Nisi Shawl's Five Petals of Thought

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In an age that has no shortage of quixotic projects, this one stands out as quixotic indeed. But Nisi Shawl is no ordinary writer and no ordinary woman. I'll let Eileen Gunn explain this unimaginable-before-crowdfunding project:

Much thanks to everyone who has donated to help Nisi Shawl write The Five Petals of Thought. Thanks to you all, we are three-quarters of the way there! I want Nisi to tell you a bit about the book-dream they had. Take it away, Nisi: 

Before I even started writing it, this book was so real I dreamed about it. Briefly, my dream went like this: ˆI overhear two co-workers discussing work. One is telling the other about all the difficulties she’s been having with a manager: misunderstandings, missed opportunities and so forth. The second asks the first one why she didn’t just use the Five Petals of Thought? Which, of course, is the obvious thing to do, everyone agrees. From above, I see the Ramblin School’s rolling acres, bounded by fieldstone walls, cuddle and comfort the white clapboard buildings, the wide steps, and the generous, high roofs under which study the students of the Five Petals. Polished wooden floors, spacious classrooms and gathering places--all of it, indoors and outdoors, is home to this historic movement. A diagram is shown to me at this point, a simple flower outline with each Petal’s name on the corresponding petal. It lists them as Thought, Action, Observation, Integration, and New Action. 

Then I woke up. I wanted to find out more about the Five Petals philosophy, so I looked for sources online. I searched Wikipedia and there was nothing. Googled various combinations, key words, and nothing. The Five Petals (which I understood somehow was also sometimes known as the New Bedford Rose), did not exist. Had never existed. Would never exist fully. Unless I wrote it. 

Thank you, Nis! And thank you all for your contributions! You are helping to make this book a reality. Over the next few days, I'll post more from Nisi about "The Five Petals of Thought" and where she plans to take it. If you are on social media, please let others know about our fundraiser by posting a link to it to your followers. Thank you all so *very* much! 

-- Eileen Gunn

If you are moved to help, as was I, you can find the Gofundme account here.

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