End of Owl & Ibis Meetings

retreat: a period of time when somebody stops their usual activities and goes to a quiet place for meditation and thought.

Friends,

Beginning December 1, 2019, Owl & Ibis - A Confluence of Mind will stop holding in-person meetings. 

I need a break along the lines of the definition of a ‘retreat’ given above.

I have been allowed my full say at O&I, at other local freethinker meetings, and on my websites on a wide range of matters. I have also learned a lot from each of you. For all this I am grateful. 

The matters on which I’ve expressed my views include many of what I think are the most important issues in anthropology, the other social sciences, the natural sciences, the humanities, religion, and in current US and world affairs. Regrettably, many of these issues give me grave concern about the future of Humankind and Earth. 

It is time for me to critically examine my views on these matters and others, and change my thinking and behavior as needed.

It is also time for me to finish a few projects I have been neglecting. Among these is a book compilation of my essays, articles, and commentary from over the years. 

I will continue to write essays and commentaries from my quiet place, my home library. I will post them on the O&I website here, on my personal websites here and here, and on my human migration consultancy website here. I hope readers will continue responding to my posts as in the past by sending their comments and questions to me by email.

I will also continue enjoying the informal local meetings some of us occasionally have over breakfast or lunch.

Sometime in 2020 I will decide whether or not to resume O&I meetings; and if so, what new, if any, format, purpose, and direction O&I will take. 

Thank you for your Owl & Ibis attendance over the past six years, the great presentations you have made, all the ideas I’ve learned from you, and for reading the website and expressing your interest in and helpful comments on my views.

On behalf of the Confluence I extend a special, heartfelt thank you to Jemal Douté of Douté Counseling Services in Fayetteville, Georgia, USA for generously allowing O&I to use his office conference room for its meetings. 

Tutaonana! [Too-TAH-oh-NAH-nah] We will meet again (Kiswahili)!

Jim

}:> ~:)