Putting It All Together

One of the great things about the information age is that with just a bit of effort, you can be continually learning amazing new things and exposing yourself to intriguing new ideas.   So much great information is readily available in multiple media.  This became particularly clear to me when I signed up for Ken Wilber's site IntegralNaked.org.   I did not know much about integral philosophy, but I was impressed by the wide array of people featured in it.  Also, my friend Gabriel continually bugged me to sign up for it (thanks, G). So, I paid the $10 and loaded up my iPod with the recorded discussions that are available for download.   Soon my head was teeming with new ideas and perspectives. 

After a while I found it hard to find people to talk to about all this new stuff I was learning.  At the same time, it dawned on me that surely other people are also learning great new things on a frequent basis.  An idea germinated to have a weekly event to get together with my friends and share what we have been separately learning, to put each other on the same page, so we can then deepen and enhance our knowledge and understanding of these subjects through discussion.  Then I began to realize what an amazing tool we had at our disposal: Zaadz. 

Thanks to Zaadz, the original idea grew to include not only my existing group of friends, but also a "community of seekers and conscious entrepreneurs" throughout the Washington DC Metro area:  Using pods to connect to local Zaadzsters, Jacqui and I invite amazing new people to come over on Thursday nights and share a topic they know reasonably well with us.  To keep it informal, the guest speaker doesn't need to be an expert, but needs to know enough to give a 45-or-so minute presentation that we can follow up with questions and discussion.  We provide a meeting space, vegetarian dinners, and a somewhat-guaranteed interested audience; they provide the expertise and the fresh new ideas.   Thus was born what I stubbornly called "Deep Thoughts Thursday" (stubbornly because no one else approved of the title). 

It took me a little while to realize the degree to which we were bringing the stated purpose of Zaadz to life in our small way.   Last week listening to Lisa teach us about socially responsible investing and the week before learning the tenets of Evolutionary Enlightenment from Steve, I was just struck by the thought "THIS IS SO COOL!"   There's magic and beauty in bringing people together and learning from each other in this fresh, grassroots way.  You feel the excitement of building the momentum of change.  There might be only a few people there, and we might only be covering a few of a billion possible topics, but the feeling I've gotten from it is that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.  By collectively exercising our desire to learn from and to connect with each other on a broader and broader scale, it feels to me that we are not only contributing to the momentum ourselves, but also tapping into a momentum that's already there and waiting for us. 

I've understood the mission of Zaadz from when I first heard of it, but it wasn't until we took the initiative and took it offline that its power became fully evident to me.   I encourage other Zaadzsters to start using Zaadz as a tool, take it offline, meet face to face, and start sharing.   I wonder why we hadn't done this sooner.   We're hosting our first Zaadz party this coming Saturday and I cannot wait to see what it will be like.