mid-week Connect: 12/29/21 ~ Legacies & an Invitation
Greetings and Happy Midweek!
As 2021 winds down to its final days - and perhaps also a measure of ‘daze’ (!) - I thought we would finish the year returning to the topic of “Legacies”. We have explored several facets of legacy in previous Connects (see LINKs below) and, cross-culturally, people all around the globe recognize and celebrate legacy in many different forms and functions.
One way early on in my career the value of ‘legacy’ came to me was when we were choosing a site to live and work among the Jola people in southern Senegal. Upon requesting some guidance from a local leader, we were taken to a remote village where an American linguist had lived, 20 years earlier for several months. We were shown the actual house where he stayed, and we heard all about how he had valued their community and language and culture enough to live and work among them. It was very impressive!
As cross-cultural travelers and workers, and ‘just’ where-ever we live, legacy is something to always be on the lookout for - it can often delight and inform us, and it is a key component of sustainable community building.
And now…A Legacy Invitation ~
As I’ve mentioned before, I live in a very small ‘tiny’ house (200 sqft/18.5 sq meters) in a community of about 60 houses like mine. In choosing this rather unique lifestyle (for Americans, at least!), I have learned over the past 3 years about living in small spaces which has included continual ‘downsizing’ of my belongings and creative ways of using and/or storing things.
In this process, I frequently ask myself what an item’s ‘legacy’ is for me and I have enjoyed finding ways to preserve and actually use family and personal legacy items, as well as many other legacies from my work and travels.
Instead of offering traditional holiday ‘gifts’ this year, I decided to invite family, friends and colleagues into my home (virtually for the most part!) for a “Tea & Tiny Tour” with the theme of “Tiny Legacy Reflections”.
SO - if you’d like to join me for one of these (zoom) Tea & Tours, just connect with me through this site, or send me an email (betsy.barbour@gmail.com) within the next week, and we’ll set that up.
And…How about for you ~ what is one cross-cultural legacy moment you value?
Share about that with a friend or note it here.
And check out the Global SKILLs LINKs below for previous Connects which explored “Legacies”.
Thanks for being part of this Connect community. See you next year!
Betsy
* Global SKILLs Resources
3 Dimensional Dynamics Model:
1st dimension = HOME ; 2nd dimension = HOST; 3rd dimension = HARBOR)
PROACTive Learning Strategies: PRO = PROfile, PROcess, PROgram
ACT = Application, Collaboration and Transformation
~ contact me for more information on these resources and how you might use them in your current programming
Global SKILLs LINKs: These blog posts, which were also weekly Connect messages, reflect on some facet of “Legacies”:
From 2020: 12/30/20
From 2021: 1/13, 2/24. 3/10, 3/17, 7/21
Simply scroll down in this blog to find the dates.
2021 ~ Celebrating 40 years of working in
intercultural communications and global community building
Connecting, Collaborating, Cultivating Community