Dinner with a View

As our leadoff example of the morsels of news that shall comprise the “Randomness” column, please groove on this photo of three Boulder luminaries enjoying dinner on the patio at Chautauqua Dining Hall July 30. Pictured are, from left to right, Cha Cha (no, we don’t know her former name, but she’s an artist and she’s allowed to change her name to Cha Cha), Tom Brock and Carol Brock, they of the Brock Publishing empire that includes Boulder Magazine and Boulder Home and Garden. The Brocks were kind enough to invite us for dinner and a Colorado Music Festival performance inside the big barn next door (’twas Mendelssohn, Sibelius and Strauss that night). The aforementioned publishing empire sponsored that night’s concert (also printed the whole CMF season’s programs). Oh, yes, the Dining Hall kitchen was in good form that night – which, to be perfectly candid, wasn’t the case when we returned for lunch the following week (hey, we promised honesty, right).

Ken Wilber at Boulder Integral

It was a rare pleasure to witness a rare personal appearance by that prolific commentator on “evolutionary psychology” and other matters of mind and spirit, Ken Wilber, at Boulder Integral Aug. 1. Wilber, who lives in Denver and has authored 24 books with such unambitious titles as A Theory of Everything, drew a sellout crowd of about 100 to the rather low-profile Boulder Integral center, on the northwest corner of Balsam and Broadway in North Boulder.

Wilber’s two-hour talk carried the reassuring overall message that at least some people are growing a lot more open to diverse value systems, and that this new tolerance may end the “culture wars” that divide us stressed-out Earthlings so. People who possess this view – he calls it an “integral” view – now number about 5 percent of the world’s population, he says, but when it hits about 10 percent, a paradigm shift will set in and we’ll all be better off. Well, that’s a simplification of his message, but there you have it.

The people sitting in front of us had come from Palo Alto and Spain to hear Wilber. The emcee, of sorts, was our dear friend Jeff Salzman, who’s provided the inspiration for the lovely Boulder Integral center. You can learn more about what it means to be “integral,” and about the center, at their website.

(Watch YouTube video of part of Wilber’s presentation.)

Adventures in Small Business

OLE! Car sighted in the Red Rocks parking lot. Interesting adventure in small business. Wonder how it’s doing…