A Shot of Light - Getting My Head Above Water

Dear Friends,

Happy September. Is it really September already?! Living life in submission to the academic calendar makes August a complete blur. Between my wife, Emily, our three teenagers, and my work at Guilford College, the "getting ready for start of school" becomes a sort of mantra in the Daniels household.

I did better this year in that weeks leading up to the mayhem. I had enough foresight to schedule a haircut and some "personal recovery time," right after the major crush of everything starting. Even still, the lesson for me this year is that the start of school is a bit of a misnomer. It's really the getting ready, the start, and then about 2 weeks after when we're getting into the rhythm that occupies a tremendous amount of energy, will power, and coffee (plug-in product placement).

This Friday, the end of week 3, I am feeling more in the flow of things, with more breathing room, and have a better sense of what I have on my plate. This means I'm finally able to sit down to write to all of you.

A couple Guilford-focused updates:

First, we succeeded in raising over 6 million dollars in the first half of the year which enabled the college to close out the fiscal year with a balanced budget. A tremendous amount of love, support, and energy went into helping Guilford get to more stable footing. I'm really proud of what our staff and faculty have been able to do. Because of this, and a number of other initiatives on campus, I am very optimistic about our accreditation review that is coming up in about a month. I know that a number of you, readers of this newsletter, were apart of giving to the college and I want to thank you for your support.

Another really exciting piece of news, if you haven't heard, is that we've managed to entered into a conservation easement for 160 acres of the Guilford College woods. This is something a number of us have been asking for and dreaming about long before I got here. The easement is with Piedmont Land Conservancy. Guilford will receive money for the woods, and the ownership of the woods will then be locked into a land trust. We will be able to use it as we have been but the easement will protect the woods from ever being developed. Many of us in the Guilford Community breathed a sigh of relief when the contract was signed.

For my part, I am teaching two classes and one independent study (advanced topics in Quaker Studies) this semester and I'm loving all of it. The highlight class is a new one I've been developing and talking about extensively. It is a first year seminar class called, "Boredom as a Superpower."

Here's the pitch:

Do YOU like being bored?! In this class, we will look at boredom as a superpower that can help you resist the disconnection and fast-paced information, endless notifications, doom scrolling, and the always-on nature of our lives. Practices that help us slow down, or "get bored," will help grow our capacity for awareness, focus, deep work, and creativity. How are we going to get bored, you ask?

• Take notes in class by drawing pictures
• Have class with no tech
• Practice having a prolonged conversation with another person
• Let mind wandering lead to creativity 

Join us as we challenge ourselves with practices like joy-strolling and discover how mastering boredom might become your greatest superpower for success at Guilford.

I'm loving the class and the students who decided to take a college class on boredom so much. I've got 19 first years in the class and as far as I can tell they are all game for the kind of stuff we're doing in the class. The class is pretty stripped down - mostly meeting outside, they go without cellphones and other technology, I gave them all a paper notebook to do their homework in. Last week they learned a little hand-sewing (cellphone sleeping bags), spent time in silence out at the Guilford College lake, and on Wednesday I had them work together to build a fire (not as easy as they thought). Then we used that as a centering point for more silence and conversation. I'll tell you more about this class soon, but wanted to share one of the things that's been bringing me a lot of joy right now.

Updates from Visit to California

I mentioned in my last note that I was headed to California for Quaker Connect work. For those of you who are Quakers reading this, if you're interested in knowing more or applying to be in the next cohort we are accepting applications now.

Quaker Connect is a Quaker renewal program that I helped design and am working very closely with. This led to an opportunity to travel out to Northern California and work with a couple Quaker groups there (San Mateo Worship Group and Santa Cruz Monthly Meeting). I also enjoyed a visit to Wednesday evening worship with San Francisco Friends. I won't share the specifics of the work I did with these groups but I am really pleased with what both groups are doing. I had time to worship with each group, conduct some interviews, learn more about the contexts their meetings are in, some of the challenges and opportunities they face, and spend time with the apprentices who are in our program.

A couple of things that stood out to me about the process:

I think that Quaker Connect provides the support and permission structure, if you will, for meetings to try things they may not try or push themselves to do without it. I already see all kinds of things our groups are doing that are a result of their involvement in the program. A second thing I saw, is that energy begets energy in a meeting. If folks are excited and trying new things, it's is possible to get others excited and pull people in. Both groups are regularly seeing new people visit and more engagement. Some of the questions that ran across where around loneliness and community. A lot of folks are looking for friendship and camaraderie in this difficult political and cultural climate. Friends who are able to create welcoming, low-threshold experiences for new folks to enter into are finding that people genuinely want to build new (and more) connections. I also heard an ongoing desire for more religious education, discussions around God-language, and how to remain centered as a meeting in such trying times. There is no one answer fits all, but I do think meetings who are willing to ask and continue to wrestle with these questions will find ways forward that can strengthen their community.

For the next couple of months all of the meetings in Quaker Connect are trying their first experiment, something new that is "safe to fail," for at least 6 times. This creates an opportunity to learn by doing, and see how meetings might address some of their leadings and challenges. I'm eager to see what their findings are and will report back here when I have more to share on how the program is going.

Feel free to email with questions about any of this if you'd like: wess@gatheringinlight.com

Wess' Notepad:

A few notes on things I've been exploring and enjoying recently

• I just finished Dilla Time by Dan Charnas. This biography of Detroit's famous, although under known for how much impact he had, Hip-Hop producer is so incredibly good. If you like Hip-Hop history, love Dilla or 90's Rap, music theory, cartography (yes), and learning about folks like Common, Questlove, Q-Tip, and more you're going to love this book.
• I've been reading more lately. My best time for reading is in the morning after my workout and dog walk. I like sit on the front porch with coffee for about 30 minutes with Emily and our dog, Magnolia (see above). A big part of this is my own "boredom practice," inspired by class. I set my phone out of the way and on do not disturb, keep a Life Noble Memo next to me for thoughts, ideas, and quotes that pop-up while I'm reading and then just try and focus for about 30 minutes. In this case, a boredom practice, as we're calling it for the class is really just about doing something with focus and attention for a period of time, and pushing past the urge to distract yourself with the phone or anything that gets you off track. Below is an activity I've done a few times to gauge how often I look up or get distracted. This is the 2nd and 3rd attempt combined on one page. This is an activity I borrowed from a friend and am planning to do with my students soon.

• I've been enjoying the app Fable to track my books and reading.
• The Disappearance of Literary Men Should Worry Everyone - NY Time Opinion piece
• Here's what happened when I made my students put their phones away - Another interesting article from NY Times.
• I love this piece from Austin Kleon - How to Make a Map of Your Mind.
• Rev. Barber and others have written A Pastoral Letter to Donald Trump after hearing him say he “want(s) to try to get to heaven if possible,” but that you are hearing you are “really at the bottom of the totem pole.”

Lastly - Happy Anniversary to my wonderful wife of 24 years (don't tell her I put a picture of us in this week's newsletter or this may be my last year (And newsletter)! 🤣).

Best,

Wess Daniels

Greensboro, NC (Haw River Watershed)