2012
Wednesday
December
05

…ONCE UPON A TIME…

...a group of persons who loved living in the Alps and who would like to share it. And these
persons joined themselves in Josefstal, Bavaria, in order to discuss about the different ways of
sharing feeling, sharing love, sharing their love of the Alps, and the way to talk about it.
Unfortunately, in a love story, the "daily life"... the routine... always comes, one day, or night,
sometimes early, sometimes late... but I have never heard about love stories without any
"routine" feeling and atmosphere.
It is therefore time for an electric shock. It is time to be original, to be provocative. It is time to
break. It is time to shout "disturb me"! "surprise me!".
And we then could think about two kinds of perturbations.
First, the "one shot" perturbation. You have got only one chance. You play and bet all you
have, all you are. You cannot do it too much nor each time, don't you ? Or you are pathologic
gamer! Or a Punk!?
But, but...we are not really big gamers and not so much punks...or not all the time! We are
rather professionals; passionate professionals of course, but also rational.
And, as you all know, rationality needs methods.
And that was exactly the core objective of our 1,5 days of learning and exchanges in Josefstal:
sharing experiences and knowledge on how to build new types of events for new types of
thinking and "acting". We thus talked about role plays, forum theater, etc., with the same and
global aim of enhancing our love of living in the Alps.
Of course, the place, the organization was perfect. That is the "CIPRA touch", the "marque de
fabrique" of this magic organization.
Mr Burhenne reminded us a few minutes ago not to neglect any problems, and moreover not
to neglect each human being. As for me, when you do not neglect anything, you simply respect
people, and life. Something has been neglected in Josefstal.
What I liked? Personally?
I love (again!) learning while I am myself, at the same time, an object of an ongoing learning
process. It is like conceiving and playing the game you are a piece of... and the game is
already running! Very exciting!
Such kinds of moments are so useful. They push you up. It gives you new forces. It surprises
and disturbs you! It brings you solutions to be provocative when routine is coming, when your
energy stock is decreasing while you still have to struggle so tough for your ideas, for living in
the Alps. It is the electric shock when you start to forget your socks in the living-room and you even did not notice it!… mmm… yes?... you see what I mean I think… I hope… And this kind of moment makes you realize that you have to hang on! It is like a voice coming from the mountains and whispering to your ears: Do not quit! Yes. Be clever, use your mind, look around you! It is worth to do so! Well… once upon a time, a group of persons, still producing and offering young blood and fresh air to a – not so old lovely lady called CIPRA. And that’s what we were and what we did these two last days in Josefstal. Yes, an intern workshop could also be seen like that. At least it is a story that may be told like that! Once upon a time, the future in our Alps. Alexandre Mignotte Director CIPRA France