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A few months ago I listened to a TAL episode entitled The Giant Pool of Money. It's an excellent explanation of the mortgage crises that is sweeping the nation - but for right now that's neither here nor there. The reason I mention it is that the title burrowed its way into my brain, and now all I can think of is the phrase "A Giant Pool of Wisdom." It's a good phrase, don't you think? And I am confident that we an form such a pool. In fact, I know that we already have enough wisdom to fill that pool to overflowing. We've just got to share it.
So in our on-going efforts to figure out how to create our own Soultribes, I'm dipping into the pool and bringing up refreshing goodness one ladle at a time. To begin, I'm happy to introduce the very sassy, very funny friend Melissa Lindgren as our first guest in the Soultribe Practitioner Interview Series.
Melissa and I met at our former Soultribe, Monkfish Abbey. Now she is a Soultribe facilitator hosting a knitting and storytelling group in Seattle, Washington. In this interview she talks about gathering her tribe, adjusting expectations, and figuring out what she values in a Soultribe.
Mis, Could you tell us what kind of Soultribe you belong to: What do you call it? How big is it? How often do you meet? How long have you been together as a group?
For the last 8 months a group of friends and I have come together to knit. We calling it "The Knitting Group" or simply "Knitting" (I tried "The Knitstas" and "The Knitta's" but they really didn't take) It started out with about 15 of us and has shrunk to about 8.
What was it about story that made you want to form a group around storytelling? What do you think is valuable in sharing our stories?
My University of Washington research has centered on knitting and storytelling as tools to form community. As I've drifted further and further away from concrete concepts of spirituality, and even further from conventional forms of church, I was in need of a weekly group that could give my life more rhythm and community. So I started a knitting group and began researching how telling stories and knitting together can form a powerful community.
I wanted to add stories to a knitting circle, because I'm in the business of stories. It's what I do. I think there are a lot of things we do that are instinctive to us. And some of us are lucky when our interests also have a long history of being important, as it gives us meaning and a certain sense of legitimacy.
Stories are something so very basically human--they are a way of being remembered, remembering, owning, teaching, loving, laughing, being known...And I am drawn to stories for all of those reasons. But the real reason I included stories in my knitting group is because I love to hear a good story, I'm good at telling my own, and that's how I wanted to wile the Seattle evenings away.
It is in no way lost on me that I chose a traditionally women-oriented craft (knitting) with another craft that has a somewhat complicated relationship with women (story-telling/having a voice). My group was really intentioned to be a space that glorified the story more than the storyteller--I wanted to hear well-crafted stories--stories that had a lot of depth, intrigue, humor, and suspense.
What does your typical evening together look like? Who decides what you will do together? Who facilitates?
I'm the facilitator, I decide. :-) I started this group as a way to get together with my friends and as an independent study for my B.A. in English. The goal was to come together and knit and tell stories. I sent out emails every week telling people the topic of the stories and re-iterating the location (my living room).
Though people participated in the story-telling it really wasn't what was driving the group. So I backed off with the stories and just sort of let the group chit and chat where it wanted. These were decisions i more or less made on my own, but were usually bounced off of a friend or two in the group.
What kind of people attend? How did you initially find and gather these folks? How do people find you now that you've been around for a while?
The kind of people who attend are the out-going-est of my friends who
