Page 3 - C.A.L.L. #31 - Spring 2009

Ganas Community, located on Staten Island in New York, has a weekly
newspaper from which the following snippets have been culled.
ONE SHARED DINNER
CONVERSATION
One evening a couple of weeks ago, a few
Ganasians talked together at dinner about
something of common interest. Afterwards I
commented on how relaxing I found it, to sit in
the dining room with just one conversation
happening. It had never occurred to me before
that talking with a bunch of people could be
easier sometimes than talking one to one.
This way of being together is a tradition that
we practiced at every dinner when I first came
to Ganas, and I miss it. I arranged, as part of
my birthday events, to talk Saturday morning,
about how we might arrange to have single-
conversation dinners more often.
We’ll talk about my and other people’s wishes,
the obstacles, and what it might take to
facilitate a dinner-time focus. — Peggy
SOMETIMES I HATE MY KITCHEN
... And it grieves me to say that because I love
the kitchen in my house. I honestly think it is
my second favorite common space at Ganas.
The first is the porch but when the weather is
bad it is no fun.
The dish sponge smells worse than the garbage
can and it’s less than a week old. People use it
to wipe up food and then don’t rinse it, don’t
wring it out ... so it stinks. After I use it I
spend five minutes trying in vain to wash the
smell off my hand.
There are often dirty pans on the stove for
hours, even days, which is just so obviously
uncool I can’t believe it happens.
Uncovered, unlabeled, half eaten dishes of
food in the fridge? Charming. And the
dishwasher. Ah yes. It’s not rocket science to
load a dishwasher. Plates march two by two
down the aisle on the bottom rack. Cups form a
delightful promenade down each side of the
top rack and the bowls stroll single file
between them. Pots, pans, and oversized bowls,
as well as cooking utensils? Well, the
manufacturer of the dishwasher could tell you
where to put them but he wouldn’t be taking
into account the fact that those items get
used a dozen times every day and the only
considerate thing to do for your housemates is
3
to wash them by hand and put them back where
someone else can use them.
Oh ... and while we’re on the subject, it may not
be strictly necessary to rinse dishes before
putting them in the dishwasher, but the food
you leave on plates doesn’t magically vanish. It
either gets baked to the plate (noodle
fragments and rice are likely to do this) or it
falls to the floor of the dishwasher where it
rots, stinks and draws roaches.
I doubt my house is the only place these things
happen. C’mon guys. Your mom ain’t here to
clean up after you! — Catherine
GANAS RETREAT REPORT
We had a retreat all this past week, with a
summary discussion on Sunday. During most of
the time we shared our individual visions for
Ganas and for ourselves. On Sunday we had a
brainstorming session wherein we pulled
together the themes that had emerged during
the week into a set of general topics.
Throughout the next few months we will take
up these topics during planning sessions for
further discussion.
Neither the list nor the discussion is in any
particular order. We’ve started by talking
about how to transform planning meetings
themselves.
1. Transforming self, group, and world
2. Work for peace, starting with ourselves
3. Relationship to the wider world outside
Ganas
4. Relationship to bringing more people in more.
5. Relationship to children
6. Relationship to people who work inside Ganas
7. Relationship to each other in every
interaction
8. Relationship to dreams and visions
9. Relationship to oneself (personal
transformation)
10. Relationship to others through activities
11. Relationship to our physical space
12. Relationship to others in Planning
13. Bringing people together within community
Come to Planning, write, comment, discuss,
participate, think, dream, propose, create,
volunteer, join others’ projects, start a project
of your own…. How can we invigorate our Ganas
community and our lives? — Jessica