Our recent “virtual party” and “after-party” were delightful! Seeing your faces and connecting in real time helps us feel less isolated and more inspired in our quest to advance partnership culture. Beth and I are truly grateful.

More gatherings are in the works, and they will be more topical and practical. However, we want to bring the playful, convivial spirit of the parties to all our gatherings. :)

At the same time, exploring partnership consciousness and culture feels almost dangerous in 2020, the year that “cancel culture” and other Orwellian phenomena seem to have gone mainstream. We are seeing the beauty of partnership distorted as more and more people confuse it with righteous tribalism, held together not by love but by shared hatred and fear.

We want to be clear that our vision for Harmony Cafe holds that love really is “the answer.” Not to say that loving is always “nice” — it can be “fierce” or “tough” — but no amount of fear or hatred can unleash the power of your heart.

If you spend any time on social media, you might want to try this experiment:

• Pay close attention to the sensations in your body while you’re scrolling through your feed.
• What emotions arise, and where in your body do you feel them?
• Notice how you feel when you see a post, meme, video, or article that is against something or disparaging or ridiculing someone — especially if you agree that the something or someone is wrong.
• How does it make you feel about the person who posted it?
• If you decide to like or share the post, how do you feel when you imagine others seeing your reaction?

Today’s news media and social media are designed to keep you perpetually on the edge of outrage, anxiety, or (at best) impulsiveness. The loss of your cool is just an unfortunate side-effect of their business model.

The temptation to score social points through blame, shame, and ridicule has become ubiquitous. Disparaging anyone who can be associated with some kind of wrongness has been normalized. A critical mass of call-out artists has created a kind of “distributed Big Brother” who is always watching us, ready to summon the Thought Police.

(Even as I wrote the last paragraph, I could feel the temptation to judge and condemn those who judge and condemn! I have to remind myself that hating “haters” will never make them into lovers. Only love begets love.)

Our soon-to-be-announced project is intended to be, among other things, a remedy to the confusion and hostility of these times, so we can focus on what matters most to us: realizing the potential of partnership in all our relations.

Please forward this message to anyone who shares our vision of partnership and sees that canceling, call-outs, and blame games won’t get us there. They’re invited to subscribe and be among the first to participate.

Yours in Harmony,

Scott & Beth