From cac38705ff759057d0dcb5003c76eb6e40c3aa1a Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Madison Scott-Clary Date: Tue, 27 Jul 2021 23:45:43 -0700 Subject: [PATCH] update from sparkleup --- writing/meeting-of-one.html | 26 +++++++++----------------- 1 file changed, 9 insertions(+), 17 deletions(-) diff --git a/writing/meeting-of-one.html b/writing/meeting-of-one.html index 770db0364..338f14a6a 100644 --- a/writing/meeting-of-one.html +++ b/writing/meeting-of-one.html @@ -37,22 +37,20 @@

Ioan followed the Chace along a stepping-stone path through shrubbery to the building’s gated entrance. “I have noticed that a lot of rituals, if you will pardon the term, have an aspect of opening and closing, whether it’s a sentinel and passphrase to enter the space, or even just a shaking of hands at the beginning.”

The Chace nodded, beaming. The clade had clearly decided that this academic look should come with a kindly, wrinkled face, and the expression pleased Ioan immensely.

The gate unlocked, Ioan was led into a perfectly square room. Chairs, padded and upright, were arranged in an octagon within that space, truncating the corners to leave room for slow-spinning rattan fans with aged motors and antique lamps. Chaces in varied attire were filing in and sorting themselves into the chairs, talking in obviously well-acquainted clusters.

-

Ioan attempted to slip into a chair near the back, close to the door, but was guided instead by Epsilon to sit in the center of one of the trapezoids of chairs that made up the octagon.

-

“There is no ‘back of the room’,” he explained. “We’re all here on the same footing, and I’m here to answer any questions before and after the meeting. You know how this works?”

-

“I think so. Silence unless you have something to say, right?”

-

Epsilon nodded, “Yes, but as an observer, I’d like to suggest that you remain in silence for the meeting. You’re free to take notes if you’d like.”

-

After the last of the Josephs Chace filed into the room and had taken their seats, one of them — Prime, Ioan assumed — stood and spoke. “Welcome, all. Today, we will wait in expectant silence. If you are called to give vocal ministry, please stand and say your name, and when you are done speaking, you may sit down again. Please give time for the meeting to digest any testimony before continuing, should you have anything to add.”

+

“We’re all here on the same footing,” Chace Epsilon explained. “You know how this works?”

+

“I think so. Silence unless one have something to say, right?”

+

Epsilon nodded, “As an observer, I’d like to suggest that you remain in silence for the meeting. You’re free to take notes, however.”

+

After the last of the Josephs Chace filed into the room and had taken their seats, one of them — Prime, Ioan assumed — stood and spoke. “Welcome, all. Today, we will wait in expectant silence. If you are called to give vocal ministry, please stand and say your name. Please give time for the meeting to digest any testimony afterward.”

And with that, the meeting began. Prime sat down once more and the room fell to silence broken only by breathing and the occasional shuffle of legs being crossed or uncrossed.

-

Ioan found emself somewhat shocked by the brief introduction followed by total silence. There was no sermon, no reading, no music. No call to the egregore preceded this sudden, overwhelming group awareness, and no words were spoken as, slowly, the room seemed to fall into synchronized breathing and some unseen, unknown, unknowable companionship welled among them.

+

Ioan was startled by the brief introduction followed by total silence. There was no sermon, no reading, no music, this ey knew. But no call to the egregore preceded this sudden, overwhelming group awareness, and no words were spoken as, slowly, the room fell into synchronized breathing as some unseen, unknown, unknowable companionship welled among them.

Except for em.

Ey felt apart, in this meeting of one, despite the twenty-odd individuals sitting in the room. Ey felt alone and individual, and not just for the occasional note ey scribbled on the pad. Ey felt apart, an other in the midst of a group so intimately bound.

-

The silence was not heavy. It was not oppressive. It simply…was. Ey sat with legs crossed, and recalled previous investigations that required meditation, calling on those reserves to keep emself present and observant, not to mention still.

Perhaps twenty minutes elapsed in silence before one of the Chaces stood.

“Joseph Chace Eta. I was thinking this past week about the idea of simplicity, and how that applies to not just the base mechanics of life, but also the ways in which we interact with each other. Honesty and earnestness sometimes feel outside our reach, but still an honorable goal to strive for.”

-

He sat back down and the silence once more grew.

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He sat back down and silence once more fell.

The meeting continued thus for a little more than an hour, during which only three people spoke. The second two expanded on the idea of simplicity that the first had suggested, refuting small points, adding some of their own.

-

As a means of interaction, it went beyond conversation. It was not exactly a debate, it was not a presentation or lecture. The members simply stood and stated a thought, and then sat back down to let everyone totally and completely digest what had been said.

-

It was, Ioan realized, not all that dissimilar from writing letters. One had the chance to chose and compose one’s words carefully and then share them out loud, while the others had time to read and digest, simply taking in this information or perhaps formulating a response. It was an epistolary of sorts, a series of statements given as epistles to a congregation, read aloud and taken to heart.

+

It went beyond conversation. It was not a debate, it was not a presentation or lecture. The members simply stood and stated a thought, and then sat back down to let everyone totally and completely digest what had been said.

+

It was, Ioan realized, not all that dissimilar from written correspondence. One could chose one’s words carefully and then share them out loud, while others had time to digest, simply taking in this information or perhaps formulating a response. It was an epistolary community.

Ioan sat across a long table from Joseph Chace Prime, a cup of cooling coffee next eir notepad. Chace talked, and Ioan listened.

“I was the first of my old meeting to upload. There were only about fifteen of us, and we were all getting old, all struggling to face a world moved on. I had cancer, so it seemed a natural choice to come here and complete what work I had left in me.

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“I don’t know.” Chace Prime shrugged.

Epsilon, who had rejoined them after a conversation with a few other Chaces, piped up. “Once, I was thought that the qualities of that light within each of us didn’t matter, but I’ve since fallen away from that opinion. If the light is meant to guide us in our testimony, and if we accept that our testimony will change with our experience, then that guidance must change as well.”

Prime added, “I waffle about whether or not it matters, but the more I understand this new form of community, the more I think that having differing testimonies and paths leads to a fuller experience.”

-

Ioan set eir pen down and finished eir coffee in the silence that followed.

-

Finally, ey asked, “So, if you had to boil your thoughts down to a goal, what would it be?”

-

Prime and Epsilon looked at each other, expressions mirrored to an uncanny degree.

-

It was Prime who answered. “Up until recently, we’ve been focused on recalling that sense of community through our meeting of one, just Joseph Chace in communion with himself. I think it might be time to branch out, though, and perhaps open the meeting to others.”

-

“Any particular reason why?”

-

“We’re all still the Chace clade. We can only become so different from each other. It’s time for some fresh ideas, some new life breathed into us. It’s time for the community to grow.”

-

“It’s time,” Epsilon added, eyes focused on some grand idea Ioan could not see. “It’s time to turn outward.”

+

Ioan set eir pen down and finished eir coffee in the silence that followed. A silence as kind and companionable as the one they had just shared.