Up until now I have been publishing the blog from the perspective of an outsider looking in. Then on Friday I decided that I was going to spend a night with Occupy and choose to cross over from a outside observer to a more engaged observer. I am not sure that I was ready to be a member, but I was moving in that direction.
Then last night as an action moved forward that I didn't agree with in terms of strategy, I couldn't figure out what my relationship was to #OccupyBoston.
Like many folks I have grown up hearing that you don't put family business in the street. So I am really struggling with whether it is right for me to speak to a larger world about my own frustrations with what is going on within #OccupyBoston. Should I just be sharing it with the folks who are in Dewey Square and not the larger community of folks that I was eager to share with when my outlook was extra hopeful.
I have been thinking about this all day and I have come to this conclusion. This movement has been all about transparency and living right out in the open. This transparency is what drew me to #OccupyBoston and so I will choose to remain open and transparent about my reflections of what is happening in real time.
That means that some days I may be more up and other days I might be more down. In the complex world of building community, that is how it goes. If it was not already completely obvious - this is just one women's opinion and a reflection of my experience with #OccupyBoston and the larger Occupy movement. If you really want to understand this movement (and any movement for that matter) you need to read multiple opinions.
A lot of times in organizing the approach is a football-style huddle with the goal of keeping your strategy and opinions hidden in order to psych out the opponent. You don't air the problems or challenges of the group so you don't give any "power" to your opponent. But a few posts ago I was saying that I reject that approach in order to embrace #OccupyBoston. So today I have decided to also reject that approach in the way that I reflect on #OccupyBoston. I will be doing "open source" blogging in which I will be transparent about the fact that my ideas are evolving before my eyes. I hope that you will allow me to speak the truth that I know right now, and to let that truth evolve as my perspective evolves.
I will not name other people but I will reference conversations only so much as they have influenced my thinking.
So with that caveat, please feel free my all my posts with an eye to the grains of truth but with a grain of salt.
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