Welcome to the Neighborhood

I adored Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood. Ok, so at fourteen I was probably too old to watch a children’s show on PBS, but the sneaky part of me loved the bits I saw while sitting on the couch with my youngest sister, eating chocolate chip cookies after school and procrastinating on the homework front. No matter what you thought about Mr. Rogers, and plenty of people made fun of him in the ensuing thirty years, he was authentic. He didn’t apologize or minimize his feelings or ideas and he was always kind. Mr. Rogers was generous and thoughtful. He knew how to bake and he had good taste in sweaters. Mr. Rogers wasn’t afraid of anything. He liked to talk about the big issues in his neighborhood with the children and creatures who lived there with him. Issues like feeling left out, and bullying. The joys of friendship and play. Mr. Rogers was a real guy and his neighborhood was positive real estate. It was a great place to live.

I enrolled in a creativity course in February. My teaching was spinning along. New book in the works. A year of Daily Visuals satisfyingly behind me. But I felt the need for a challenge. Something inside was transitioning. A friend’s email described a program she’d begun and it resonated. I wanted something like that. Fresh ideas. In the words of the blues legend John Mayall - room to move – psychically and experientially.

And so, through the class, I was introduced to the concept of existential intelligence. The inexplicable part of a human mind that wants a better angle on the BIG questions – Life, death, creativity and meaning. Wow. Humbling and incredibly energizing all rolled into one thought package. A fortune cookie with a fortune I actually wanted to manifest in real time.

And if the concept of existential intelligence grabbed me, wasn’t it likely that there were lots of others out there who would love to explore the wealth of ideas bouncing around inside this Pandora’s box?

...probably a whole neighborhood of artists, writers, musicians, car mechanics, short order cooks and other people who like to think.

So here it is. The grown up version of Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood. The Existential Neighborhood, where we can gather to share ideas about art and making, kindness and authenticity, meaning and the creative Life with a really big L. Welcome to my neighborhood.