09.37
Rising at 05.59.
Morning Sitting with the Intro Team: 07.15 for 07.30.
Breakfast at 08.00. After perhaps 25 minutes, Silence visited and was accepted. Out of the Silence, reports on the Acting From Initiative work of the Intro Team yesterday evening, taking turns to be in the middle of the Circle.
When assuming the role of leader of the Circle, we don’t claim to be any better than anyone else, but we have a role to assume.
Whether the leader is Mr. Cloth Ears, Mr. Hammer Hand or Queenie Vicious, we honour the role and respect the person. The same principle applies in the kitchen: the Kitchen Co-ordinator may not be the best cook, but they hold responsibility for the overall operation of the kitchen: we honour the role and respect the person.
This is a “flat hierarchy”: we are all of us in the same boat, doing the best we can.
Our work of the morning was called.
Personal meetings with the Buddies are beginning.
11.54 A meeting of the North American Federation Of Guitar Circles Quorum at 09.00 in Room One. An empty seat was provided for our other members AAD. Discussed:
Logistics for the The Orchestra Of Crafty Guitarists’ three public performances in May.
The state and condition of this course.
How to approach personal meetings with the Intro Team.
Sandra left for Alexander with Rodrigo and the Kitchen Team at 09.30.
Robert with the Intro Team at 10.00. In addition to our guitar work, the first four of the Seven Assumptions For Work In The Circle were presented.
13.54 T’ai Chi at 12.30.
Lunch at 13.00. Silence visited and was accepted. Various shufflings and twitching suggested that this was not an easy visit for everyone.
What of our work this afternoon? It was suggested that, if al else fails, we ask Tom what to do. But this only at the point of despair.
Suggestion: continuing with the Group work of the morning. Comments:
My right hand sucks – help!
How to sit on a chair with a guitar?
These are both being addressed, beginning at 15.00 with Alexander in the Ballroom, chairs freely placed, Alexandrians Sandra, Rodrigo and Erin helping with the sitting and Buddies with the Right Hands.
18.20 Tea at 16.00. With hot coffee. With hot milk. With whole cookies, not simply a plate of biscuit crumbs.
Alexander lie-down with Rodrigo, Sandra and the The Five Relations at 17.00. Superb.
T’ai Chi at 18.00.
20.32 Quiet Time at 18.30. This was strong for me.
Dinner at 19.00. Silence visited, also strongly. Discussed at the tables: personal meetings with those on an Intro Team. I hesitate before having invididual personal meetings with Beginners, because they make me ill. Examples were given.
1. Questions asked are rarely authentic questions, experientially based and driven by necessity.
2. Where they are, the questioner can rarely listen to the answer.
3. Not many people who ask me questions want to hear the answer.
4. The most clueless are the most unable to know when to stop talking.
Nevertheless, I am keen to engage with the Introers, so what to do? At the Royalston course last May, the whole Intro Team had a personal meeting with Robert. It began on a roll and kept going without a pause to draw breath. Sandra saw me coming out of that personal meeting, white.
A proposal for this evening: a personal meeting for the Intro Team with Robert. With or without any of the Staff and Kitchen Team? This is not the only option for us. A few would prefer to meet with guitars. A decision was deferred until after dessert, an excellent and tasty cheesecake.
Then an alternative proposal from a Beginner: to submit questions on pieces of paper. This was declined: a good question has half the energy needed for an answer. Paper has little. Although any one who would like to write a question on a piece of paper can give it to Tom.
Hands for those who would prefer guitars to a personal meeting - only a few. The suggestion was they could meet with Tom. The House Team are meeting for a concurrent Song Without Words in the Chapel at 21.15 as we are having our personal meeting in The Room Next Door. The Introers are providing their own translation.
22.48 One hour and 28 minutes. Mostly good questions, some life issues. And one long, rambling comment: I felt the energy seeping from the Team as my own will to live began to ebb. But, this is what it is at this stage; even though it is not necessarily so.
Death can be our Friend. 
"Quiet is the absence of sound, silence the presence of silence."
