What happens when you put 200 people in a tent, pair them off and give them three minutes to answer life’s big questions?
A few weekends ago in the Sunday Assembly Tent at the Wilderness Festival we did just that, with an hour of Philosophical Speed Dating. Myself, Community Creator Ruth and one of our awesome volunteers, Amanda, led people through an hour of personal exploration with strangers.
- Tell me about a significant experience in your life?
- What does living life as fully as possible mean to you?
- What motivates you?
- Share a life challenge you have overcome.
- What brings you joy?
At the end of the session, a guy in his thirties came up to me. As we talked he said “I want to share something with you… I have just realised I never talk to anyone who isn’t around the same age as me. My life experience is pretty much all drawn from my friends and peers. And I just sat down and received the most amazing piece of advice from a lady in her 60’s. I need to change my community and my social connections to be more diverse in my normal, non-festival life!”
At Sunday Assembly, we want to break down barriers. We want to bring people together in new and radically inclusive ways. Wilderness might have been a microcosm of a (very particular type of) community, but we are seeing this replicated across the whole world. If that guy can learn something from that older lady within three minutes, what snippets of knowledge, connectivity and meaning can we create together as we grow?
That’s the question that inspires us to keep on growing communities across the world. Now time to get back to work!
