remember the elephant

It's close to the end of my second day of work. The nice thing about starting work on Thursday is that Friday comes quick. I've spent a good deal of time over the last two days interviewing people to get to know them (and hopefully remember their names).

Although we did a lot of riffing, I asked the same five questions of everyone:
1) Where did you grow up/go to school/work before you came to Appalshop?
2) What do you do now? Describe a day, week, or month...
3) What defines a healthy community?
4) Is Appalshop a healthy community?
5) Even if I won't be working directly with your program area, what can I/Development do for you?

This place has 28 full-time employees, so, as you might imagine, it has been a vastly arrayed experience. I've gotten a wide range of answers to many of the questions, sometimes in direct opposition to one another. One of my favorite points of difference...One person said that a healthy community is one where communication and respect are everywhere and the next person said that a healthy community is one where conflict is encouraged and inevitable.

I'm reminded of the story of the five blind men who stumble upon an elephant in the forest. In trying to figure out what they've discovered, one man feels the trunk and declares it a snake, one feels the leg and declares it a tree, etc. I still don't know what my definition of a healthy community is, but I'm glad to be in dialogue with people about it here because these folks have got good heads on their shoulders and they are, as one staff member put it, allergic to bullshit.

It's been a great week, but now I'm about to go home and I'm faced with the "I don't know what to do now" blues. My roommate's gone for the weekend, and in fact most people are either going to a Ralph Stanley festival or another Memorial Day type activity this weekend. I can't afford to/don't want to go anywhere after all the traveling I've been doing of late. It's also raining cats and dogs outside, which doesn't help one's mood or opportunities for moving into the weekend gracefully. I did go around late this afternoon and get some plans going for other times this weekend or else I would invetibly end up like Jack Nicholson in "The Shining" by Sunday evening.

It's not like I haven't walked out the door on a Friday before and not had plans for the evening, but somehow in Blacksburg I always had faith I would find something to do or I would enjoy the rest, but in this strange, new place, it's very intimidating. Maybe I'll invent a new parlor game this evening. Or perhaps I'll *gasp* read something for fun?!?

Hope you're all feeling blessed and happy.

Cheers,
Shannon