Featured Conversation

Seeing things differently....

Have you ever been driving down a familiar road and all of sudden you panic and think you’ve taken a wrong turn because you see something noticeable that is unfamiliar?  Maybe it’s a huge tree, a peculiar church, or an interesting house.  And then you realize you haven’t taken a wrong turn, but in fact there’s something in front of you that you just hadn’t noticed before.  We do that a lot in our lives.  We are trained to see what we have already seen and we mark those things; we look for the familiar.  We do that when we walk in a room. We look for the things that we’ve programmed ourselves to see.

It takes a fair amount of effort to open your eyes to the unfamiliar.  It requires a sort of pre-approved discomfort.  Saturday before last I watched as families, couples, and individuals traversed our event (ECHO on the Farm) and attempted to look beyond the familiar and connect.  Socialization is such a great way to ease into the unfamiliar, the mixed salad of diversity that is our community.

It is our goal at ECHO to not only present fun, social events with which to connect across lines of difference, but to have a presence at others’ events and provide a “venue” for making those connections.  Any special events you want us to put on our list?