Intentional Society: On connection and commitment and community
Will keep it short today: There's one thought (inspired by this twitter thread) I'd like to explore about "what kind of space" Intentional Society wants to be. The target I'm considering is at the conjunction of connection and commitment.
The word connection in this context is referring to the emotional experience of relational connecting, of feeling connected-aligned-open-vulnerable-kinship with another human being by meeting in the present moment and in a way that seems powerful past the usual social guards and filters and masks we often use.
The word commitment in this context is referring to the stability-containing-grounding-ongoing-belonging-history sense of relationship-in-community. It's a lot more like trust and stick-to-it-ivness than any "contractual obligation" connotation of the word.
People point to workshops, events, weekend retreats, as things that have connection without commitment. On the other side, I'd point to contracts, companies, customer transactions, as things that have commitment without connection.
Looking at the conjunction, people can point to sports, to churches, to maybe some "third spaces" (but I'm skeptical), to good work teams, to healthy families, bowling leagues, as examples of spaces that have both connection and commitment and these therefore are the spaces that matter to us. This combo seems like a large party of why they matter to us, have so much meaning and impact and sustaining and transformative power for us.
Intentional Society wants to be that kind of space. (using anthropomorphizing language as a convenience, but also implying the centrality of this to the vision) That's what "community" means here to us (in contrast to the watering down of that word in the wild being used for almost any kind of people-associating, including spaces with neither connection nor commitment). It's close to the core of life itself - building belonging as a base for being, doing, growing, living.
Cheers,
James