Reframing the Wicked Child: Questions for the seder table
Since I was young, I’ve never liked the story of the Four Children. Why does the wicked child get the villain edit for asking an honest question, while the try-hard wise child gets praised for uncritically upholding the status quo?
My real gripe is that instead of encouraging dialogue, the responses to the Four Children’s questions effectively end the conversation. How might we rewrite the script to keep the conversation flowing?
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April 4, 2023
Questions
Passover
How does the Future Exist?
We can’t directly experience the future – we can’t observe it and there is no physical evidence to study. Yet we use the future everyday when we brush our teeth to prevent cavities, invest for our retirement, campaign for a cause, or develop a new service or product for the marketplace.
How do we understand this tool that we all use, but none of us can see?
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March 15, 2023
Time
1% Foresight
That Will Never Work
“Denette has never built a boat and never sailed one, but one day, he decided to put his life savings into scratch-building a 38’ wooden sailboat and sailing it around the world. He’s not even sure he’ll like sailing, but he’s anxious to find out.”
This story reminds me of one of my first jobs in the arts where it was a joke to say “that will never work” about doing anything different than how it was done before. Surprising, because ostensibly we were working to challenge the status quo.
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January 30, 2023
Horizon 3
Transformation
Vision
DaNCEBUMS in our first performance. Photo: Farrington Llywen
DaNCEBUMS’ 7 Commandments for Collaboration
Earlier this week I was looking through my digital memory box. My heart was warmed when I found these seven commandments for collaboration DaNCEBUMS wrote when were were just starting our journey in 2013.
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May 10, 2022
DaNCEBUMS
Collaboration
Dancers and media workers in rehearsal for IN THE RIVER. Photo: Eben Kowler
From Prophecy to Foresight, Reflections on IN THE RIVER
Last month, I wrapped production on a show I was working on called IN THE RIVER. This was a unique project that dealt with themes related to foresight. How do we understand the past? How do we to interpret the present? How do we create pockets of a a desired future in the present?
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May 5, 2022
Performance
Prophecy
Foresight
Donella Meadows
Seven Fires
Apocalypse
Collapse
Transformation
Photo: Chris Barbalis, Unsplash
Why Foresight?
Foresight, also called futures research, is a unique field that brings together omnivorous research, systems thinking, analysis, and creativity in order to create plausible images of the future. But to what end? What are the strategic benefits of futures research?
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December 20, 2021
Foresight
Process