Dear Reader,

Welcome to the YS eNews!

I put out a call about a month ago for the articles you see below. The response was amazing: Almost everyone I asked wrote an article, and with the exception of one or two, each person sent it to me with apologies. They were sorry it was so long, but there is so much to say. For one reason or another (perhaps I was having a sentimental moment about moving back to the US in January), I couldn't stand to cut anything out either. There just is that much to say. So I hope you'll forgive the extreme length of the document; below you'll find some instructions on how to read it.

By NOW you should be looking at the YouthSection website. Maybe you've noticed that the little indicator at the side of the page is very small. That means the page is very long. I would suggest you go now and make yourself a cup of something hot or cold to drink, depending on your current hemisphere. Now you'll need a comfortable place to sit (this may take awhile): If you're in Finland, for example, maybe you can find a cozy spot at the fireplace and wrap a blanket around yourself. If you're someplace like New Zealand, though, you might think about sitting on the back deck in the sunshine.

There is a story in this eNews, written by Philip Stoll, about one of his days in Sweden. It is in small chapters throughout. It's in italics and enclosed by strips of color. Not only is it a lovely story, it also might help you remember where you were if you need to take a break. This is something I also recommend. Maybe think of this like a small book that is meant to be read in an extended sitting; as in, take breaks now and then to stretch your legs. 

As most people know, times are a changin' here in Dornach, but there will be more news coming from the YouthSection in the form of an eNews - we just have to find out who will be the editor.

And, just quickly, and then I'll let you dive headlong into this pile of beautiful pictures and letters and stories, I want to extra-thank Silvia for doing all of the things that Silvia does, including sit in the office with me on Wednesday mornings and making me make sense when I'm not good at making it (both in big things and small). I want to thank Martin, who is always kind; Guy, who always makes me laugh and cry; John, who holds me up to my highest self; Katie, who is my sister-friend; and Elizabeth, who sees it all. 

And that's that for the sentimental. It just had to be said!

Enjoy!

 - Caitlin

After this morning’s consciousness practice, where I was asking myself where I will give my attention today, I had breakfast and coffee with Tania, Anna, and Jonas. The carpenters in the biggest rooms in our house were already at work finishing the new wooden floor. While we had coffee, another gang of people came with three big cars. I was happy to see them and asked what they would do for the house today. They said there would be a big truck bringing a digger to fix the water pipes so that we can have a functioning water system. I offered coffee, which they didn’t want at that point, and then I prepared myself for leaving. In that very moment Hans-Peter, the landlord and neighbor, who called the plumbers to fix the water, came in. I finally left with my laundry, which I hoped to be able to wash at the seminar’s washing house (because our system was broken). I put Christina’s bike into the shed to protect it from the rain while she’s in Amsterdam. And off I went....

Arriving at the laundry house I met Kerstin, a person who lives nearby, and we chatted about her trip to Dornach. She had some news about friends, Natalia and Silas, and I heard that both looked good, strong, and healthy. Natalia had some gifts for us and Kerstin delivered them. 

Kerstin said it was possible to wash the laundry at the seminar. While we were both washing our clothes she asked whether I still needed a music stand for my music and this was funny because this morning I was thinking if I should bring the stand (which I got from our neighbors) from our house to the seminar. I told myself: ‘Make sure you do it well and don’t lose it.’ So I figured I needed a second one from the seminar (the seminar is by the way where our study studio and office is, and it's 10 km away from our house). So I said yes to the stand from Kerstin and now we have two.

The fourth day of working with The Philosophy of Freedom was very inspiring.  At a certain moment John asked what I felt during the most creative moment in my life.  This was the starting point for an understanding from inside out, out of own experience. It was in the conversation that followed that we came to a paradox. We found out that this creative moment is a moment where the ‘world’ and the ‘I’ meet each other. The paradox is then the following: It is in the meeting with the world that I feel most individual; it is in the oneness with the world that the ‘I’ becomes stronger. So when our souls are not alone, but meeting the world, we feel mostly our ‘I,’ our selves. We even dared to go a step further and asked if we felt free in this moment. I leave this question for everyone to answer individually.  

The afternoon of the same day was also inspiring. We came to interesting and beautiful pictures. One of them is the following (see picture on the right):

Two webs woven, one of stars and one of humans. Let the one be the guide for the other; the world becoming through us; our roots in the knowledge of the universe, our blossoms reaching into the world as true artworks shaping and co-creating the world becoming. Together shining. Giving light. Big hearts, big human hearts.  A web between them, shining, made by the blossoms of the plants we are. Let’s shine together!

