Fourteen days after THE ECONOMIST published its special issue "The Quest For Jobs," leaders of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund were featured at a conference via C-Span. They explicitly said that the global economic situation is dark. Even the emerging nations, hailed in studies just a few months ago as where the GDP growth is happening now and will continue to happen for the next several years, are stalled. In that short a time, chatter about the economy went from wary to alarmed.
For September 10th, THE ECONOMIST dug deep into how professionals can stay employed and employable during uncertainty. In one section, titled "My Big Fat Career," THE ECONOMIST hammered the importance of what it calls "Emotional Capital" or having a "Regenerative Community."
That means two things. One, we are surrounded with open-minded people who slouch toward breakthrough problem-solving. Two, we have a group we can see in person [forget social networks like Facebook] to share a meal with, laugh, cry, and feel better as a result of being with them.
The challenge, of course in this scared shut-down world, is to develop that Emotional Capital. There are no right or wrong answers here. Some can do that right among family members. We imagine the Kennedy clan doing just that. Some have picked up the right folks at conferences. And some just get lucky. I am among the latter.
Several months ago I read one of those wellness publications that pile up in bookstores, public libraries, and enlightened medical doctors's offices. In it was a blurb about a coffee talk on Wednesday nights which explored persistent questions such as the possibility of time travel and how to get back without getting trapped in another era. The cost was peanuts. The location was, according to Yahoo directions, 17 minutes from my home office. That's how The Smoking Gun Research Association [SGRA], in Orange, Connecticut became my Regenerative Community.
The group is a God's Plenty of intellectuals, software testers, former FBI agents, accountants, telemarketers, moms and the retired. Unlike most communities which investigate the unusual, this one isn't tied to any school of thought. There are those who believe in time travel, those who don't, and those who don't care and skipped that particular coffee talk. Without a creed, free-thinking abounds. Friendships are easier to make. A sign of the high emotional capital, most members make it their mission to bring home-made cookies, cheese they transported back from Vermont, or diet cola to events.
In addition to coffee talks there are regular movie nights, workshops, lectures, outings to alleged haunted areas such as Dudleytown, and festivals. Here is the events calender. And here is how its founder Jon Nowinski brought it from vision to operational reality.
The great news for those searching for a regenerative community is that they don't have to be local to Connecticut to become a member. Here are the details about joining.
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