Encounterism
wwnorton.com
Encounterism
Encounters with strangers can be a humbling reminder of the vastness of the world and of each other, the impossible-feeling truth that each one of us contains an entire universe of inner life and a singular perspective, that as a species we have an incredible capacity for kindness, cruelty, courage and creativity.
Sophie McBain • The big idea: why we should spend more time talking to strangers
"serendipity engine" - consistently creating moments of potential connection and designing a cadence of connection in your life that can lead to unexpected, deeper connections if you're open to them.
Daniel Stillman • Instead of Networking, Build a Serendipity Engine — Daniel Stillman
Culture emerges from the connections between people, and I believe these are always strongest in person. Face-to-face cultural engagement is necessarily participatory, online cultural engagement rarely is. Nearly all of my most fulfilling and exciting experiences, those that have made me feel part of a community or moment, have happened in person. ... See more
MØRNING • Q̾u̾i̾c̾k̾ ̾F̾i̾r̾e̾: Creation Anxiety
many of us are drawn to these novel kinds of Small Group experience because we long for new kinds of friendship that transcend the categories of relationship currently on offer to us. We’re enticed and intrigued by the notion of a close group of people that are keen and eager to collectively experiment with:-Going psychologically deeper than the bo... See more
Joe Lightfoot • Of Pods, Squads, Crews & Gangs: Small Group Experiments In Radical Belonging
Phosphorescence: On awe, wonder and things that sustain you when the world goes dark
amazon.com
Consider, by way of example, something as prosaic as an encounter with another person. Such an encounter will be resonant only when we offer ourselves to the encounter in such a way that we can be affected or moved by the other person and when we, in turn, can respond in kind to this call. As Illich might say, it is a willingness to be surprised by... See more
theconvivialsociety.substack.com • The Paradox of Control
The encounter with him is ecstatic, bringing the fullness of time. It changes them both by drawing them deeper and deeper into each other’s personhood. The change that comes into their lives is never wearying (though the jumping and noisemaking might get exhausting), because the ecstatic encounter of personhood produces its own energy.
Andrew Root • The Congregation in a Secular Age (Ministry in a Secular Age Book #3): Keeping Sacred Time against the Speed of Modern Life
The upshot of device-mediated encounters is that they may be benign in single instances but collectively they are alarming. The larger question is where we are headed with such encounters. How do they impact our capacity to love, to be present to one another, to sort out what deeply matters about oneself and life? What impact do they have on human ... See more