Nesi... Who Is Coming?

[Jody Kruskal]

"war vets with visible piercings or tattoos, regardless of musicality." are all welcome... really. It's a very friendly and welcoming vibe/tribe. We are all too busy with concertinas, singing and music to talk much about politics, national policy and such. At least that's been my experience, and I hope it continues.

 

A small anecdote...

 

one of my dancing friends has been outed as a staunch political conservative, which I and most of our mutual friends are not... still, this person and I remain friends and we are able to greet each other warmly and sincerely (we have lots of history together). Does that speak to the hypocrite in me...? I choose to think not, but rather to the tolerant nature of folks who love the same thing... community, participation, a celebration of common interests and an ability to "agree to not agree" on everything else, in order to come together to mainly agree on the important things... fellowship and joyful creation that overcomes all ideology, bios and bigotry.

 

Amen to that? Yes please, do chime in!

Edited September 2, 2014 by Jody Kruskal

[Wolf Molkentin]

...to the tolerant nature of folks who love the same thing... community, participation, a celebration of common interests and an ability to "agree to not agree" on everything else, in order to come together to mainly agree on the important things... fellowship and joyful creation that overcomes all ideology, bios and bigotry.

 

Amen to that?

 

Yes indeed (won't be able to attend for obvious reasons - however, well put Jody)!

[Mike Franch]

one of my dancing friends has been outed as a staunch political conservative, which I and most of our mutual friends are not... still, this person and I remain friends and we are able to greet each other warmly and sincerely (we have lots of history together). Does that speak to the hypocrite in me...? I choose to think not, but rather to the tolerant nature of folks who love the same thing... community, participation, a celebration of common interests and an ability to "agree to not agree" on everything else, in order to come together to mainly agree on the important things... fellowship and joyful creation that overcomes all ideology, bios and bigotry.

 

Amen to that? Yes please, do chime in

 

Jody raises such an important point. In the US, at any rate, we have become/are becoming a society sorting out by social and political viewpoints--geographically, in friendships, media preferences, etc. Because of this, the areas of overlap, such as Jody describes, are precious. An important important 2010 called American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us, calls the situation that Jody describes the "Friend Al" factor. We all have someone who is important in our lives who is different from us in some important aspect, but because we share some common interest, our opinion of "the other" moderates. We need more Friend Als. If they play concertinas, so much the better!

[Anglo Enthusiast]

"war vets with visible piercings or tattoos, regardless of musicality." are all welcome... really. It's a very friendly and welcoming vibe/tribe. We are all too busy with concertinas, singing and music to talk much about politics, national policy and such. At least that's been my experience, and I hope it continues.

 

A small anecdote...

 

one of my dancing friends has been outed as a staunch political conservative, which I and most of our mutual friends are not... still, this person and I remain friends and we are able to greet each other warmly and sincerely (we have lots of history together). Does that speak to the hypocrite in me...? I choose to think not, but rather to the tolerant nature of folks who love the same thing... community, participation, a celebration of common interests and an ability to "agree to not agree" on everything else, in order to come together to mainly agree on the important things... fellowship and joyful creation that overcomes all ideology, bios and bigotry.

 

Amen to that? Yes please, do chime in!

Amen indeed!!!

[Jim Besser]

"war vets with visible piercings or tattoos, regardless of musicality." are all welcome... really. It's a very friendly and welcoming vibe/tribe. We are all too busy with concertinas, singing and music to talk much about politics, national policy and such. At least that's been my experience, and I hope it continues.

 

A small anecdote...

 

one of my dancing friends has been outed as a staunch political conservative, which I and most of our mutual friends are not... still, this person and I remain friends and we are able to greet each other warmly and sincerely (we have lots of history together). Does that speak to the hypocrite in me...? I choose to think not, but rather to the tolerant nature of folks who love the same thing... community, participation, a celebration of common interests and an ability to "agree to not agree" on everything else, in order to come together to mainly agree on the important things... fellowship and joyful creation that overcomes all ideology, bios and bigotry.

 

Amen to that? Yes please, do chime in!

 

 

echoing that: years ago, I was in a contra dance band with an accordionist who was becoming a well known activist on one of the most highly charged issues of our time - and I was firmly on the other side.

 

But we had a strong common in interest in music and we enjoyed playing together We just avoided talking politics (as I am avoiding mentioning the issue here!)

 

Funny incident: one day my wife and I were in the public library, and stumbled across a table where he was handing out literature on his issue. There was a TV camera crew filming his activities, and they wanted to interview me about what I thought of the issue.

 

I declined to answer in the interests of musical harmony!