March

Mixing one’s wines maybe a mistake, but old and new wisdom mix admirably.

Bertolt Brecht

Snow. Wild flowers. Rain, hail, sleet. Buds, sprouted leaves and blossoms on a tree. Longer days, earlier mornings.  March is coming upon us.  It is a time of change, of the old resisting as the new tries to force itself against the bulwark of the old.  One of my favorite Korean words, flower-envy-cold (꽃샘추위) describe the tension between the old and the new.  Winter is so jealous of the flowers in Spring, it brings a cold snap.  How beautiful is that imagery?!  But as we all know, Winter will finally lose to Spring even though it does not do so until late May and sometimes early June in the state of Colorado.

Yes, newness will emerge and eventually, the old will have to give way to it.  As much as we might want to hibernate forever, we can’t stay in the caves of our treasured traditions and old ways because change is inevitable.  The question is not if but when and how turbulent will the change be.  So life demands that we adapt and try to survive, ideally thrive, with the changes.

I will be the first to admit that I like my routine; I want to maintain continuity rather than make room for disruption in my life. I hate when computer systems change or I have to learn a new program.  Yet I know that I need to adjust my natural proclivity to dig in and stay put by respecting the newness that is constantly emerging.

This does not mean that we completely wash out the old to accept the new.  It is in the interplay, the synergy between the old and new that wisdom is formed.  This is the reason why Platform is an important space because it provides the forum for dynamic dialogue to occur.  How do we equip innovative, daring youth and womxn so that they can lead in the world which resists change?  What should we honor and what should we transform?  And most importantly, what is our role in all this?

We are entering our 4th year of running the Spring workshops and every year it gets better because our vision is clearer.  The clarity allows us to really focus on what we want to accomplish, i.e. objectives, with the different sections of our workshop.  At the same time, the workshop is distinct each year because facilitators can innovate within the structure of the program. 

Furthermore, the addition of YouthPlatform and its training program, Activism@Work, is part of this effort to infuse the new, the ideas of young people into the framework of a training program originally designed for womxn. And you should see what we have in store for the development of YouthPlatform. 

Platform and now YouthPlatform are possible because of our youth and womxn volunteers, facilitators, and supporters.  What will our organization be without our innovative leaders who inhabit our space.  Just a shell.

Samantha Joo

CEO and Founder

3/1/2021