Dear Reader,
It went well, to answer your question regarding Danger Close Alaska. Really well. So well that the participants didn’t have time to finish the enormous pile of junk food I fretted over at Costco last week, thinking it would never be enough. But maybe this isn’t the best metric.
It’s easy enough to run the numbers: 20 hours total, six hours in workshops, four hours of talks and multimedia presentations. Gallons of ink expended on manuscripts. Multiple carafes of coffee. The intangibles, however, are more difficult to quantify. One of the participants told me that her eyes were opened to a range of possibility she’d never considered before. And not in terms of new genres or approaches, but that writing beyond the limited purpose of last weekend’s workshop was worthwhile. How do you score a comment like that on the “Effective” scale?
Or, how do you factor in something like generosity? One student paid another student’s registration fees, and a local business covered a veteran’s fees. You want to think that when you invest time and effort into something like this, that lives will be changed. That you’re making a difference, not with platitudes and bumpers sticker, but with real action that inspires others to put skin in the game. But it’s hard to know.
At one point this weekend, I sat in on a conversation. Eavesdropped, really, taking a moment from tweeting photos, making coffee, and all the little things Erin Hollowell and I did to mind the administrative side of things over the weekend. The conversation was in one of the workshop groups, and when I snuck over to listen, I heard the sound of barriers collapsing. Veterans and civilians alike engaged in a passionate discussion on the role of war narratives. Even sticky topics got thoroughly worked, and by its conclusion I felt all those at the table had a more nuanced understanding of where everyone was coming from. And all this was after discussing how to improve the piece that sparked the debate.
On one hand it would be easy, now that Danger Close Alaska is over and out, to look back and pin success on the fact that we were all able to pull it off. But pulling something off isn’t necessarily the same as pulling it off well. And I learned some hard and valuable lessons that I’ll implement the next time I help out with something like this. That being said, I don’t think any road to success is absent lessons along the way. Perspective – I mentioned it last week – reminds me of what actually, verifiably happened: storytelling united 24 people from diverse backgrounds for two days straight. People learned about, and from, each other. The roots of a community formed. That’s enough for me to call it a success.
Many Thanks,
Matt
Bravo, Matt. A worthy project, and (hopefully) we'll see more from you in the future.
Definitely a success. I'm still pondering all I thought, felt, and learned. Many thanks for the hard work of pulling your ideas together into action. My words don't reflect the quality of the presentations and interactions, people met, and people seen again.