Storytelling

We meet on the 2nd and 4th Mondays of every month, at 7:30PM, at the Toben Home on Pickards Mountain (see directions below). We share rich meaningful stories about our lives, with an eye to the future. The “Great Transition,” the “Ecozoic Era,” the “Great Turning,” has begun. We seek to collectively craft hopeful stories of the way forward. Your life offers threads that we wish to weave in. Please join us every other Monday as the story unfolds.

We see the "New Story" as foundational to a successful transition. Without a new story, the "new society" risks applying the same consumer/producer paradigm to the post-peak-oil, climate-changed era, and winding up with the same result.

Culture is story. Our current cultural story is based on an extractive economy, where material throughput (product) is prized and health/well being are marginalized.

Our group questions the assumptions of the failed paradigm and brings in philosophy, science, history, and life story to inform the new paradigm. The evolving "story" broadly recognizes that we (all species) are a "communion of subjects, rather than a collection of objects," and the life stories that "season" our version of the story are particular to the beautiful souls that attend these meetings. That is, the story we are creating has a Carrboro-Chapel Hill flavor, and the process of creating this unique story is itself a product.

We invite all "Transitioners" to co-create this new story. We have found unexpected outcomes in the telling of stories that make the radical transition that must occur seem not so scary after all.

Related reading:
A while back, Sami Grover published an article about Chris Johnstone's work in Treehugger. Johnstone was a huge influence on Transition Towns founder Rob Hopkins and explains why the stories we tell ourselves have a direct impact on our actions and our abilities to meet our goals.

Directions:

From Calvander BP Station: Take Dairyland Rd towards Maple View Farm. Travel approx 2 miles, then turn left onto Bethel Hickory Grove Church Rd. Travel one mile and turn right onto Jo Mac Rd. See below.

OR From Hwy 54: Heading west, pass Carrboro and turn right onto Bethel Hickory Grove Church Rd. Travel one mile and turn left onto Jo Mac Rd. See below.

Once you turn onto Jo Mac Rd, travel one mile. Turn right onto Pickards Meadow gravel road. This road is our driveway, but many other drives split off of it too. Follow the signs to stay on Pickards Meadow until you reach the top of the hill. Pass the sign for Pickards Mountain Eco-Institute. Take a left at the sign for the organic garden, solar panels, etc. Follow the drive around and park in front of the greenhouse.

Reports of past meetings

Report from 22 July 2010 Spokescouncil meeting:

The group’s role in TCCH is to tell stories of hope. Their latest assignment is to cast forward to 2020 with several constricted parameters (petroleum, water, climate?) and describe a personally positive and hopeful future. A mission statement may be developed. They hope to make videos, publish stories, rap, music, graphics, etc.

Report from Story Telling, 6 July 2010

Our eclectic group of tale tellers has met 3 times since the Great Unleashing, and plans to continue to meet every other Monday from 7-9pm-ish at Pickards Mountain throughout the summer. (Check the calendar under Events for specifics.) We have watched videos, heard original songs, listened to allegory and life stories, read essays and recited poetry. Some offerings have been directly related to how we arrived where we find our selves as a species, and some have been visionary about where we want to go. We all recognize the power of the story to explain and to change. We are getting to know each other and each other’s stories as we find inspiration and support for the tasks ahead and create community that will build a new story.

As a group we see our path as a process for the time being. We believe in the power of community and wish to build community through conversation and sharing stories. We believe that this will lead us where we need to go.

We hope to record some songs or stories this summer that will inspire and be made available on the website. We welcome others to the group and look forward to being enriched and enlivened by sharing our stories.