Would you travel this line, if you knew?

Anastasia commenting on "Why you don't want to travel with me."

Without doubt a Carnival cruise ship would not get your reservation right now, after its tragic fire of last week. But what about a New Horizons’ Bus Ride Story Adventure?

Sail away. Sail away.

If you knew ahead of time that a week long-distance bus ride  would call forth an invitation to fill your days on the trip with an interactive social game to pass the time, constructively, with fellow travelers, would you agree to it?

(You can hear a podcast (February 7) of our story here. Or read the story for yourself online here.)

I think the latter might serve you better as reports tell me that the February show was somewhat boring though the content important.

Two weeks ago on our Possible Society In Motion Show I introduced our New Horizons’ Bus Ride Story Adventure, knowing full well that for any group of people, contained or not, for a time, the sacrifices asked of committing to in-depth, meaningful conversation for any period of time, short or extended, would rapidly invite resistance of all sorts, especially with strangers.

Thus I knew, ahead of time, that I also would need to invite out the voices of resistance to such an idea as an immediate follow-up. I did this on "Why don't you want to travel with me? Part II" on February 14. 

This is a an important show that I do suggest you listen to on podcast.

In Writing To Change The World, Mary Pipher writes that “The two most radical things you can do in America are to slow down and talk to one another.”  In President Obama’s State of the Union address he took the position that Americans need to look out for one another.  Both Pipher and Obama are suggesting extreme social and cultural change, I believe.

In assessing the impact of Obama’s address in “How the State of the Union Worked,” (Huffington Post) George Lakoff, Professor of Cognitive Science and Linguistics at the University of California at Berkeley suggested that Obama effectively shifted the public discourse with this address in such a way as to inspire us.

Well, maybe we will continue to become more and more vocal in our complaints about our government and politics. But to be more for one another? Personally, I think not, but time will tell.

Our Possible Human, Possible Society Study and related events, to date, have shown us, most tellingly so far, that the majority of citizens of this country resist efforts to willingly expend any significant amount of time or energy interacting with those who are different than them. In other words, their willingness is -- almost nil.

So what about travelers on our imaginary bus ride adventure? Or, you, personally, if you imagine yourself to be one of them. Or even more pointedly were, seriously, afforded the opportunity to purposefully, participate in an adventure of this sort; a seven day-long trip to a destination of your choice that would include intentionally building a sense of community with strangers, as a part of the package.

Would you sign on for the trip?

Here are a few of the points I offered to our Possible Society In Motion Show listeners, addressing some of the issues of resistance, having to do with “why”, in practice, most people are unwilling to actively build bridges with dissimilar others (who most of the time, albeit unconsciously, remain the “other).”

I am sure you can think of many more.

Read our Bus Ride Story Adventure online. Or, listen to it on the podcast of our Possible Society In Motion Show and draw your own conclusions.

I invite you to consider the issues that would be of concern for you.  My offerings are --

·         Could any group of strangers on a long distance journey truly become a community by merely agreeing to be nice to one another for the duration?

·         What if you, yourself, are pledged to the game but someone else isn’t so dedicated?

·         Or, decides, after all, that the plan isn’t such a good idea? In fact it’s a bad idea game and wants out, midway? 

Join us this week and in the weeks to come as our Bus Ride Story Adventure (and other happenings) unfold on our Possible Society In Motion Show. Thursday evenings, 6:30 p.m.