Check this out from the History Channel: “While some believe that Valentine’s Day is celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine’s death or burial—which probably occurred around A.D. 270—others claim that the Christian church may have decided to place St. Valentine’s feast day in the middle of February in an effort to ‘Christianize’ the pagan celebration of Lupercalia. Celebrated at the ides of February, or February 15, Lupercalia was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus.”
So, in honor of paganalia and crop production, they’re’ll be a TBT Valentine’s Potluck on Sunday, February 16 from 3 to 6 PM. Wear your heart on your sleeve or on a special V-Day T-shirt! Bring your So-Easy Coq au Vin to share or other Vintage Valentine’s Day classics: Salmon Mousse Canapes, Baked Oysters with Tasso Cream (whatever Tasso Cream is), Crown Roast with Apricot Dressing, or luscious Fudge Tort. Or if it’s easier, bring Mac ‘n Cheese and black olives on all of your fingers and thumbs. They’ll go well with the paper plates and plasticware.
And while it’s true that the potluckaroo is five weeks and five days away from this writing, time flies. So mark your calendar for some conviviality and the making of a holiday in your image of what it means! Bring your favorite love poem or ballad to read aloud. Bring a haiku or an ode. A quatrain or free verse. We’re open to Roman gods, creative expression, and food.
Date
Sunday, February 16, 2019
Time
3 to 6 PM
Address
2128 Park Crescent Drive
Land O Lakes, FL 34639
Questions?
Contact Grace at (215) 834.4567 and reference the Valentine’s Potluck
Check this out from the History Channel: “While some believe that Valentine’s Day is celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine’s death or burial—which probably occurred around A.D. 270—others claim that the Christian church may have decided to place St. Valentine’s feast day in the middle of February in an effort to ‘Christianize’ the pagan celebration of Lupercalia. Celebrated at the ides of February, or February 15, Lupercalia was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus.”
So, in honor of paganalia and crop production, they’re’ll be a TBT Valentine’s Potluck on Sunday, February 16 from 3 to 6 PM. Wear your heart on your sleeve or on a special V-Day T-shirt! Bring your So-Easy Coq au Vin to share or other Vintage Valentine’s Day classics: Salmon Mousse Canapes, Baked Oysters with Tasso Cream (whatever Tasso Cream is), Crown Roast with Apricot Dressing, or luscious Fudge Tort. Or if it’s easier, bring Mac ‘n Cheese and black olives on all of your fingers and thumbs. They’ll go well with the paper plates and plasticware.
And while it’s true that the potluckaroo is five weeks and five days away from this writing, time flies. So mark your calendar for some conviviality and the making of a holiday in your image of what it means! Bring your favorite love poem or ballad to read aloud. Bring a haiku or an ode. A quatrain or free verse. We’re open to Roman gods, creative expression, and food.
Date
Sunday, February 16, 2019
Time
3 to 6 PM
Address
2128 Park Crescent Drive Land O Lakes, FL 34639
Questions?
Contact Grace at (215) 834.4567 and reference the Valentine’s Potluck
Join TBT for our upcoming Third Tuesday monthly member-and-guest gathering. We’ll not only talk timebanking and exchanges, but amp-up the fun with our traditional, post holiday White Elephant—our homage to the Big Season, plus a book and CD swap. Come, join the fun. Bring your stuff to give away, leave with new goodies. Get to know people. Bring a light snack to share. It’s that easy!
There’s no doubt we’ve got it going on in Florida with timebanking: building community, making connections with one another. We’re 546 members strong in Tampa and part of the ever-expanding timebanking communities in St. Pete’s and Spring Hill. Our service exchange “system” uses time as its currency. Instead of money, we exchange “person hours.” More and more people are signing up to do things they love for other members, offering what they enjoy within the service exchange framework and using our online system known as “Hour World” to collect and tally their exchanges. That means everything from scrapbooking and sweeping someone’s garage, to fixing stuff and tutoring. Professionals can get involved too through their organizations or as individuals to offer exchanges in the form of legal advice, tax prep, medical appointments, dental care, and the like. The really good news, every hour of time is valued equally, whether you’re taking someone’s trash out or offering dermatology services. Want more info? Call Rita, Tampa Coordinator, at 608.335.2382. Or join us at one of our Third Tuesday monthly meetings; the next one’s coming up on January 21, 2020, 6:30 PM, at Tampa’s Life Enrichment Center. So head on over. Ask questions. Be part of our ongoing work and revitalization energy!
