By Nathan Young
The other week I touched base on a couple of ideas around re-igniting the New Narrative. If you missed that email or want to review it again, it’s also a blog post here:
https://thenewnarrative.org/collab/re-igniting-the-new-narrative-update-on-current-plans
This week I wanted to follow up with an update on where I’m currently at and get the thoughts of anybody interested in sharing them with me. I know these emails are quite long and speculative, but I really appreciate the feedback from everybody that’s taken the time to read them and share.
Firstly, one of my big projects with regards to the re-ignition of the New Narrative is to clarify the mission, plan, and purpose of the project going forward too. I mentioned I would write a “manifesto,” but I also realized that would take a while to put together and might be a more cumbersome read than people are inclined to do. I also realized that one of the things this project needs is more outward campaigning and publicly reaffirming of our values. In that light, I realized I can kill two birds with one stone by breaking up the “manifesto” into blog and social media posts and share the direction while promoting the project too. It actually sorta drives me nuts that it took me this long to realize this but I’m excited to get started on it now.
Secondly, as I mentioned last week, I hope to start rolling out events again soon. They’ll all have to be pared down and structured a bit differently to accommodate our respective bandwidths and how we’re operating these days, but I’m excited to get it started. I feel like the dialogue and interaction is a big part of what’s needed right now and hopefully serves us well as things begin to open up again too.
I have a list of ideas below that I’d love to hear people’s thoughts on. Check it out and let me know.
Before I get to that list though, I have a THIRD thing I need to share in this email.
The other big thing I’ve come to realize lately is that if The New Narrative is ever going to grow and thrive, I need to get serious about fundraising. I think before I had this naive idea that The New Narrative could be a scrappy grassroots project, and by the nature of that fact that I never raised money for it, it was somehow more “pure” that way.
Obviously, this also ties into my own feelings about money, my sense of worth around what I do, and a creeping innane suspicion that I need to get a “real job.” In reality, this has only served to hold the project back, hold me back, and hold back anybody that got involved. That all needs to change.
I’m still thinking this through so more on this later, but I wanted to at least share where I was with this. I welcome any discussion too.
Alright, that’s the last of the news. Back to the list of potential events/mini-workshops.
Below are some ideas for what I was thinking of as far as the type of virtual events and mini-workshops we could offer.
If you have any thoughts, feedback, or if there are any favorites that stand out, let me know. I can conceivably offer more than one. Maybe based on feedback, two ideas will merge or new ones might emerge altogether. We shall see.
One of the key aspects of the New Narrative that will be infused into all the events will be taking a stronger stance on social justice issues. Part of the mission has always been about social change and so much has happened in the last years that’s made that even more prescient. Moving forward, I hope to create events that offer change, both on a society-wide level, but also on a personal level to help us all become more open, compassionate, and confident leaders.
Here are some thoughts on what could be offered:
- Mini-workshop on personal stories, with the aim of getting us all feeling more comfortable with our stories and learning how to express them.
- Dialogues on social issues and the conflicts we all experience in life, a la the ReThink. These would be discussions on the underlying human aspects of social issues, such as how social trust is built, how we all feel about conflict, and what it means to be united vs divided in our communities.
- Discussions and workshops around social narratives, and picking out particular narratives we want to change, discussing what they are, and writing new narratives in session.
- Similar to above, but this one would be discussions and workshops around our own personal narratives on topics such as relationships, self-worth, goals, dreams, values, and how our own personal stories might be holding us back, and how we can re-write those stories.
- More direct exploration of the pressing social justice issues of our time, such as racism, climate justice, LBGTQ rights, and more. This would be about exploring the issues from a personal level, the degree to which they affect us personally, and understanding our own personal experiences in the context of the larger social cause. This could also be a facilitation for some of us from more privileged groups to do the work towards showing up as better allies too.
- A personal development series focused more on compassionate leadership and empowerment, setting goals, and how to achieve them, learning to be bold in our dream making, and building the tools we need to get there.
- The Community Check-In's where we just went around in a circle and gave everybody a chance to talk
- Something more focused on collective work and engagement. This could be anything from a social justice learning series to a mastermind for personal goals.
Let me know what from this list most resonates with you, or perhaps if it inspires other thoughts. It’s possible I can do more than one, or even combine different things that seem like a fit too.
And again, thanks to everybody for sticking with me on this. I’m really excited to get moving again
Thanks!
Nathan
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