BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//The Open Road:  a learning community - ECPv6.15.3//NONSGML v1.0//EN
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:PUBLISH
X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://openroadpdx.com
X-WR-CALDESC:Events for The Open Road:  a learning community
REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H
X-Robots-Tag:noindex
X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:America/Los_Angeles
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0800
TZOFFSETTO:-0700
TZNAME:PDT
DTSTART:20200308T100000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0700
TZOFFSETTO:-0800
TZNAME:PST
DTSTART:20201101T090000
END:STANDARD
END:VTIMEZONE
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200813
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200820
DTSTAMP:20260503T123556
CREATED:20200813T161044Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20200813T162907Z
UID:1125-1597276800-1597881599@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:peace\, love\, happiness & understanding  8/13/20
DESCRIPTION:Aaron Gilbert as Sir Toby Belch in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night (Two Rivers prison\, 2011) \n  \nTHE OPEN ROAD \npeace\, love\, happiness & understanding \n  \nMy mind started to blossom… \n  \nAugust 13\, 2020 \n  \nRecently I suggested to Aaron Gilbert that he might write about what he’s learned about love while in prison. This is what he wrote: \n  \nJuly 26\, 2020 \nDear Johnny \n  \n….I have been contemplating on expanding on my ideas from my last letter and what I have learned about Love while in prison. Wow! There is just so much to it. I think of one thing\, then it expands into so many different ideas. I will just try to keep it simple and hit the points that have truly meant the most. \n  \nBefore I came to prison\, I had a very narrow view of what love was. When you get to a place like this\, you have two choices\, you can either cling to positive things in your life or go down a very dark lonely path. I asked myself how did this happen\, how did I get here? The answer was quite simple\, it was because I didn’t care about anyone or anything\, including myself. Through self-reflection\, I started to try to figure out: why? Then I met Johnny. \n  \nI was very skeptical at first about what this man was all about. I just wanted to be in the play\, but first we had to sit through this “dialogue group.” We would\, or they would\, talk about these foreign topics: Mythos\, Identity\, Silence\, Love\, etc. I just wanted it to be over so we could get on with rehearsals. I don’t know how long it took\, but I remember exactly when it happened for me. I began to hear other people speak and the biggest thing I heard was the silence. Someone would have something to say and I remember wondering what Johnny was doing when he got that look on his face\, then it hit me at once\, he was LISTENING! I began to realize that he was truly caring for us just by listening to us. My mind started to blossom\, I started to see the things I had been contemplating about love become something real. He volunteered a huge portion of his life to come and listen to us when most of the rest of society had written us off. This is one of the most pure forms of love I have ever felt and I wanted more. \n  \nFor the first time in my life\, I became engaged with people around me. At the end of class\, Johnny would say “be kind to yourself.” I started to work on self-forgiveness and ask for forgiveness from the people I hurt. This love was transforming my life and I started to feel like a person of value. \n  \nThe question then became: is it truly possible to love everyone? It is very complicated and I have a lot of work to do in this category\, but I believe the answer is “yes\, it is possible.” I have been in prison for almost fourteen years now\, I have many friends that have committed the worst possible crimes\, and they will never go home. When you know these guys without that stigma over their head\, you realize that they are human as well\, with the same basic needs as the rest of us\, to love\, to be loved and have companionship with others. You realize they are no less human than anyone else is\, even though society wants us to think otherwise. These “lifers” are some of the most respectful caring people I have met in my life\, not only on the inside. Most of these guys are doing good things for others\, trying to make their environment a healthier place to live. \n  \nThis is where I struggle because there are many people I don’t know that I may still be holding judgment against. I believe Love says if you forgive one person’s transgressions\, you should be able to forgive them all. As I said\, Love is a work in progress. \n  \nI have learned most everything I know about love from being in prison. It doesn’t seem