Hello Friends!
Greetings from Barcelona☀️. Many thanks for your feedback on the last edition. See the new special shout out section below 🙌. If you are joining The Quest for the first time, welcome to our weekly exploration of creativity, facilitation, and learning. You can catch up on past editions here.
In this edition: The art of designing a virtual celebration, understanding the Japanese art of Ikigai, and finding happiness in citrus fruits. That’s our Quest this week. Here we go!
🎉Want to Throw an Unforgettable Online Party? Start by Answering these 5 Questions First.
A blog I wrote about designing an online celebration for my mom’s 80th birthday. Living overseas, I’ve lost count of the number of significant events birthdays, weddings, and funerals that I have missed. So for my mom’s 80th last week I decided to put my experience design skills to work, and organize a virtual celebration. I wasn’t sure if it was going to work. To my surprise, it turned out to be a multi-generational, participatory, pan-continental online bash. So how do you design an online party that people won’t want to miss? Start by answering these 5 questions.
✨Ikigai and the Importance of Being Curious
My mom’s 80th birthday has got me thinking about how to live a happy and healthy life. So I was intrigued by this article by one of my writing mentors, Andrew Barry on the Japanese art of “the thing you live for”. I had always seen Ikigai represented in a Venn diagram like this:
It turns out that this is not Ikigai. Ikigai is more accurately represented like this:
I realized that my mom follows practically every one of these rules. Well, with one big exception: “Taking it slow”. So perhaps unsurprisingly that’s the rule I also find hardest to follow. Actually “don’t fill your stomach” is also hard. OK, always “live in the moment” is not easy either. Which rules do you follow? Which rules do you need to work on? Read the full article here. Andrew writes prolifically about group learning and online experience design. I highly recommend his free newsletter.
🍊An Early-Modern Ode to Citrus Fruit
Speaking of Ikigai, this Guardian article caught my eye. It’s a collection of citrus-themed art work commissioned by 17th Century German silk trader Johann Christoph Volkamer. Volkamer was a passionate gardener, obsessed with citrus fruits which at that time were virtually unknown in northern Europe. It was the thing he lived for. Professor Iris Lauterbach, an art historian who will publish the works in new book in December, understands his devotion. She writes, “Citrus trees are beautiful. The trees that bloom and fruit at the same time in orangeries evoke the idea of a timeless paradise of blissful happiness.” I feel like eating a mandarin. These 2 are my favorites:
Thanks for reading. I always love hearing your feedback and suggestions. Feel free to email me at gwyn@gwynwansbrough.com.
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Until next week!
Gwyn
P.S. I’d like to give a special shout out to Monica in Barcelona, and Sucia in Mexico. I’m glad you liked Mmhmm! Thanks for your feedback 🙌
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