Here is a little extract and key point of our previous discussion, to keep a track . This process was not systematic, because we tried many different options and adaptation to the virtual world. However, we hope to be more regular in the future
The aim of this TEA2B (24th of April 2020) was to (try to) escape the pandemic actual situation and immediate present, and rather talk about the future about fictions or real plan, dreams or place we would like to come back : to visit the five biggest temple in the world? To chill on a sandy beach? Do a humanitarian trip? Other than a travel, it could be a long-term project or simply our well-being at home. However, it is difficult to really escape and project oneself in the future, especially in such lockdown context, but also the current worldwide crisis : the (even near) future is uncertain and fear is taking our imagination hostage. For some, Venice was a wonderful project that fall apart. With a lot of expectations, we can be so disappointed. Moreover, for some of our regular tea2b talker, the pandemic may cause them all types of different weird night dreams. (Indeed, there is even a website which gather them, so if you want to reassure yourself (you are not alone!) or to laugh a little, check it out : https://www.idreamofcovid.com/dreams). We realize how much COVID-19 is taking our attention. Then, the discussion revolve around meaning of « Dream » : the images passing through our minds during sleep ; an individual aspiration or ambition ; or a collective project like the famous « I have a dream » speech of Martin Luther King that gather a collective around an idea. In all the cases, it contains a passionate and powerful character. But do young people still dream ? In a future that is even less certain, environnemental, economical, financial, geo-political crisis, there is numerous of reasons to lost faith in this complex world. The relics of Mai 68, a common revolutionary dream that become reality, but for what result ? Maybe this crisis would make cynical individuals. But change could be also positive, a renewal, and the lockdown, a moment for reflexion : what doe we truly need or want, for now or for our common better future?
Waiting for better days, here is some books recommended during the TEA2B:
A mushroom at the end of the world - Anna Tsing
All the books of Hermann Hesse
If you also want to suspend time for an instant :
n u a g e s - Dreams ❀
Let's suppose that you were able every night to dream any dream you wanted to dream And you would naturally as you begin on this adventure of dreams
You would fulfill all your wishes. You would have every kind of pleasure you see And after several nights you would say "Wow that was pretty great!" But now let's have a surprise Let's have a dream which isn't under control Well somethings going to happen to me that I don't know what it's going to be Then you would get more and more adventurous And you would make further and further out gambles As to what you would dream And finally you would dream where you are now If you awaken from this illusion And you understand Black implies White
Self implies other Life implies death You can feel yourself Not as a stranger in the world Not as something here on probation Not as something that has arrived here by fluke But you can begin to feel your own existence as absolute fundamental What you are basically Deep deep down Far far in Is simply the fabric and structure of existence itself
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RMHHwJ9Eqk