 - Ianthe Lauwert 

Reflecting on reality and idealism, a questioning has arisen and is ever on the rise. Non-culture is a sought after commodity, driven by the idea that all initiatives, all products of process, amounts to culture. Yet, in this atmosphere, artists whose very experience of life is a metaphor for the tentative nature of human physical existence, are forced into a situation where 'reality' dictates that art is not a process but a means to an end. The 'products' of this process are weighed and measured in much the same way that a piece of iron is handled for sale. This manipulation of 'art' and 'culture' sees the fundamental function of these very things negated. This foundation is present in the intangible of all the great works of art that have preceded our time, and a few that have their place in current society. This untouchable quality is that element that is not the physical painting, the words of a poem written down or the spaces between the notes; this elusive “thing” is related to experience, human experience. The difficulty is that the present paradigm relates the elements of an artwork, both physical and metaphysical, to a market economy. When this invisible element is then related to psychology, it can be programmed, convoluted and dissected to create the desired effect. The same applies to any form of performance, be it a politician’s speech, an actor on stage or screen or a musician in front of an audience. Where, in all this cleverly ordered computing of culture, is space for the artist? Where is the space for freedom and morality?

I am an artist. This is not a mere statement of fact, but a relationship to experience. My experience of the world is as an artist. That is not to say that all human beings are not or can not be artists, but that there is a difference in the way different human beings experience their relationship to the world. Perhaps it is more true to say that the difference is qualitative. It is a difference of approach. This is not a judgment statement, merely an observation. This difference of approach means that certain activities are not actually suitable for certain kinds of people. In the present world paradigm, this means that artists have no place, and by inference, human beings have no place. The artist is forced into a relationship with their art that does not encourage all the elements necessary for great art. In the process, art can now be anything anybody decides is art and mediocrity is in the majority. This is not to say that there are no great artists living now but that no one, or relatively no one, has any idea of what art entails, except the artist who is at a loss to explain what they actually do.

Art is a relationship between the intangible, the artist, the experience, the 'product,' the experience, the 'audience' and the intangible. It is nowhere present all in one place and can only be viewed as such if it is assigned the status of pure object with an attached experiential possibility. If this follows, then when one pays for a piece of art, one must also be paying for the possibility of the intangible experience. How can this be valued if on top of this there is the process which the artist has to engage in to 'produce' the art in the first place? A process which could possibly be traced back to physical birth, if not beyond. This of course begs the question: What is the 'modern' view of what the human being is? I will leave this question for others to answer. All I will say is that the consequences seen in the world of this 'modern' view of the human being can only have resulted in the present non-culture. Furthermore, if this is the case for the artist, if my argument follows, it means that it is the case for every human being. What relationship does each individual have to money? Or better said, what exchange habits do we have to change so that each person can realise their potent-ial? Of course different suggestions have been made over the years, but, what can be practically done in each of our lives right now to change this situation which may otherwise only be possible in a far distant future? How can each one of us change our habits with agreements, and specifically agreements about money, so that we can create a new currency from the roots up?

  - Guy Collins

My tour went on and I brought some cups (which we had borrowed for an ‘open mic’ open stage event and housewarming party last week) back to the white house. At the ‘Vitahuset’ (white house) YIP has their course, and I happened to come in at their ‘fika time’ (coffee break). I met Reinout from the Netherlands, who is a maintenance guy, and I asked him for a light bulb for our studio, the Blå Ateljén. He brought one and gave me another one too in case it breaks. He also offered a telephone for our house, but we don’t know yet if we can afford the price for the line, and we will ask the neighbor if we could put a line across the garden so that we could also have a connection for the phone. 

Then a girl from New Zealand who is participating in YIP jumped up to me to schedule a conversation. She was very excited and said that she wanted to meet because they want to invite Miha Pogacnik do some work with us. Miha Pogacnik is a violinist who is working with counselling and the transformation of companies and organizations. 

Then just after this I met the gardener and friend Ida-Johanna. She told me that something touched her at the open stage last week. She was listening to the music that I played with my flute. She shortly shared that ‘this was amazing,’ and it was so truly in her that she had tears in her eyes. I thanked her, feeling that it was not a one-sided gift, but that her and the others’ listening actually created this presence and music we experienced together. 

My next step was going to the Blå Ateljén (blue atelier) to work with my To Do’s connected with people (e.g. mails, or this letter). Arriving there I fixed the light and realised and appreciated the fullness of the beautiful interactions with people today. All of this happened within two hours. 

Writing this down helps me to have a little pause to thank the world for its beauty.

Now I’m sitting in the studio and Jonas and Tania are sitting here too. Jonas is researching in order to understand and advance the seminar’s natural water sewage system to work with the quality of the Baltic Sea and the quality of water itself. He has a lot of little bottles, books, and a microscope on his desk and I’m listening to where he will go with it, and I will support him in his work. 

