the Furtherance of
Community
Convocation: A Church and Ministry
Mandala Resources, Inc.
Sahale Learning Center
The EcoVillage at Sahale
September 19, 2012
A Road to Choose?
What Is a Good Question?
An editorial by John L. Hoff
Yesterday Colette asked me, “John, would you be willing to write a formal editorial comment on the
theme of this week’s ‘Village eView’? Our focus will be on questions. In the next week I would like you
to do the same for an issue on answers.” My immediate response was “yes,” and I noticed I liked the
idea of writing on something specific. I noticed also that I appreciated the opportunity to think about
the subject of questions. I hope you will enjoy this focus too. Language enables some interesting mental
playfulness. Don’t you think?
When I think about questioning, I remember that it is the heart of education, which at its best is a
process of guided inquiry. The word “education” comes from the Greek language (educare, to draw out)
and was best defined by Socrates (469 BCE to 399BCE) who gave us the process of guided inquiry often
referred to as the Socratic method. This is a pleasant, natural, intuitive exploration of a subject wherein
two or more people are drawing each other out and organizing their thoughts together.
It wasn’t until around 800 CE that questioning became a matter of putting someone on the spot,
requiring an answer. King Charlemagne popularized direct questions by inventing the question mark.
When I am relaxed among friends and we are pursuing a common interest I can sense my own interest
in the questions that I raise. When I am in the company of people who are trying to find the right
answer, I can feel how guarded I become when others expect me to have an answer.
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In” the Goodenough Community,” a term which we use to describe a large group of persons who have
traveled with us by attending programs, sharing learning and healing while contemplating the question,
“what more do I want for my life?” The Goodenough Community (GEC) has always been primarily a
learning community in which we supported each other by facing some of the hard questions required
by growing up and being more responsible. It is to this learning community that we are now turning
with some questions. When I conclude this statement I will list three questions.
Our council is preparing a questionnaire that will both guide our collective reflection and put us as
individuals on the spot by asking about our needs and desires. You can expect this questionnaire soon
as well as some telephone calls and emails from members of the Council as they guide the inquiry into
the future priorities and program of the GEC. We are genuinely interested in what you might need or
want—by way of support, healing and learning.
With regard to the art of questioning there is a recent development that involves making a statement
then adding a question that requires a relevant answer. I conclude that there are at least two kinds of
good questions: a question that asks about our general interest and another question that requires a
specific response. I think we need both kinds of questions, yet I know I like that respectfulness of guided
inquiry. Here are some:
1. A variety of acknowledged wise thinkers are stating that for humanity to survive we will have to
learn to live once again in community. How do you understand that statement?
2. Community involves acknowledging you cannot be human alone. How have you come to know
the truth in this statement?
3. Being interdependent and learning to enjoy it is the communitarian challenge. The Goodenough
Community involves a multidisciplinary methodology for personal and social transformation.
How have you experienced our method working in your life?
Imagine me putting my hand on your arm and in a voice that demands your intention I say to you, “I
have a question for you.”
Now take a moment to learn from what you just experienced: What was your experience when you
were told you would be asked a question? What words will you use to describe your feelings? What
thoughts were happening in your mind intellectually?
JLH
Question: Are you still having a conversation on Sunday and Monday evenings?
Yes, you are welcome to join on Sunday evening, September 30 from 7:00 to 9:30 and on Monday
evening October 1 at 6:00 if you have interest in organizations or programs.
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We are born with all the wisdom,
playfulness, and imagination we need;
we just sometimes need a reminder
to return to our senses
and get out of our own way.
Let go of whatever fears, assumptions,
distractions, resistance, and busyness
may be hampering you.
Allow yourself to think and feel
and live that way.
~Marc Lesser
(Zen teacher and author,
CEO of ZBA Associates executive coaching, consulting
Question: Is there anything being offered this fall for my mental and emotional healing?
Response from John L. Hoff:
I have received some expressions of interest in a small group experience that focuses on mental and emotional
healing. Last week I suggested that Colette and I would offer leadership for this on either Tuesday or Thursday
night for six weeks. We have had some positive response and repeat our offer. Contact hoff@goodenough.org or
206 963 4738 if you are interested.
What Is The Process of Change in Our Emerging Community?
