{"id":602,"date":"2015-07-28T17:56:47","date_gmt":"2015-07-28T21:56:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sallybsedgwick.com\/conversation\/?p=602"},"modified":"2017-05-18T16:05:26","modified_gmt":"2017-05-18T20:05:26","slug":"keep-your-word","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/keep-your-word\/","title":{"rendered":"Keep Your Word"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"WDS<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019m home from the World Domination Summit<\/a> (WDS) and pretty much recovered from traveling to four different venues, through four airports, a couple of train stations, three time zones, and one bus transfer. Oh, and mastering (I think) public transportation in Portland. <\/span><\/p>\n

This is my second year attending and my third year writing about WDS. For 2013<\/a>\u00a0and 2014<\/a>, I compared it with the Wild Goose Festival<\/a> which I attended both years, but I\u2019m not comparing them this year, because this year Wild Goose was so much like WDS it was scheduled for the same weekend. <\/span><\/p>\n

So this year WDS gets a post all to itself. In 2014, at the end of WDS, I was sure I needed to return, but this year I was pretty sure I didn’t<\/em> want to and I\u2019m still trying to figure out why I felt that way. WDS is committed to supporting community, adventure, and service. Sounds perfect to me. \u201cTo live extraordinary lives in an ordinary world.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, I don\u2019t find the world all that ordinary, but I think you\u2019re beginning to know that. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"Where<\/a>Part of my personal dream for WDS was for Spirit Moxie. I planned a \u201cLet\u2019s Change the World!\u201d meetup, using what for me was a perfect time last year to meet people before things got started. I even found a bar\/restaurant rumored to have a great, but poorly attended, happy hour. A call to Mummy\u2019s<\/a> in downtown Portland confirmed that they would be happy to have us. [If you\u2019re in Portland, check them out \u2014 it\u2019s Egyptian food. Really. I had a falafel, unlike any I\u2019ve had before, and a fava bean dip\/appetizer served with laid-back hospitality. And I\u2019m told there\u2019s real belly dancing Saturday nights.] WDS approved the event and it was \u201csold out.\u201d Almost 40 people said they were coming and there was interest in my Facebook invitation as well.<\/span><\/p>\n

Only eight people showed up, nine if you include me. As far as I could tell none of them had signed up for the event, but came anyway hoping there would be room. The timing was<\/i> difficult. The announcement said we started at 3pm and registration for the whole event started at 2pm. The restaurant had a reputation for being hard to find although I said an orange door was a clue. And, in the best tradition of events, those who showed up may indeed have been the right eight people to be there. In any case the conversation was wonderful and rich, and the people there were looking to give and share ideas and inspiration (e.g., how might you recycle those little soaps from hotels on a huge scale?).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Although I felt sorry for the bar\u2019s owner, and, to be honest, for myself, I shrugged it off until I heard other stories of other meetups where the same thing had happened. As the week went on, the rule seemed to be \u201ceven if you didn\u2019t sign up, stop by to see if you can get in.\u201d I went to one meetup that I\u2019d signed up for and stayed for about ten minutes (hey, I was there). I \u201creally\u201d attended another one that I had signed up for, and I, too, stopped by another meetup that I hadn’t signed up for that was full and was told to stay. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"Sally's<\/a>I found myself wondering throughout all this about the whole concept of giving your word and keeping it. The RSVP. The shake of the hand. The casual, “I’ll call you next week.” Any event\/party host will tell you that planning has become difficult because people do not let you know if they will attend \u2014 or they don\u2019t let you know that they won’t be there if their plans change. Lawyers have made whole careers around people no longer honoring the handshake and their word. Friendships have been stretched and lovers separated. \"Sally<\/a>And I’m certainly not perfect, particularly in the \u201ccasual remarks to friends\u201d category.<\/span><\/p>\n