That’s right. It was a commotion. A happy fuss. A bit of an uproar complete with panpoolers, pantookers, and drums. Well, drums and symbols and sound effects, to be sure, from folks blowing into glass bottles and making rhythms with clackers and castanets. TBT’s Thanksgiving Friendsgiving celebration last night at Tampa’s Life Enrichment Center rattled the beautiful art on the walls just a tad when post-meal musical improv—complete with OM chanting and time for storytelling—made for lush community connection and singalong (sans the bonfire). The vibrations and reverberations, the cling clang and bing bong and laughs, stirred the soul with the energy to “bring about social change.” We were led by our fearless presenter and longstanding member, Karen Lowman, who got the notes flowing after she answered guests’ questions about timebanking, exchanges, and the ins and outs of how it all works. And of course there was food. Crock pots bubbled and veggies lay in wait to be snarfed. Bundtinis and pies, chocolate and treats, were shared by all.
Stay tuned for holiday festivities slated for our Third Tuesday in December on the 17th when we’ll make homemade ornaments at the Life Enrichment Center (Yippee Ki-Yay!) .
Hard to believe it’s Turkey Time again! Here’s a quick reminder of tomorrow’s festivities: Members and friends, join us at a shared, sure-to-be-DEE-lish pre-Thanksgiving potluck table. It’s a place where young and old alike (and everything in between) are whole-heartedly and timebank-style welcome. We’d love to see you in Tampa for this year’s “Friendsgiving” where we’ll be serving up goodies and gratitude. So bring a fun dish to share! Here’s the down-low on the not-so-skinny holiday:
One big, big way to save money is to be active with TBT timebank members. Our service exchange “system” uses time as its currency. Instead of money, we exchange “person hours.” You sign up to exchange what you love to offer, and avail yourself of offerings members enjoy delivering. This could mean everything from grocery shopping and raking leaves, to giving someone a ride to a doctor’s office—or sharing the meeting notes you took with a member who couldn’t get to an event. Our TBT printable flyer gives the quick story line on timebank exchanges.
There are other ways to save money. Here’s a random list of this and that:
• Make your own laundry detergent;
• Eat leftovers;
• Ask a fellow timebanker to borrow her hose (colander, evening dress, wrench) for the weekend instead of buying one new;
• Get stuff at thrift stores;
• Comparison shop. Before you take out your wallet, do some pricing research and find the most cost-effective buy for immersion blenders, stilettos, bagpipes. You name it;
• Write a list before you go food shopping and stick to it;
• Drink more water;
• Turn lights off;
• Make homemade holiday gifts;
• Avoid the mall.
Got ideas to add? Send them to coordinator@tampabaytime.org.
This year’s TBT pre-Turkey celebration will include improv music: ad-libbed and noteworthy notes as spontaneous accompaniment to yumilicious food! So join us for our November 2019 Third Tuesday Turkey and don’t forget your paper plate banjo and rattle drums—yer do-it-yourself tambourine and some knee-jerk symbols. Hop the holiday bandwagon in Tampa for this year’s “Friendsgiving,” when we’ll share Thanksgiving goodies and gratitude. Bring a fun dish! If you need food ideas check out this list of classics. Here are the essential details on the not-so-skinny holiday:
Community is a lot more than a physical neighborhood, town, city, or state.
Of course, that physicality matters. (It’s easier to pull weeds or dust a timebanker’s ceiling fan in an exchange if that person lives in your proverbial backyard.) But community is also about something arguably even more intimate: identity. Longstanding TBT member Christina Bellamy’s personalized presentation at last month’s Third Tuesday gathering on October 15 opened a dialogue about all this and more. Using timebanking’s “Gathering with a Purpose” model, Christina stirred interactive conversation; she opened up a casual discourse with emphasis on the warmth and connection that characterizes timebanking’s priority, people and their collective and individual value as community members—or as writer Megan Garber wrote a couple of years ago in The Atlantic, “Community…is not merely something that one fits into; it is also something one chooses for oneself, through a process of self-discovery.”
Christina’s October 15 talk took a deeper dive—a spelunking exploration into what timebank vibe means to the whole and, to cite Megan Garber again, what it means as part of a journey toward self-discovery. There’s a wealth of motivation to explain why people get involved. Some reasons have are economic. Others have nothing to do with dollars and cents. Because in timebanking, “currency” is measured—earned and spent—in timebank hours. And for those on a budget, or with limited and fixed incomes, this can be an exceedingly helpful advantage because we can still get our needs met and also help others in the same way, even when we can’t afford it in greenbacks. For others, there’s motivation to widen the circle of good friends, enriching an experience of community along the way. And for others still, a non-material, spiritual (metaphysical, ineffable, sometimes sacred) energy compels involvement. Sometimes it’s all of the above: a desire to support others, be supported, and know intrinsically that timebanking’s ethos is real and can be felt when we all have a chance to feel valued and offer something in return.
