We send out an all-thumbs-up and appreciative salute to the audience that gathered and shared thoughts at our special afternoon film and conversation exploring the worldview of Gregory Bateson on April 28. About 100 gathered for the film — and wonderfully — half as many further inquiring folks took part in a stimulating exchange with our stellar panelists: Nora Bateson, Derek Cabrera, and Dana Levy. We thank these educators and idea-navigators profusely for their time, engaged endeavors, and presence of mind.

This event was organized around the new documentary film, An Ecology of Mind, which Nora Bateson has made about her father Gregory.  Some of the questions that were discussed include:

– If ecology is one of the newest tools we have to aid our understanding, how can we better cultivate its insights?  How can relationships, patterns, and perception be considered less mechanistically?
– How can we disrupt toxic patterns and increase diversity and resiliency?  Nature seems to embody the reconciliation of paradox- yet humans have not yet adapted to do this.

Certainly an array of useful ideas were circulated between one and five p.m. that Saturday – and the conversation will no doubt continue among the colleagues and allies who were in attendance (and among those viewing the 40+ DVDs sold after the show).

We extend our appreciation to our donors and supporters who helped make the program possible: NYSERDA, Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival, Sustainability at Ithaca College, Cornell University Department of Anthropology, Macromamas Catering, Gimme Coffee, Finger Lakes Wine Center, Greenstar Cooperative, Blair-Richards Design, Anthropology Graduate Students Association of Cornell.