The fact that we have this studio came out of a big community act. We had conversations with different people to find out which space we would need, and then to see how it could be financed. Now the foundation, which actually has its office just underneath us, is funding parts of the rent. I see fire wood sitting in one corner that I heard Tania and Jonas brought, and the maintenance man will call the chimney man who will make sure that we can use the fireplace this winter. We are using this space for our individual studies and each one of the ‘students’ here is using it in a different way. 

When people ask me, for example, what I am doing, I often say that I am studying Social Entrepreneurship and Art. Social or Cultural Entrepreneurship for me includes the question of how we can shape our relationships in society so that we change the world while creating spaces where we human beings can become ourselves in what we could be as human beings in the context of the great potential of this world. With this vision in me I am now practicing my creativity and my ability to see where this future is alive in myself, in individuals, and in the world at large. It is about sensitivity, empathy, and understanding - sensing the context of the situation where this context shows itself. And I’m practicing to be able to work the ideas into the world that come out of the conversations, the empathy, and the creativity with the theme, person, concern, or question so that my ‘entrepreneurship’ can be real change and an actual contribution to the world. 

Some of my practice is happening in the Art: flute and photography. With the flute I am taking the initiative with curiousity where it will bring me. I feel potential in me with the flute and music. One of the most important questions of individual studies is ‘What is the potential of the individual.’ I chose to act on this potential and gave a ‘call to the world’ for a teacher who will train me so that I can get the right techniques, abilities, and body strength because I wish that those future possibilities that I am sensing can express themselves through me. I have been practicing for six weeks and have actually found a teacher. He is exactly the kind of person I was looking for as a teacher for the kind of development I am envisioning. He is teaching me every week at the ‘Kungliga Musikhögskolan‘(KMH) in Stockholm. We have had some wonderful times together so far. His name is Eje Kaufeld, a family friend of Christina, who kindly introduced me to him at a family dinner at his house. 

Also I am working with the photography that I was developing in a class 12 project at my school. 

Another vision for my studies is to live and work towards an understanding of consciousness and the realities of the human soul (psyche) by learning to understand myself in the world. A part of this is to work with literature in December, January, and February. 

Many who are involved with YIP, especially those who have participated in it, are often asked the question (one they dread because somehow a right answer can never be found), “What is YIP?” 

When it began in 2008, the aim of YIP was to be a one year social entrepreneurs training that gave international youth the opportunity to explore themselves, the world, their own ideas and initiatives for change and what it means to live as an individual within the context of a rapidly changing global community. While this is still true today, it is only the beginning…

YIP is a place where questions abound and answers are sought through deep dialogue, active participation and the exploration of one’s ideas, perceptions and initiatives. As many YIP participants say, despite having an over-loaded schedule of exceptionally high course content and theoretical input, and endless opportunities to explore one’s own interests, ideas and initiatives, answers to the never-ending stream of questions that emerge are rare, but often just breed more questions. And this is how we know YIP is working. 

YIP began three years ago in the summer of 2008 with 38 eager participants who were brave enough to leap into the unknown alongside their equally oblivious yet dedicated YIP Organizers. By the end of the first year it was clear that something miraculous was taking place. The quality of meetings, the growth and transformation within individuals, and the depth of love and trust for community and humanity as a whole, which was forged in that year, was astounding. None of us foresaw that the founding of YIP was in fact the establishment of a modern-day school of initiation in the purest sense, where meetings of the heart and exploration of self were to be the greatest accomplishments. 

Yes, YIP is still a social entrepreneurial training giving young people the skills, tools and experiences to work with and manifest their initiatives for social change in the world. But what we know now is that it is so much more. It is a place of light in this ever darkening world where young people come from every corner of the earth and are seen in their greatest potential to be fully human; where they are encouraged to explore their life task, their place in the world and are challenged to re-enter that world after a year of transformation to put what they have learned about themselves and community into practice. 

By summer 2011 we will have roughly 120 YIP alumni who have participated fully in the YIP program out in the world. These 120 individuals have explored their own identity, looked out into the world and asked “Why is it so?” challenged each other to be constantly authentic in their interactions, and even been through physical initiation by braving a Swedish winter. There are 120 young people who responded to a call. There are 120 communities that are now impacted by the transformation these individuals have undergone and are bringing to the world. And there are over 20 countries that now have carriers of hope and creators of change returning to find out what it means to call a place home. Already these outstanding young people are shaping the world: they do it by continuing to ask questions; of themselves, each other, their communities, their universities, their societies. They are seekers. They are do-ers. They are a task force of the heart. 