Russ Cowgill
Change has been described as the only constant in the universe. There have
been long periods of history where change was slow, some periods of backward
movement and some chaotic explosions of rapid movement. I don’t think
anyone would argue that we seem to be in one of those chaotic periods. When
considering the potential an optimist might point to the renaissance and a
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pessimist to darker times such as the rise of fascism that lead to WWII. I would argue that any numbers
of possibilities exist depending on the choices people make; however, windows of opportunity don’t
remain open indefinitely. We are at a choice point!
As the title of this article suggests the decision to continue as a community is not in question but the
question is how to respond to the changing landscape as it impacts the lives of those who consider the
Goodenough Community a part of their lives. That encompasses a broad spectrum of people. The
prevailing winds indicate greater need for community than ever before. Adding to the mix are issues of
succession and financial stress.
There is enough fearful thinking in the world today. I think this is a time for bold vision that reaches out
encompassing more. If we can bring more people in there will be an expansion of resources, more
talented people to bring needed vitality to existing programs and projects. We could realize some of
those much needed plans that have laid dormant for much to long like Mandala Resources
Incorporated, About Community and The Village without Walls. I think this is the vision we hoped to
attain but put on hold.
You may remember that I am working with John on a new web site that reflects fully the vision and
work of the Goodenough Community. Now that vision is evolving and the plan is to create a site that
looks to the community we are becoming. Stay tuned! Love, Russ Cowgill
Can you offer help to the Community Center?
Irene Perler
Many of us have conscience about the community center needing some care. We are selecting two
opportunities for participating: Sunday afternoon September 30 from 1:00 to 4:00 and Saturday,
October 13 from 1:00 to 5:00. There will be tasks for all abilities and inside as well as outside tasks.
Thanks!
Are you interested in wrestling with an issue, dealing with a relationship, or
maturing yourself?
There is some interest in a 6 to 8 week series of what might be called Group Counseling where
individuals could describe and work with issues they are facing. I hear people wanting to go deeper and
be more plain spoken about what challenges them. In response to this Colette and I are offering to
provide our leadership and we are talking about the possibility of Tuesday or Thursday evening. If you
are interested, send us an email.
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Will You Help?
What Goes Up, Must Come Down
Can you help take down the white tent?
October 5, 6, 7
Welcome Jim home by letting him know
you can help! Please email Jim Tocher
jamestocher@earthlink.net and
Colette Hoff hoff@goodenough.org
While Jim will need a crew, there will be tasks for all abilities!
And of course, good meals to support the effort. RSVP is important as always.
Your life is an answer to what question?
What was important to me this week?
The deAnguera Blog: Seattle Healing Arts
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This was a weekend I spent at Sahale helping Colette with serving Seattle Healing Arts, the medical
group established by Dr. Fernando Vega, a good community friend. Mostly I washed dishes.
There was no planned program The weekend was a social time for our guests and it gave us all the
opportunity to know each other better. We worked on several puzzles they had brought and I perused
a couple of their books. One was called God’s Hotel, a story about a unique San Francisco Hospital that
gave its patients old fashioned holistic care. They even had green houses and chickens for their
patients.
Saturday evening everybody adjourned to the Swamp. We even featured Katie Couric interviewing
Sarah Palin. Since it was my birthday, my favorite Baily’s drinks were on Colette. I never saw such a
happy group of medical people in my life. I asked Fernando how everybody managed to gather around
him. He said it just happened. Serendipity? I believe it. For me, there is no such thing as a random
event. All events have their place in a mortal life time.
Do you realize the Swamp will be open once again during tent take down next month? It used to be
open just during Lab but now the Swamp is staying open longer and longer. Pam and Elizabeth briefly
floated building a yurt like semi permanent structure. May be if we added a heater, the Swamp could
open even during New Year’s. Now that would be a blast. A place to party in all that snow. Thanks for
the dedication and hard work in keeping the place open and making it better with each passing year.
Oh yes, the salmon are definitely spawning. Our guests loved it but now the dead fish are really starting
to stink. I could even smell them up at Kirsten’s place. Come on, bears do your duty and eat them up! I
even found a fish skin and jaw on the road by the Weavery. Some crow must have delivered it.
