Metacrisis Journey: There’s No Place Like Home
… events in general are related to one another on the one hand as causal chains, and on the other hand by a kind of meaningful cross-connection. — C.G. Jung, “Synchronicity, An Acausal Connecting Principle”
Mycelial work involves a lot observation, following the energy, and exploring patterns that can inform and foster action. In my experience, this combined with the transformative personal work that often accompanies it makes it a strong environment for the acausally connected meaningful coincidences Jung explored as Synchronicity.
My writing on the fellowship paused in the second week, initially due to a burst of work seemingly unrelated that I needed to move forward to then dive back in. For me this evolved into a synchronicity laden slide into the deepest mycelial work I’ve engaged in — work with a community I’m convinced is on the leading edge of new forms of collective emergent work deeply relevant to the metacrisis. But I’ll get to that more later. For now I’ll focus on how it started for me.
As appropriate for journeys from the regular world to the Other, this one started with a house and a tornado.
Signals
It’s September 28th, and over the last week my partner in VR work Phoebe Titus and I have been preparing for today’s “Signals” event, where we’ll be demonstrating our “Hickory Horned Devil” project that’s been making the festival rounds this past half-year. Phoebe, the creator and driving force behind the project, has booked us a conversation with a video game advisor to discuss next steps for Hickory Horned Devil, and to explore a couple of new projects, including one revolving around Opicherhoka, the house in Blowing Rock, North Carolina that my family built 125 years ago and that’s been a gathering place for the wider family ever since.
I’d been back for the first time in six years with my family during the summer, and when not frantically working on haptics or sword fighting with my kids in the front lawn, spent a fair bit of time thinking about the upcoming Fellowship. Daniel Schmactenberger, whose work on the Metacrisis had significantly shaped my framing for the fellowship, lives nearby in Asheville, and I’d hoped to meet and discuss it. While this didn’t happen, being in this house whose role in my conception of family and belonging has been pivotal was the perfect place to plan my approach to the fellowship (an approach that be transformed at Signals and beyond).
The coincidences started surfacing when Phoebe discovered that Jay Powell, who we were meeting with to get advice on both projects, was in fact from Blowing Rock. This commonality was further underscored by Blowing Rock having been hit for the first time on record¹ by a Tornado the previous day, as Hurricane Helene approached. Touching down almost exactly a kilometer from Opicherhoka, it tore up trees and offered a praecursor to the damage Helene would bring.
When we met, we first discussed the tornado, that our respective families and property were alright, and compared notes on what we knew so far about the damage. We turned to VR, and got great advice for our projects, and agreed to collaborate as the Opicherhoka project came together.
After the conference, I looked for more information, and while it was still early, it was clear that Asheville was much worse off, having been devastated that day by Helene. Over the next few days I checked in with my friends at Conversa Corps, who foster inter-organizational collaboration during disasters. By the 2nd I’d found AshevilleRelief.org, a local group gathering information on what was going on, and their Discord.
Logging into their Discord, I found it had been around for one day, but already had the hallmarks of what makes for strong mycelial work…
Brain
When I say “Brain” in this context, I don’t mean IQ as measured on any given smartypants scale. I specifically mean the capacity to dwell with complexity and perceive it in a nuanced way that allows discovery of Right, Timely Action — in this case, both doing the herculean minutiae required during relief work while also seeing the Next Thing that needs doing, and how they all fit together.
Courage
There’s a lot of types of courage at play for those involved in crisis / relief work, but here I mean the courage to step into action despite one’s insecurities and imposter syndrome telling you that either you’re not good enough, or who are you to try to make a difference. There’s a tension here that’s important — for the Dunning Kruger crowd no courage is needed because they unreflectingly presume they are the best for the job. Having the combination of awareness of one’s own weaknesses, areas of ignorance and need to learn combined with the willingness to act anyways and to learn from others as we go is a combination that leads to wise, attuned action as a community comes together.
Heart
I think Heart is the key — both in terms of “having a lot of heart” e.g. the grit to keep going in trying circumstances, but also the ability to be vulnerable, empathetic, relational caring: for one’s self, for those one works with, and for those you are serving.
Finding all three of these features in abundance, I quickly realized Asheville Relief was the right Home for me to dig in and see how I could best support things, trying to take the lessons I’d learned from past emergent work and applying them here.
Soon, I’ll write more about the experience so far, the lessons learned, and the reasons this work has me more optimistic than ever about our collective ability to move through the challenges we’re facing and thrive.
For now I’ll say that the synchronicities only grew as I’ve dived deeper into the work, and I hope to explore them more fully at some point. But first I want to share more about what’s been happening, the learnings on how a Metacrisis lens can inform this work, and in turn be informed by it, and on how it applies far beyond relief into approaches to human thriving.
¹ http://www.usa.com/blowing-rock-nc-natural-disasters-extremes.htm