On reducing separation through conversations over a shared meal

Conversare is the name of social gatherings in public places in which all present interact naturally and easily over a meal with someone they may not know. These events are about bringing conversation to life in situations in which whoever comes is welcome and invited to participate.

I wonder if you see what a difference this can make to how we connect to each other? And why this matters?

What does it mean to bring conversation to life? Among possible answers is that of recognising the value of designing contexts in which conversation happens. Contexts in which the purpose of getting together is to engage well with each other. This may be to explore particular issues in looking for creative ways to address and to resolve them. The purpose may also be mainly to enable participants to get to know each other and to have a feeling of being in community.

Conversare gatherings are a means of ‘awareness raising’ of what can happen when all who come along get into the spirit of enjoying each other’s company and delighting in the experience.

For in these events there is nothing to do, nothing to resolve, no outcomes to aim for. The purpose is to experience giving of ourselves by being interested and curious about the others, and particularly the person with whom we share a meal.

With this point of view in mind the experience is very different from that of events in which the aim is to see how much benefit to get rather than to give.

Reportedly there are many people who long to feel more closely connected to those around them and yet who don’t see how to do this.

And so here is one way of experiencing the pleasure of it happening. From which ‘good things’ could emerge. <smile>

In a similar spirit are these get togethers for lively interaction over a shared meal:

. Sydney’s multicultural community celebrated the nationwide launch of The Welcome Dinner Project, an initiative that brings together local Australians with new arrivals over a pot luck dinner.

. Schools in Australia celebrate Harmony Day on 21 March each year.  The event at the primary school where my wife is a teacher took the form of a pot luck breakfast to which students, their parents and staff were invited.

To the question “What does Harmony Day mean to you?” a boy replied “It is when all the world comes together” As we looked around the court yard (below) it was easy to think “Yes, the world has come to our school!”

Looking around our little planet it is not hard to see that many of the problems which now confront it arise from our feelings of being disconnected from one another and from the natural world. The writer Charles Eisenstein in his book ‘The Ascent of Humanity – Civilization and the Human Sense of Self’ suggests that the core problem facing humanity is Separation. “All the crises that humanity now faces are grounded in the belief that we are separate – separate from each other, separate from the biosphere that sustains us, separate from the universe that has brought us forth.”

Do you also feel that high priority needs to be given to steps to bring people together in contexts in which everyone who comes are welcome, treated with respect and assured that they are the ‘right people.’ Is this critical to how we face the future?

How’s this for a lively idea?  Shared food is the ‘appetiser’, the conversation which this stimulates is the ‘main course’ and feelings of closer connection or reduced separation the ‘wholesome change?’

For a lovely illustration related to this idea see the graphic by Michael Leunig in my previous post.

Looking forward

Go well

Alan Stewart
Adelaide