 By creating NetworkM, together we can build a network of spiritually and socially striving people -people who want to make themselves and the world better and have the will to actually do it.
If you have read the current summer edition of Lilipoh magazine, you likely saw the following article published on page 68. If you haven't read it, read it here. Click below on the 'read more' or the article title to access the full article.
Eleven years ago I graduated from the Summerfield Waldorf
School in Santa Rosa, California, and I have remained close with many of my
classmates from Summerfield and all of the five Waldorf schools I attended.
Since then, I have continued to meet people all over the globe who are carrying
into their work strong principals of social and spiritual responsibility. Some
are connected to the Waldorf movement, others not. Regardless, it is important
to recognize that there is a growing community of spiritually striving
individuals who are often scattered around the country who are trying to find
meaning in their lives, do good work, but need better means of connecting to
each other.
Waldorf institutions send hundreds of graduates off into the
world each year and they are gone. I have also found myself at countless
workshops and international youth conferences in North America and abroad,
where one thing that stood out each time was the awe that the participants felt
when they realized that there are so many others like them and they never knew
it. Unfortunately, at the end of the conferences, there was no fabric binding
the participants together. We have not truly taken up the task of keeping
people connected - the time is now upon us.
According Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner, at the end of
the twentieth century a specific ‘spiritual school’ that he called the Micha’el
School would emerge—this would be comprised of a group of striving souls who
would carry the work of spiritual science forward. These people are now here,
yet there is no means to connect them to enable them to do their work together.
We must find a way to build a network that connects us – this is the role of NetworkM.
As people connected to organizations as instrumental as the
Waldorf community, the Anthroposophical Society and the Rudolf Steiner College
(to name a few), we have an opportunity to create and maintain a network that
connects us. We also have a responsibility to reach out beyond our “borders” to
others who are looking for answers, to build and strengthen the organizations
that we, and so many before us, have dedicated ourselves to enrich and foster.
The foundation of NetworkM is based online at
www.thenetworkm.net – a virtual meeting place for Waldorf alumni and the
spiritually striving. There are forums, chat rooms, message boards; individual
profiles, a calendar of up-coming events and conferences; soon there will be an
directory of services and a yellow pages for people who would prefer to hire
the services of a member of our great community. In a world so big, it is
important to find a way to help us connect with people of our larger community,
regardless of how far away they may live.
Shortly after the 2000 presidential elections here in the
United States, a network formed to connect like-minded people to mobilize
political action. This network was MoveOn.org, which had a will toward action
and community building. This will has now become a large force in American
politics because it networked people around the country and has put people in
contact with each other who otherwise may not have been able to come
together. We need the same type of
network.
There are many people who are looking for a community to
support them in their social, political, economic and artistic tasks. Many of
them are coming from Waldorf Schools or are Anthroposophically inspired (e.g.
Youth of Environmental Sanity, Art Everywhere, the Anthroposophical Youth
Conferences, to name a few) and there are many more who would gladly take part,
if only they knew, or if only they had access.
As small as the world keeps getting, it can be very hard to
stay in touch and even harder to find the people who we may need/want to work
with. By creating NetworkM, together we can build a network of spiritually and
socially striving people – people who want to make themselves and the world
better and have the will to actually do it.
-Matthew Cortez Temple
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