Three months and going strong

This past weekend was the three month celebration of Occupy Austin. It was a great weekend. Mostly it was great as a bonding experience. We are a group of people that are trying to do something radical. We are trying to create a new world that values people over profits. This is hard work. It is the work that needs to be done and we are the people that can do it. We are all tired and scared that we won't succeed. We are all hopeful and scared that we will. We have only been doing for three months in Austin. We are planning for the long haul. Every once in a while we need to just celebrate. That's what this weekend it was and it was amazing.

We had a party on Friday night. A mobile dance party. It was a surprise to the police, honestly it was a surprise to us. We were not sure of our path before the march and we wandered from park to park with our tents and our mobile dance party. We wandered the streets of Austin. We went to the Capitol of Texas and danced on the steps of the Capitol. We wandered to 6th street. The street of parties and drunkards and many people who could join us. We danced with them. We showed them that we are just like them. We are all working very hard and we all need to relax. We had publicized our three month anniversary. Many people came out to join us who had not been out much. Our celebration was a great way to introduce them to our movement. If you think that the movement is all hard work and no fun than we have already lost. Living to make this new world is living a life that has purpose but it is challenging and fun.

On Saturday we had teach ins. There were some on political theory. There was one on Twitter. I taught one on our General Assembly Process and Consensus. I had not publicised this as much as I could have. I thought that no one would show up. On a beautiful Saturday afternoon about 10 of us gathered on City Hall property to talk about consensus. It is pretty amazing to see that people actually care about how we talk. How we talk is at the core of who we are. If we talk in a way that is respectful of all people and lets others talk and listens then we are beginning to form the new world. The way we talk to each other and make decisions affects who we are as a movement. I had the honor of teaching people about this process. It was wonderful. I had the opportunity to share what I have been learning over the past few months. After such a great night Friday night it was exhilarating to see people coming back to do the hard work that it is going to take to make this movement something that actually creates this new world.