Before the October 15 meeting concluded the group put together a timeline, a visualization depicting how long—from a few weeks to close to a decade—that each participant was connected to TBT. People took stock of their identities as a growing part of the TBT tribe, an ever-widening kindred connection. If you’re inspired to Gather with a Purpose, download “Gathering Welcome & Introduction” to get rolling and keep the community energy flowing!
Timebanking and Dr. Chris Gray are two peas in a simpatico pod. On September 15 our affiliated Florida timebanks got a big, happy boost when more than 30 people came together in Pinellas County to participate in Dr. Gray’s interactive workshop titled, Gathering with a Purpose. A 20-year advocate and Timebanks USA Board Member advancing the “sharing economy”—the neighbor-helping-neighbor defining the ethos and driving the event, Dr. Gray traveled from the Washington, D.C. home she shares with spouse and timebanks founder, Dr. Edgar Cahn.
In a nutshell, Dr. Gray explained timebanking as a service exchange system that uses time as its currency. Instead of greenbacks, timebank members exchange “person hours” doing stuff they love to do: From re-potting someone’s plants to giving her a ride to the doctor, it’s all part of people coming together to help and connect and exchange “services.” Professionals can participate too through their organizations or as individuals to offer exchanges in the form of legal advice, tax prep, medical appointments, dental care, and more. People exchange service credit hours and record them in an online system to keep track.
Born in the U.K. and educated at UCLA, Dr. Gray’s Meeting Map took us from these timebanking basics through to action steps—the proverbial “how-to” of hosting a Gathering with a Purpose event in your own neighborhood. Everything from organizing materials and distributing fliers ahead of time to room set-up and tech support. With equal sincerity and verve she dove into the issues of community sustenance and “relational needs,” otherwise known as the good feeling vibes that come from being a human helping another human, and sometimes even the spiritual buzz that such connections may bring. She discussed the vital interplay between giving and receiving. “When we can allow ourselves to receive as well as give, we do our part to keep the channels of abundance open for ourselves and others,” according to the work of author Madisyn Taylor shared by Dr. Gray at the event. Dr. Gray’s own doctoral thesis was written on the subject of Native Americans, Tribal Matters: The Journey of American Indian Tribes in American Political Development.
To learn even more, check out a conversation between thought leaders Dr. Chris and hubby Edgar and the Timebanks USA “chief focus,” which is “to seek out and work with individuals, associations, and organizations…to achieve more just, more sustainable communities.” Explore Gathering with a Purpose by contacting coordinator@tampabaytime.org or call 608.335.2382.
In his book No More Throw-Away People, Edgar Cahn listed four values that stand at the heart of successful timebanking and have stood the test of time. Later, he added a fifth.
Asset?– Every one of us has something of value to share with someone else.
Redefining Work – There are some forms of work that money will not easily pay for, like building strong families, revitalizing neighborhoods, making democracy work, advancing social justice. Time credits were designed to reward, recognize and honor that work.
Reciprocity– The question: “How can I help you?” needs to change so we ask: “Will you help someone too?” Paying it forward ensures that, together, we help each other build the world we all will live in.
Community/Social Networks – Helping each other, we reweave communities of support, strength & trust. Community is built by sinking roots, building trust, creating networks.
Respect – The heart and soul of democracy lies in respect for others. We strive to respect where people are in the moment, not where we hope they will be at some future point.
Check this out from the History Channel: “While some believe that Valentine’s Day is celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine’s death or burial—which probably occurred around A.D. 270—others claim that the Christian church may have decided to place St. Valentine’s feast day in the middle of February in an effort to ‘Christianize’ the pagan celebration of Lupercalia. Celebrated at the ides of February, or February 15, Lupercalia was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus.”
TBT Valentine’s Potluck on Sunday, February 16 from 3 to 6 PM. Wear your heart on your sleeve or on a special V-Day T-shirt! Bring your So-Easy Coq au Vin to share or other Vintage Valentine’s Day classics: Salmon Mousse Canapes, Baked Oysters with Tasso Cream (whatever Tasso Cream is), Crown Roast with Apricot Dressing, or luscious Fudge Tort. Or if it’s easier, bring Mac ‘n Cheese and black olives on all of your fingers and thumbs. They’ll go well with the paper plates and plasticware.