right\, but it is true. Mostly because one man was able to help my mind flower and start to soak in all the light of Love. The best part about it is I am not the only person he touched. I know of many more in the few short years I was part of Group Dialogue. I can’t imagine how many others have felt some of that love as well. I was reading The Heart of Buddha’s Teaching by Thich Nhat Hanh recently\, and something that stood out\, I am just paraphrasing\, but he was saying of love “we can’t expect to fit people into our own little world about what we feel love is. We should truly try to understand them for who they are\, even if they have wronged us we should try to understand why.” Imagine if we can all just take a little piece of that compassion\, understanding\, and listening and spread it\, it has to make the world a better place\, right? \n  \nMaybe next time I can expand a little more on the journey of life and what it means to me. This is just the most important thing I could say today. I do want to thank Johnny for you just being you. This world needs people like you in it now more than ever I believe. I know the impact you have had on me and many others has forever transformed us into better humans\, so thank you for all that love…. \n  \nLove & Respect \nAaron G. \n* \n  \nAaron was in the dialogue group at Two Rivers prison from April of 2010 to May of 2013\, when he transferred to the Oregon State Penitentiary. He’s serving the end of his sentence at South Fork Forest Camp. While at Two Rivers\, he played Helena in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream\,” Sir Toby Belch in “Twelfth Night” and Juror Number Six in “Twelve Angry Men.” In real life he’s a nice guy\, but as a juror he wanted to convict the defendant quickly so he could go to a baseball game! (Just kidding\, Aaron.) \n  \nIt is kind of Aaron to say so many nice things about be.  I\, too\, learned a lot about love in prison. One thing I learned is that the circle is a good shape for us humans. Everyone has an equal place in a circle. That’s important. In 2015\, when I started going to Two Rivers once a month\, instead of once a week\, other people came forward to facilitate the dialogue group discussions and to direct the plays. I think we all have had a similar experience to what Aaron is talking about. Being in a circle with 16 or 20 people\, sometimes talking\, always listening\, is a transformative experience. We get to know each other in a deep way and we get to know ourselves better too. I don’t know where the love comes from\, but we all have felt it getting stronger and stronger. This world can be seen as a School for Love. When it is\, even prison is a home for The Nonstop Love-In. As Aaron says\, we all have the same basic needs: “…to love\, to be loved and have companionship with others.” \n  \nKim taught a poetry class at Coffee Creek prison. And wrote a poem about it: \n  \n  Poetry Class     \n     at the Women’s Prison \n  \nPut chairs in a circle. “Where \nis everyone?” “Oh\, they’re all \nwatching ‘Love after Lock-Up.’ \nIt’s fake\, but addicting.” \n  \nOn every chair\, put a notebook \nand a pen. “You know what? \nIn this class I’m not an inmate\, \nI’m a person.” “Every time \n  \nthat door opens\, and another \njoins our circle\, we’re stronger.” \n“It’s not so much what we write — \nit’s how we listen.” Finally\, the show \n  \nover\, the room resonant\, \nwe are the full twelve writing \nin a ring\, as onto scribbled pages \nwe bow to pray hard stories. \n  \n—Kim Stafford \n* \n  \nHere’s a poem that Katie Radditz shared: \n  \nA Blessing \n  \nJust off the highway to Rochester\, Minnesota\, \nTwilight bounds softly forth on the grass. \nAnd the eyes of those two Indian ponies \nDarken with kindness. \nThey have come gladly out of the willows \nTo welcome my friend and me. \nWe step over the barbed wire into the pasture \nWhere they have been grazing all day\, alone. \nThey ripple tensely\, they can hardly contain their happiness \nThat we have come. \nThey bow shyly as wet swans. They love each other. \nThere is no loneliness like theirs. \nAt home once more\, \nThey begin munching the young tufts of spring in the darkness. \nI would like to hold the slenderer one in my arms\, \nFor she has walked over to me \nAnd nuzzled my left hand. \nShe is black and white\, \nHer mane falls wild on her forehead\, \nAnd the light breeze moves me to caress her long ear \nThat is delicate as the skin over a girl’s wrist. \nSuddenly I realize \nThat if I stepped out of my body I would break \nInto blossom. \n  \n—James Wright
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/peace-love-happiness-understanding-8-13-20/
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://openroadpdx.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/0-2-2-2-1.jpeg
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR