Full Circle 2020: The Fabric of Our Lives
Just like the rest of this incredibly unpredictable year, it probably goes without saying that we weren’t sure exactly how 2020’s annual Full Circle Meal was going to go...or whether or not it was even going to happen at all, for that matter.
So you can imagine how it felt, when I finally found myself standing there, ankle deep in cool and swirling water, my view filled with a select few of my closest and most responsibly socially-distanced friends: Oh my gosh, you guys, we made it!
As we began 2020’s incredibly unique Full Circle meal, we all took a moment to look around at each other, giving ourselves time to stop our brains and clear away those checklists and responsibilities. We just sat, for a moment, feeling the water babbling on our skin, living in that moment where there was no performance required of us — we were just allowed to be present, to take the moment and look at it with new eyes, seeing what we’ve created, even in the face of everything this last year has managed to throw at us.
In the weeks leading up to this fifth Full Circle Meal, I found myself thinking quite a lot about fabric: So many of us have looked to physical embroidering and weaving as a creative way to pass the time during quarantine, and I found myself seeing this concept reflected in the figurative fabric of not only our society in general, but this lovely little community, specifically.
Fabric gets its strength from unity. Each of those strands and thread have to come together to give fabric its strength, and when they’re woven together properly they can create something truly formidable. Something that can be used for so many different things, creating anything from space suits and hot air balloons, to shirts and flags. For a community to endure — to combine beauty and purpose, just like a well-made fabric — it must tightly include all of the threads that contribute to its larger whole. These metaphorical threads are the gifts we collectively share with one another...as well as our burdens, our frustrations, our creativity, our values — all of it.
This year, we decided to honor the whole of us, recognizing it as valid and useful, and acknowledging that we extend beyond the parts of us that are attractive and Instagrammable. Our lows complement our highs, and neither one is possible without the other. And in a year that’s been so filled with so many complicated and complex emotions, it feels right to calibrate this Full Circle Meal around an acknowledgement of the beauty that accompanies every part of who we are.
We often think of the spirit of giving as involving an outward gesture — the passing of something from one person to the next. But giving can be an inward gesture, as well. A gesture of giving can come in the form of acceptance, and it’s this type of giving that helps us create the tightest weave possible. One of the major tenets of the Bacon & Lox Society is that we bring something to share. We can’t all bring the same thing, so this acceptance — this respect and appreciation for each person’s unique gift — is important to our collective whole, and contributes to our tighter weave.
Trauma is never best experienced alone. When we experience it as a community, we’re reassured that we’re not alone. Such is the power of community. And while the pandemic has denied us a lot of the healing power that community gives us, we’re all doing our best to stay healthy, cared for, and stable. We’ve had to do a lot of re-imagining, when it comes to our trusted systems of support and community, and that deserves acknowledgement.
If you’re reading this, thank you. Thank you for the big and small ways that you’ve helped to knit together your own community. For helping to contribute to a better and brighter society at large, especially as we find our lives under siege. I might not know you personally, but I can guarantee you that someone in your life has been needing you during this time.
So thank you, for being there.
xo
Alisa Tongg