Update from the Existential Analysis Canada Board, March 2019
Dear Friends of EA Canada,
As you may know, we have our Annual General Meeting coming up on Thursday, February 28, 2019. The event will be held from 6pm to 9pm at Trinity Western University (Robert Thompson Building, Lynn Szabo Room).
Now - if you are like me, then AGM meetings may not be on the top of your priority list. They tend to consist of lengthy reports, budget projections, voting procedures and so forth. Very little tends to happen that touches us personally or inspires us to be involved, even if we care about the cause.
I hope that the upcoming meeting will be different. This is certainly my intention, but I will need the help of everyone who comes to make this a reality. Yes, there will be some (short) reports on what EA Canada has been up to. And there will be a beautifully simple budget report by master financier Ama Oduro-Kwachie. But more importantly, I hope that this meeting will be one in which we can come together, share our common passion for 'living with inner consent’, and find ways to join together in the common, meaningful task of changing the way we live and work together.
Martin Heidegger (1959/2018) asserted many decades ago that we live in an ‘age of technique’. Many good things have come with the advances of modern technology. In fact, you would not be reading my thoughts without it. But technique bears an ontological threat, a danger that we may begin to treat our friends, our relationships, our clients and ourselves instrumentally, with a focus on quantifiable outcomes rather than the inherent dignity of all persons. The evidence of this instrumentalization is everywhere, from computerized psychotherapy to how we procure our daily groceries.
If you are interested in helping us work towards the humanization of our communities - whether these are educational, psychotherapeutic, health, ministry or any other communities, and if you yourself are wanting to be part of a community that places the person and being-personal at its centre, then I invite you to join us at the AGM. If you look around yourself in almost any sphere of life, much remains to be done. And I don’t have any kind of pollyanna illusions about the potential of our reach. However, I do know, from my own experiences and those of my students, friends, and colleagues, that being part of a community that has, at its heart, the aim to see, encounter and actualize our persons, is life-changing for those who open themselves to it.
And so - I would welcome you - whether you are formally part of EA Canada or not - to join us on February 28. At the very least, I can promise you a most excellent pizza experience. And who knows what else we can do together?
Thank you for considering this.
Best,
Derrick Klaassen
Chair of the Board, EA Canada