Even though this was a working weekend for Colette and me, we both had fun with it and it felt much
like Lab. Work can be fun if done with the right frame of mind. I suggested the possibility of assigning
two people to each chore in the future such as cleaning toilets even if only one person is needed. That
would allow those people to work off each other’s energy. They could sing songs or be goofy.
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Guess who had the most fun at the
Swamp?
Yours truly naturally!
As human beings we have developed our minds to the point that we think about things as an inner
dialogue between a questioner and someone who answers. This fits quite nicely into our tendency to
see things as polarities and our need to see issues as having advantages and disadvantages.
JLH
Consider this question: Is there a question that occurs to you—that you would hate answering?
Your life is an answer to what question?
What Programs & Events are being offered in the Goodenough
Community System 2012?
(For more information on any of these events and programs, go to
www.goodenough.org)
Presenting Our Cultural Programs
For the Goodenough Community, cultural life is an arena for creative expression. All programs and
events are open to the public and we welcome your interest and participation.
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Women’s Culture
The first gathering of the women’s culture
will be Saturday October 27 from 10:00 to
2:00 at the Community Center.
Harvesting in our Friendships as Men
Over the summer I’ve talked with many men friends about my desire to host a
men’s gathering at Sahale this fall. I’ve heard your interest and now have a
date to share.
Here’s our working outline for the weekend:
Theme: Men on the Road Less Traveled
Where: Sahale Learning Center
When: October 26 – October 28, Friday evening through Sunday afternoon
Basic cost: 2 nights room and board at Sahale $130.00
We will be having:
 Good food and spirits
o Collaborative meal prep as a good men’s activity for those who enjoy the kitchen
 A little work together time (2-3 hours max) on a Sahale outdoor project
o Firewood production is important for us this time of year and we have a dandy new
wood splitter
 Time for getting real with each other in good conversation
o Engage our elders about lifelong men’s work as friends
o What’s needed now in your life as a man?
o What do you want to see for young men in this time?
o What’s up with “the men’s movement” in your life?
I’m looking forward to hearing from you about your interest and, of men you’d like to invite. I want your
help to make this a meaningful and energizing gathering for us all!
Brother Bruce
A Fall Harvest Weekend Workshop 2012, November 2 to 4
Join the men and women of the Goodenough Community for a weekend of
canning, pickling, making large quantities of applesauce, juicing grapes, and
making apple cider. All participants will come away with some products and
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good memories. November 2 to 4 at Sahale Learning Center. Suggested donation: $35.00.
Have you ever noticed how uncomfortable it feels when someone asks you a question about your own
failings and limitations?
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Puppet Show: Hansel and Gretel
Sept. 30, 2012
11:00 am & 1:00 pm
Presented by:
Willow Branch Puppet Theater Group
With 6 silk and wool marionettes & 4 felted wool animals
Held at: Seattle Waldorf School’s Huckleberry Hall
2728 NE 100 Seattle, 98125
Visa/MC Advance Reservations: $7 child/senior $8 general
Call: 206-985-2059 At the Door: $8 child/senior $9 general
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The Okanogan Family Faire is Oct 12-14. Here's their official link:
http://www.okanoganfamilyfaire.net/Default.htm
Hope you can come!
Love,
Connie
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In 1973, the Barter Faire was created to help a community connect and barter surplus harvest and goods for other
goods needed for winter. Through the years, the Okanogan Family Faire (OFF) has become an annual event
attracting vendors, musicians, artists and crafts people from communities, near and far.
The Okanogan Family Faire is a non-profit organization registered in the state of Washington, Okanogan County.
The purpose of this charitable corporation is to provide community events which support public education on a broad
range of traditional, rural, economic, and spiritual values that reflect respect for the diversity of all people, wildlife and
earth.