What is YIP? YIP is a trial, it is a breeding ground for new ideas and inspirations. YIP is a place where you are asked 'Who are you, really, Wanderer?' and 'What do you plan to contribute to the world?' It is not a place for the faint of heart, but a growing community of change-makers and world-shakers. It is a summoning of those who are seeking to take up the call sounding in the world. YIP is a movement, an inspiration and a point of light in the darkness. 

Come experience YIP for yourself April 17-23, 2011 at the first annual YIP Network Meeting in Järna, Sweden. 

 - Ani Hanelius, YIP Co-Founder & Program Coordinator

Click on the image to the right to see a short film created by two research fellows, Sim Amstutz and Dan Wall, called The Book of Lambspring.  

You can find more works from the research exhibition here.   

The integration of my different gifts and a true and engaged practice will determine my work in the future. This last week we had a workshop here, partly with the YIP participants and partly with a smaller group of individual students with an independent study path. Nicanor Perlas was here and we invited him to join us for one hour of our threefolding lab every day (a kind of work shop with the theme of threefolding). Tania and I were holding the workshop, but it was actually a wonderful co-creation by all of the participants. We underwent a process with different themes and intentions for every session each day: Presence – Openness – Understanding – Conversation Space – ‘Bring it Minutes.’ And the content of these meetings was the substance that was created in the YIP course with Nicanor in the mornings (which in our process we called ‘Openness’), as well as the substance out of the threefolding studies we were doing for almost two months before. This preparatory time we called a study marathon, where each person could work with the theme individually wherever he/she was. To fill you in, Nicanor Perlas is a civil society activist and part of his contribution to our work was to share his experiences from his work and his present strong concerns about biotechnology and geoengeneering. The title of his YIP course was ‘I and the World.’ It was a very powerful week, especially the work we did in our smaller workshop. I am grateful and will do my best to learn to do something with this experience.

Let me also tell you a bit about Tania who is here now too. Tania’s guiding question is how to live artistically. On the one hand she is doing life drawing, piano, and managing the volunteers of an art exhibition which is coming up next summer. Also part of her study, on the other hand, is the understanding of social organisations and processes on a micro-, meso-, and macro-level. How can we work together and how can the world (micro – meso – macro) be just a little more? What is the potential of a group, what is the potential of a place, what is the potential of society? For the art exhibition she will invite lots of volunteers to help with all the events around it. James Turrell was here last week (a visual artist) and they are planning to build a large artwork for the coming summer.  You will find out how you can help once she finds you or you find her.  :)

There are other peers and friends here who I did not mention because they are not here in the studio today.

I think I have told you all I could tell you from this morning. I just saw the richness from this day and wanted to share it with you.

Cheers for reading it

Philip Stoll.

Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau

'If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go: perchance it will wear smooth, -certainly the machine will wear out.  If the injustice has a spring, or a pulley, or a rope, or a crank, exclusively for itself, then perhaps you may consider whether the remedy will not be worse than the evil; but if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law.  Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine.  What I have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn.'

-Henry David Thoreau

Nature and Selected Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Nature is not fixed but fluid. Spirit alters, moulds, makes it. The immobility or bruteness of nature, is the absence of spirit; to pure spirit, it is fluid, it is volatile, it is obedient. Every spirit builds itself a house; and beyond its house a world; and beyond its world, a heaven. Know then, that the world exists for you. For you is the phenomenon perfect. What we are, that only can we see. All that Adam had, all that Caesar could, you have and can do. Adam called his house, heaven and earth; Caesar called his house, Rome; you perhaps call yours, a cobler's trade; a hundred acres of ploughed land; or a scholar's garret. Yet line for line and point for point, your dominion is as great as theirs, though without fine names. Build, therefore, your own world. As fast as you conform your life to the pure idea in your mind, that will unfold its great proportions. A correspondent revolution in things will attend the influx of the spirit. So fast will disagreeable appearances, swine, spiders, snakes, pests, madhouses, prisons, enemies, vanish; they are temporary and shall be no more seen. The sordor and filths of nature, the sun shall dry up, and the wind exhale. As when the summer comes from the south; the snow-banks melt, and the face of the earth becomes green before it, so shall the advancing spirit create its ornaments along its path, and carry with it the beauty it visits, and the song which enchants it; it shall draw beautiful faces, warm hearts, wise discourse, and heroic acts, around its way, until evil is no more seen. The kingdom of man over nature, which cometh not with observation, -- a dominion such as now is beyond his dream of God, -- he shall enter without more wonder than the blind man feels who is gradually restored to perfect sight."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson