It took me at least a year to finish reading George Saunders’ book, “A Swim in a Pond in the Rain.” I would pick it up when I felt like my brain might be up to the task of swimming in the Russian stories and Saunders’ insights on reading and writing. If you are a reader and/or a writer, I highly recommend the book. He presents seven Russian short stories for us to read and then breaks them down in detail so we might understand how the fiction works, what we can learn as writers, and how great stories can lead to connection.
From the first chapter, named “We Begin” he writes “…these [Russian] writers accepted implicitly as the aim of art—namely, to ask the big questions: What were we put here to accomplish? What is truth, anyway, and how might we recognize it? How can we feel any peace when some people have everything and others have nothing?” These are just a few of the big questions he outlines.
Later in the chapter Saunders describes readers as “a web of people who’ve put reading at the center of their lives because they know from experience that reading makes them more expansive, generous people and makes their lives more interesting.” And, “To study the way we read is to study the way the mind works: the way it evaluates a statement for truth, the way it behaves in relation to another mind (i.e., the writer’s) across space and time. …The part of the mind that reads a story is also the part that reads the world; it can deceive us, but it can also be trained to accuracy; it can fall into disuse and make us more susceptible to lazy, violent, materialistic forces, but it can also be urged back to life, transforming us into more active, curious, alert readers of reality.”
Manny Yekutiel is another person who asks big questions. He created Manny’s in San Francisco’s Mission District to do just that. Manny’s sponsors civic, political, and arts events; includes “Farming Hope,” a café that is also a job training program for formerly incarcerated people; a bookstore meant for hanging out; a stage and room for performances and debates, and more. Soon after we moved back to the Bay Area, I discovered Manny’s, and we traveled across the bay to check it out. I’m sure if I lived closer, I would hang out there.
Prior to starting Manny’s in 2018, Manny was lost. He had stepped away from political work on the national stage and didn’t know what he wanted to do next. He wondered if he would find something to do that filled him up. Many of my coaching clients and friends ponder these same questions. During this time, Manny fell in love and traveled the world with his partner who was pursuing an artistic career.
Manny had thoughts about a new endeavor and decided to use his time traveling to explore the idea of starting a café. He visited coffee shops with a political and social bent in Paris, in Cuba, and in Washington D.C. He did his homework. He observed and soaked in the ambience, he talked with the owners, and asked lots of questions. In fact, according to the Kitchen Sister Presents podcast, “Manny’s: A Civic Gathering Place,” he proposed 36 questions to investigate.
Some of these were:
· How is the business going to work?
· Who is Manny? Why should you do this?
· What will the programming be?
· What should it feel like when you walk in the space? What will the music, decorations, atmosphere be like?
· How do we make it a political space that feels like a home where people will feel safe?
It strikes me that these questions might be used by each of us in so many different contexts, perhaps with slight word changes.
What I love about Manny’s story is that he knew he needed a change, he took time to explore what he wanted to do next, he decided to research an idea that had been in his mind for some time, and he asked lots of questions to see if the idea was viable. And only then did he take a risk to pursue his big idea. He enlisted all of his past experience, skills, knowledge, and community to build this gathering place.
Near the end of Saunders book, he writes, “These days, it’s easy to feel that we’ve fallen out of connection with one another and with the earth and with reason and with love. But to read, to write, is to say that we still believe in, at least, the possibility of connection.” Manny has created a place that embodies this possibility.
And that my friends, is why after eleven years I continue to write this newsletter, in the hopes that I am making a connection with you. And to make connections between the people and places that hopefully might inspire you to learn and grow and contribute to your community.
In love and peace,
Sue
Lagniappe
Manny’s: A Civic Gathering Space, The Kitchen Sisters Presents, Episode 246
A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders
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