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You are invited to the 5th Annual
2012 Northwest Permaculture Convergence
Friday, October 5, 2012 at 2:30 PM - to -Sunday, October 7, 2012 at 6:00 PM (PT) Fort Flagler State Park
10541 Flagler Road
Nordland, WA 98358-9656
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And some additional permaculture events
-> Seedsaving as an Activist Practice
Saturday, September 29, 2012, Shoreline, WA
-> Bastyr University Certificate in Holistic Landscape Design
September 2012 - August 2013, Kenmore, WA
-> Oregon State University's Advanced Online Permaculture Design Practicum
September 24 - December 7, 2012, OSU online Ecampus
-> Northwest Permaculture Convergence
October 5 -7, 2012, near Port Townsend, WA
-> Introduction to Permaculture
4 Monday evenings, October 15 - November 5, 2012, Portland, OR
-> Northwest Ecobuilding Guild Retreat
October 19 - 21, 2012, Port Orchard, WA
-> Inland Northwest Permaculture Conference
November 9 - 11, 2012, Missoula, MT
-> 22nd Annual Lost Valley Permaculture Design Course
December 3 - 16, 2012, near Eugene, OR
-> Oregon State University Online Permaculture Design Course
January - March 2012, online E-campus
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Seedsaving as an Activist Practice
Saturday, September 29, 2012
7 - 9 pm
Shoreline Community College
16101 Greenwood Ave N.
Shoreline, WA
Free!
Seedsaving gives us the unique opportunity to dance with life and play a distinct role in our nourishment.
We can nurture plants for the special qualities that sustain us in uncertain futures. As corporations
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attempt to take control of our genetic diversity, seed saving becomes an important political act. Come
join us to learn how you can take responsibility for your own food supply by saving your own seed from
your garden. We will be discussing harvest of cultivated and native seeds as well as flowers and
vegetable crops. Seed saving is a great localized buffer against the globalization of our food supply as it
encourages diversity & increases the resilience in our gardens to pests and diseases.
For more information, visit www.digginshoreline.org
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Fall 2012 Bastyr University
Holistic Landscape Design Certificate Program
Cultivate your love of plants and the planet into a unique and important skill set
that combines ecological landscape design, regenerative, local food systems and community garden
apothecaries.
Be part of the REAL grassroots healthcare movement!
Bastyr’s Certificate in Holistic Landscape Design (CHLD) is 1-year, four-season program that uniquely integrates:
 Convenient Friday evening & weekends format
 Site visits, regional experts, guest instructors and hands-on education
 Over 140 hours dedicated to the ecological principles & practices of Permaculture Landscape Design
 More than 30 hours focused on the theory and practice of Rudolph Steiner’s Biodynamic farming
methods
 Horticulture series focused on the cultivation and utilization of a wide variety of medicinal & edible plants
from various traditions and cultures
 Emphasis on the Soil-Foodweb through classes like Soil Ecology, Mycology, Biointensive IPM & Plant
Health
 Skills for creating a livelihood working with plants through classes like Horticultural Business Practices,
Horticultural Research & Grant Writing and the HLD Practicum
Electives include:
 Herbal Medicine Making for All
 Asian Medicinal Plant Horticulture
 Medicinal Field Botany & Plant Identification
 Herbal Medicine throughout Oregon
 Cascade Herb Experience
 Flower Essences
 Introduction to Aromatic Medicine
 Whole Foods Production
 The Chef’s Pantry
 Northwest Herbs
 Ethnobotany
For more information, check out http://www.bastyr.edu/academics/areas-study/certificate-holisticlandscape-design
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By Elizabeth Jarrett-Jefferson
B
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A
NT
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MN
TRRRAAVVVEEELLL
A blonde gets an opportunity to fly to a nearby country. She has never been on an airplane anywhere and
was very excited and tense. As soon as she boarded the plane, a Boeing747, she started jumping in
excitement, running over seat to seat and starts shouting, "BOEING! BOEING!! BOEING!!! BO....." She
sort of forgets where she is, even the pilot in the cock-pit hears the noise. Annoyed by the goings on, the
Pilot comes out and shouts "BE SILENT!" There was pin-drop silence everywhere and everybody is
looking at the blonde and the angry Pilot. She stared at the pilot in silence for a moment, concentrated
really hhaarrdd, and all of a sudden started shouting, "OEING! OEING! OEING! OE...."
“Last Call” for the Swamp
Join us for a “Last Call for the Swamp” on the Tent Take Down Weekend! (October 5-6-7)
We will do a little celebrating and begin to do a bit of Swamp take-down and put-away.
Thank you to everyone for your support of the Swamp this year. Your energy and
enthusiasm has helped raise money for the Community’s scholarship fund. Stay tunedin for 2013
“Swamp Ticklers”!
- Pam and Elizabeth JJ
NEXT WEEK: ANSWERS!
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