There are two kinds of familial likeness: one based on genes, as in families... The other...is that of a flame lighting another flame: the likenesses between two flames are [often] much greater. Harriet Rubin
Occasionally I am asked what my aspiration is for our dare to dream community, and I have fumbled for words. I could feel what I hoped for, but I couldn’t articulate it.
Now, I think I can.
On the plane to Mexico this week, I read Harriet Rubin’s The Mona Lisa Stratagem, and was captivated by her discussion of the salonistes, all the while reflecting on my real-life experience with Boston's salon-style discussion group Fusion.
Quoting from Rubin:
When youth and beauty failed women in seventeenth-century France, when…institutional…rewards did not satisfy them, they relied upon moral courage to make history in their image...They [did so by] creating salons of talk and friendship, gathering…in which ideas of freedom and revolution…changed the world.
From dining room to dining room, the walls of each outfitted in dark red or blue damask silks and curtains, the woman at the center kept changing, but the circle stayed the same. These beautiful courts, which turned the most unlikely fellow travelers into kin, not just colleagues, enlivened and democratized the world more completely than any routine form of organization.
With these words top-of-mind, dear friends, here is my first pass at what I want for our dream to dream community:
As individuals, may we each do something that is uniquely ours to do, becoming each of us dare to dreamgirls. As a community, may we practice salon-style systergy, and in so doing, enliven the world.
What is your goal for the dare to dream community?
P.S. For those of you that find statistics intriguing, and because the brand dame inspired me to do so, according to Feedburner, during the month of May our dare to dream community grew from 71 to 94 subscribers (mostly RSS feeds), an increase of 30% plus.
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