Scrum Notes 2013-20

I belong to a community. It takes many forms, virtual, in-person, large groups and small, closed forums and big, public ones, cosy cups of coffee and vast halls full of food, whispers and dins, stories of experience and stories of hope. The community expresses itself through short, snappy one-liners and thoughtful posts, through spoken word, visual presentation, interactive workshop, dance and dialog. It contains multitudes of colour, religion, gender, age, language and accent. It is next door and across the world. It is frayed, bent, fractured, simultaneously embryonic and geriatric, elegant and awkward. It is ever-changing, amorphous, emergent and fluid. You'll never encounter it twice in the same form. It's purpose? To confront corporate madness and usher in an era of love, respect and kindness.

Call it what you will. I choose to call it the Truth. As broken and splintered as is the community itself, the quest of the community remains pure: love, respect and kindness.

In our community we get caught up in disagreements, arguments, even dislikes. But these interactions can never become personal, because our persons are part of something greater. It's not that we all need to agree, in fact it is better that we don't—that's where the creativity occurs. We do need collective strength though, as we are up against the corporate status quo, a formidable beast, a monster of greed, selfishness, animosity, power and control. It doesn't take much for us, the opponents, the living community, to get sucked into the same behaviour as our adversary. It is this we must confront, above all else. Alone we cannot withstand the onslaught. Collectively we have a chance.

Unity will serve us better than internal division.

And unity is hard. Unity is hard because ego takes flight. I know that I'm guilty of confronting people in our community in unkind ways in the past, calling out behaviours or beliefs I don't find valuable, maybe even responding in ways that others have experienced as ridicule, all in the service of the false god of vanity. If nothing else my recent experience on the other side of such interaction has become a mirror to my own behaviours of the past—and perhaps the present too. And now I can ask myself, what will I do differently today?

What will I do to better serve the community I love?