3.7 Departure From the Northern Wasteland.

A half-century ago the Berlin School of electronic music emerged from Germany. One of the records in our basement, carried there by my late brother, was Michael Hoenig's Departure from the Northern Wasteland, a classic example of the Berlin School. One side featured the 21-minute title track, an excursion into minimalism -- melodic, but dissonant, and slightly dystopian, occasionally disorienting. It seemed to capture the uneasiness of leaving, suggesting a lengthy stretch of railway, eternal miles. It felt like an entrained, and entranced train ride, a departure from the northern wasteland.

 

Departure implies change. Geographic change implies a loss of community. Often we want to stand still, though this is impossible on a rotating and orbiting planet. Think of it: we are rotating and orbiting when we are standing still.

 

This is the seventh day of a reflection on Community. The seventh day signals a departure. Thus far we have focused on three themes, seven times: Work, Household, and Community. Words (and pictures) tend to reflect our values and beliefs. Over the course of 21 posts, we should be able to find representations of ourselves, our values and our beliefs. The things that I find there, are things that are valued, such as change, personal growth, transformation, personal choice, individuality, diversity, spirituality, relationships, creativity, work, household, family, and a certain kind of community. 

Are these values, beliefs, or dreams that we aspire to? Or are they just talk? Talk is cheap.

This act of reflection is a keeping of the promise to ourselves to evaluate our progress on the seventh day. But the outcome seems to be a 'blinding flash of the obvious.' A continuity of growth, at a snail's pace, on the same continuum of change. There is no radical transformation, no real repentance of mind, no rethinking, and no deconstruction.

The initial Nomad Project explored personal growth and change. It was based on a single request: tell me a story about a time in your life when you had an experience that you consider a ‘life-changing experience.’

The basic themes that emerged were: Departure, Crisis, Guides, Ask, Seers, Letting Go, Accepting, Afterward, and Witness. In detail, this means that personal growth came from a departure. It may also have been grounded in a crisis. It might have been aided by a guide, or even provoked by a guide. Another way of reflecting on this was that people who felt they were invisible were seen -- by a seer. Growth also came from asking. This might be asking a person or a greater power to meet a need. Further, it often involved a letting go; loss. There might be an acceptance, finally, of others, or an acceptance of one's real self. The reflection on growth recognized an 'afterwards.' A period of discovery where everything was well, even better than before. Lastly, the person became a witness to their own growth. This opened possibilities for future growth, without fear. Subsequently, the Nomad Project became the Nomad Collective, recognizing the importance of community.

Of all of these, the thing that I am most struck by, that which pervades, is the necessity of a departure.