Firing up the (Salesian) Family - and the third
passion
EAO/AS: 23rd August 2006 -- For the uninitiated, (EAO is
clear enough) AS is the usual abbreviation for the Asia South Region.
austraLasia has traditionally gone to both regions, since it began when
there was not EAO but the Australia-Asia region which included the
provinces which now form a separate region.
Today's item is about some evident signs of life -
in both regions!
Yesterday, austraLasia received a simple request
from a member group of the Salesian Family in EAO, providing a host of
email addresses and asking that the entire province be added in to the
mailing list! After some work typing in each of the new
addresses, that has now been accomplished, and your 'Coordinating
Correspondent' will now of course be awaiting a degree of interactivity
with its new members, as they take up the role not only of receiving
but also of being 'citizen reporters' for their new link to the
Salesian Family world of EAO/SA.
Interactivity is not something that comes easily to
anyone over 50, though it is just everyday activity for the younger set
born with a mouse in hand. I would have to say too, that at least
from my reading of all the Church documents on Communications (or
'social communications' as they are wont to call it, quaintly enough),
the word 'interactivity' is mostly if not completely absent. It
would appear that at least up until now, ecclesial thinking is the
traditional one-way street of active transmitter to passive receiver,
despite frequent mention of 'new technologies'. The gap between
that language and actual practice, especially where young people is
concerned, is a challenge we have to confront. Enter
Boscowiki. It is taking time, but it is working! Gradually,
receivers of austraLasia are working out that they can be interactive -
step one has been taken. Quite a number are availing themselves
of the 'click here' down below and offering comment. We thank
them, including the SIHM Sisters in Thailand. It is not my
practice to go in and comment likewise on each comment in Boscowiki -
that would only reinforce the idea that it is interaction with a single
centre. No, step two will be when someone else comments on what
someone has commented - then we will be really interacting! Step three
will be when people create their own interest areas within the wiki -
all of which they can do; it's their electronic shared notebook, after
all.
Your Coordinating Correspondent at the moment is in
New Delhi, meeting many of the other correspondents from SA.
Which is where I come to 'the third passion'. Imagine a
provincial house community which claims that other than the two
'passions' often spoken of by the Rector Major (for God and for
humanity) they have a third which binds them - dominoes! Not the
toppling kind; this is not about feats of manouvering - like the
sparrow last year in the Netherlands that accidentally set off a tumble
of 4 million dominoes set up to beat the Guinness world Record! A
lucky break at 23,000 saved the day - but not the sparrow. They
shot it. At ND provincial house, dominoes is a daily ritual and
relaxation, indeed a community passion, saving them from the boredom of
tv or more work after supper. And it brings about a degree
of lively interaction, with a simple rule: no discussing results the
following morning at breakfast! That was good fortune for the
visitor, who won both games the previous night without cheating.
___________________
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