May 16-18 Prairie as Metaphor for Personal Growth and Social Transformation
From: Lynn Englund (engl8813TC.UMN.EDU)
Date: Sun, 27 Apr 2003 11:45:50 -0500
April 27, 2003

To:   Folk School Folks
From: Lynn Englund and John Wallace

The beauty of the spring prairie and the Shalom Hill Farm animals are
awaiting you the weekend of May 16-18!

We are announcing the May 16-18 folk school weekend retreat (see below for
registration information) and inviting you to join in the facilitation and
planning of the retreat. The theme of the retreat will be to bring to light
our assumptions of how personal growth and social transformation occur. We
want to play with pictures, images, and metaphors of change while noticing
where we loose hope and where new hope and possibility arise for us. We want
to identify our various assumptions and then confront them with a paradox
that can be put in different ways.

Thoreau's image: If I am hacking at the branches of evil, I may all the
while, by my mode of life, be watering its roots.

Havel's insistence: If I seek to build social forms that further the aims of
life, there are many tools drawn from the present social system that I
cannot use, because the system denies the aims of life and its tools can
build nothing that nurtures them.

WHY YOU MIGHT WANT TO BE A RETREAT PLANNER/FACILITATOR

If it were obvious and transparent what our assumptions are and how the
tools we've acquired in the present system contaminate what we build, then
there wouldn't be a need for a retreat or for facilitators to help plan one.
But these things are not obvious and transparent. The process of
finding images and questions that allow our assumptions to be revealed to
ourselves is demanding and exciting. It will begin at the first
facilitator's meeting and continue to deepen through the retreat itself.

To plan the questions and activities of of the retreat, please join us at
Lynn's on Saturday, May 3 from 6-9 pm. Dessert will be served.

90 Malcolm Ave S.E. #3 (top right)
Minneapolis, MN  55414
612-331-2263 or 612-710-7287 (cell)
Map is located at http://www.hearthcommunities.com/90malcolm.gif


REGISTRATION FOR MAY 16-18 FOLK SCHOOL

(see http://www.hopework.org/fsretreatinfo.html for more information about
folk school retreats)

We have reserved up to 18 rooms at Shalom Hill Farm near Windom, MN. The
total cost of the weekend retreat is $59 per person single occupancy, or $47
per person double occupancy. A sliding fee scale (from $25 less than cost to
$25+ more than cost) is available.

To register please e-mail John Wallace (walla003 [at] umn.edu) or Lynn Englund
(engl8813 [at] umn.edu) saying that you would like to participate. Please
register no later than 2 days prior to the start of the retreat so that food
can be purchased in advance. Your registration will be acknowledged to
confirm that there is a room available for you.

Please include in your registration message the following information:

1. Name

2. Food requirements: vegetarian, vegan, other food desires or allergies?

3. If you are driving, let us know your estimated departure and arrival
times and whether you will have room for others.

4. If you need a ride, indicate the time you can leave and where you will be
on Friday.

5. When we should expect you if you are unable to arrive by 6 pm or need to
leave early.

6. An emergency contact number for someone who knows of your plans.

A special note: folk school gatherings are intended to bring new people
together and to be open to all who share the values of stronger communities
and are working to build them. We hope this invitation will reach some
people who have not previously taken part in a gathering sponsored by the
folk school group. Please share this invitation with anyone whom you wish to
invite.

Lynn Englund
John Wallace
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