i'm back.

back home from a few weeks of bouncing around. and back to the blog scene. yes.

i got back last night from this thing called "the leadershape institute" in champaigne, illinois. i was a little weary going into it. (if you are constantly preaching something as a life changing experience, does it automatically prevent it from genuinely becoming one?) and after you've been to so many of these leadership things, they start to blur together. (literally. how many times can the earthquake exercise and star power simulation be done?)

i realized quickly that it wasn't so much about their actual construct of the "institute" (all of the cluster meetings and lectures and handouts and videos.) it was about every other moment outside of that structure. and that part was totally in my control. (bruce mau had it right: "coffee breaks, cab rides, green rooms. real growth often happens outside of where we intend it to, in the interstitial spaces.")

going into it, i saw leadershape as an excuse to spend time on a project that i had been thinking about for a long time (i'll explain more about this one later...) but, my dad reminded on the drive to the airport, "don't let that separate you from everyone else." (which tends to be my problem.) so, perhaps more importantly, once i got there i started seeing it as an opportunity to talk with other people from vastly different perspectives. i always underestimate the potential of simply talking. of asking people more questions. and sharing a little more. (why should i filter, when chances are i will never see these people again?)

i was put in my place right off the bat, when i found out my roommate was from thailand. yes, thailand. here i was expecting the other participants to be mainly from the midwest/east coast, and i was doubtful of what they could offer. i still feel like i didn't really get to ask her enough. i kept saying, "tell me more about thailand." and after hearing about things like the really good shopping there, we got to the good stuff. i was so intrigued by her thoughts about what free speech means in thailand. how here, in the us, we complain about too much information. when, in thailand, they don't have the opportunity for it at all. we have the benefit of too many ideas. but when there isn't a conflict of ideas in a country, there is no progress. and to stay the same in today's society means to move backward, because everyone else is moving forward. (she attributed this line of thinking to john stuart mill.)

and on the second day i met someone from ghana. (according to donaghy- "dot.") he was sent to leadershape by the ghana youth leadership alliance. i asked him immediately about emmanuel. and tried telling him as much as possible about avondale leadership. the coolest thing he said was how his generation is in the position to do what our founding fathers did. i've never thought about it like that before. how exciting.

and there were so many other exchanges... it was totally unexpected to be in a group with someone considerably older (at least ten years older) than us, and to listen to him talk about his commitment to preserving his native american culture. really, he just wanted to know that his children would know the language in order to talk to their grandparents. and i will definitely stay connected with a guy i met from american university, who decided his "vision" would address the struggling dc school system surrounding some of the nations best colleges and universities. we have a lot of thought in common.

this isn't to say that here weren't your typical frat boys around. because they were definitely a presence. (leadershape was initially started by alpha tau omega.) and it wasn't until the last night that i truly appreciated their presence. (even though the ropes course would have been impossible without their football player physiques.) i totally stumbled upon a conversation between two of them. and they invited me right in. they were talking about how the past week was such a life changing experience for them. for me, it was far from life changing. it was really more about reaffirming what was already there. but it was really important for me to see that this "leadershape" thing did have a powerful impact for people that had never been pushed to think in this way. it was the coolest thing to spend a solid hour (or more...) drilling them about their fraternity, offering my naive and simple outlook on the function of frats in a university setting, and hearing them recognize the need for higher standards and a fundamental change in structure. (one of them used jenga as an metaphor. he was right on. at first you pull out the pieces that are safest to remove. but eventually there is nothing left but for the entire tower to fall. and then you just have to build it back up.)

now that i'm back, and completely re-energized, and i'm ready to start getting things done. there's a lot on my mind. and i have a to-do list ready to go.

ps. i got a new camera! and can i just say, it feels so good to be able to see things again, and know that i can document them. but i did get busted in the champaign airport for taking pictures. (i have no idea where that police officer came from, because he clearly didn't care when the group of us that was stuck in the airport for 6 hours were mastering the art of running up the down escalator.) according to him, people usually take pictures of airplanes and such, not of signs in unauthorized areas. oops. i tried telling him about compositions and helvetica, but needless to say, it was a lost cause...