There was another element at WDS that also bothered me. While we were excited to be changing the world, we seemed oblivious to our interactions with the community. Oh, we set a world record for eating breakfast in bed (because we could) and donated the mattresses and beds to appropriate local agencies. But I’ve seen events so embrace the \"bear<\/a>community that the city was minutely transformed. WDS could have been like that. Excellent volunteers made sure we laughed, gave high fives, and that there was no litter or other ecological scar. But I saw meetup leaders dismiss hassles for waiters, bus riders ignore their intrusion on the locals, the \u201cit\u2019s only a job\u201d look on the theatre staffs\u2019 faces, and the stoic disappointment on the face of Mummy\u2019s owner. Shouldn\u2019t engaging the world with basic politeness and awareness be a part of keeping our word to be transformative?<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Lissa<\/a>So WDS\u2019s commitment<\/span>\u2014<\/span>for weren\u2019t we all WDS?\u2014to community, adventure, and service seemed mixed. Last year, I came home with a Brave Bot, an appreciation of superhero capes (and tiny houses), riding a hot air balloon crossed off my bucket list, and a visceral understanding that we\u2019re all related. I don’t even need to go look at my notes to remember
\nthis. This year, looking at someone else\u2019s notes, I was reminded that I\u2019m a poet (first poem published in second grade), reclaimed my own experience with grief, saw my mentor Lissa Rankin<\/a> heal the whole room back into love and possibility, and \u201cmet\u201d Kid President<\/a>, who shares awesomeness and is clearly a kid. I\u2019d say about half the speakers challenged me, but I don\u2019t really remember what they said. Almost none are remembered as I write this. Pictures remind \"Kid<\/a>me that I ate a Voodoo Donut\u2014another bucket list triumph.\u00a0 <\/span>And I talked to people who left greatly renewed and inspired so I do know there is another side to people\u2019s experience of the weekend. <\/span><\/p>\n

All I left the event with were these two questions: \u201cWhat is there about keeping your word?\u201d and \u201cDoes keeping your word really matter?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This past Sunday I went to an early church service and reported on the first of the four \u201cvenues\u201d mentioned above. \u201cI wish you would come do that at 10:30, too,\u201d I was asked, and I said, \u201cI can do that.\u201d I was juggling bus schedules, but easily found a bus (yeah, Google maps) to my favorite breakfast spot. Perfect. Had a great breakfast, wandered over to the grocery store (did I really need anything?), and thought about going home. No buses for more than 45 minutes. No bus back to church either (had I really promised to do that today or some other Sunday?). But it was only a little over a mile away and the timing would be perfect if I walked. I would arrive about when they needed me to do my spiel, even if it was 90 degrees out. Hmmm. As I approached the church, I saw a bus pull up that would take me directly home. All I\u2019d have to do is run or wave or . . . But I walked, watched the bus turn the corner, and went inside the church grateful for air conditioning. When I made sure they knew I was there, the leader said, \u201cOh, I knew you would be here. You said you would be.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

So I did my spiel. Looked at the bus schedule. And found another bus leaving in five minutes for home. <\/span><\/p>\n

What I have is my word to give, to share. It\u2019s free. And your word is yours. How do you honor it? I\u2019m pretty sure the universe will help you keep it.<\/span><\/p>\n

_________________________________<\/p>\n

Photo credits from the top:
\nMarquee at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, Portland, OR \u2014 Armosa Studios<\/a>
\nMummy’s Restaurant and Lounge \u2014 Mummy’s Facebook page<\/a>
\nBear waiting for breakfast \u2014 Spirit Moxie
\nSally and bear posing at Worldwide Waffles \u2014 Spirit Moxie
\nWorldwide Waffles certificate with our\u00a0attending bear \u2014 Spirit Moxie
\nLissa Rankin onstage \u2014Armosa Studios<\/a>
\nKid President (Robby Novak) entering the stage \u2014 Armosa Studios<\/a><\/p>\n

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I\u2019m home from the World Domination Summit (WDS) and pretty much recovered from traveling to four different venues, through four airports, a couple of train stations, three time zones, and one bus transfer. Oh, and mastering (I think) public transportation … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-main-conversation"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6DJHl-9I","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=602"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":897,"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602\/revisions\/897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}