common ground

a newsletter every friday exploring the intersection of community, meaning-making, and inner development. see past issues here.

what's this about?

what do i mean by these terms? let's break it down:

• community: the spaces and relationships where we feel seen, supported, and connected.
• meaning-making: the ways we interpret our experiences and create narratives that help us navigate life. borrowing from developmental psychologist Robert Kegan: “Human being is meaning making. For the human, what evolving amounts to is the evolving of systems of meaning.”
• inner development: the personal growth and reflection that shapes how we show up for others (and ourselves.)

we live in a time of wildly complex and interconnected crises. the usual suspects: environmental collapse, social fragmentation, polarization, wars, and an emerging crisis of meaning. many people feel unmoored, unsure of where they fit, how to make sense of all this, or how they can contribute meaningfully to something larger than themselves (especially if they're not yet experiencing the direct effects of these issues). in many ways, i have felt like one of those people.

i echo Richard Bartlett in believing that at the core of this bio-socio-psycho-spiritual collapse is a metacrisis of relationship. a fracturing in how we relate to the different parts of ourselves, how we relate to other people in community, and how we relate to all the other creatures, ecosystems, and life on this planet. if that’s true, then our response in calamitous times must necessarily be relational first. this means doing the (often hard and messy) work of reimagining/rebuilding/nurturing our relationships at every level.

many are already engaged in this work. there is a pluriverse of alternatives to dominant ideologies and power structures, and many of them are rooted in community and shifting our ways of relating to self & other. new kinds of communities, networks, and social infrastructure are popping up everywhere—dedicated variously to mutual aid, belonging, peer-to-peer support, pluralistic discussion, peaceful co-living, and meaning-making. some are activist-focused, organizing for justice and systemic change. others are more inward-oriented, providing safe spaces for introspection & healing. still others are casual spaces where people share stories, curiosities, and conversations; quietly subversive of the hyper-individualism that pervades modern life through banal acts of being together. kizuna collective, the community i'm co-stewarding, floats somewhere in between these categories. across the board, we can see incredible resilience and creativity in how people are coming together.

with all this tragedy & hope as a backdrop, I find the intersection between community, meaning-making, and inner development particularly crucial, because:

• community is where we learn to belong, to care, and to be responsible.
• meaning-making helps us orient ourselves in an overwhelming state of global affairs, shaping the stories that guide us through complexity and uncertainty.
• inner development allows us to cultivate the emotional resilience, empathy, and presence we need to build meaningful connections and fully show up in the world. the need for this is catching on.

my goal with this newsletter is to meander between these themes, and see what emerges. i want to be in dialogue with you, dear reader, on what your experiences are across these dimensions. i don't think i have any central questions to explore just yet, and this will definitely evolve over time – but if i were put on the spot, it might be something like this: how can we create spaces where we can step into our full aliveness together, so that we can fully show up in the world?

some topics i intend to explore

4th places, community weaving, emergent strategy, circling, decentralised organisations, mutual aid networks, community initiatives in japan, adult development, group dynamics, metamodernism, sense-making.

what you can expect

i intend for every issue of common ground to feel like a laid-back coffee chat where i share the cool things i’m learning.

expect a short essay on a topic at this intersection between community, meaning-making, and inner development, along with a shortlist of 1-3 things (books, podcasts, articles) that have sparked my curiosity around these topics.

the essays will likely be a blend of my personal experiences as both organizer and member of various communities that have succeeded or failed, and more theoretical & philosophical musings. i will share examples of people and groups that inspire me. i might oscillate between very small group dynamics i've observed, to some of the bigger issues of our time – because i believe that issues are fractal, and change often starts at the level of community. there may also be an occasional pinch of practical tips, frameworks, paradigms, and memes i come across.

who is this for?

common ground is for anyone who’s interested in what it means to be in community. you might be interested if you are :

• a community builder, organizer, facilitator, or someone engaged in the subtle art of weaving humans together (whether it be a dinner party, or a large community)
• a curious soul who wants to deepen their understanding of how we belong
• someone who loves diving into the messy, meaningful work of being human together

why i’m doing this

i’ve realized through countless conversations with friends about community that i have both a lot to say and a lot to learn. i hope for this newsletter to become a vessel to think out loud, explore the questions light me up and, hopefully, spark something in you too.

but i also need to be honest: i feel so unqualified and scared to embark on this journey. i think i've been deeply conditioned by individualism, and i feel i’m not naturally good at being in community in so many ways, whether it's being consistent, or even just responding to friends (if you know me, you know what i mean lol).

so, for me this is also an experiment in becoming better at connection, at belonging, at showing up for others. i’m doing this because i want to grow, not just in theory, but in practice. maybe, if you feel the same pull toward community but share the same internal contradictions or inadequacy, we can figure it out together.

if any of that resonates with you, i’d love to have you along for the journey! let’s explore together what it means to create common ground.