Hello dear readers!
On this day, I would like to swap an idea with you. My idea is this; Why don’t we all try to treat one another with kindness, respect and compassion? If we all aimed to do this each day, the world would be a much better place. Take what is happening in Afghanistan at the moment. Imagine if that happened here in Britain. Imagine if we had to flee our homes and leave all our belongings behind to go to strange and safer lands. Would we care what happened to our IPads and Laptops, or would we care that our friends and families were safe? I know which I would choose.
The structure of this blog is a little different to usual – but I just swapped an idea with you. I swapped the idea of humanity and compassion, and today is swap ideas day.
History of Swap Ideas Day
Swap Ideas Day was created by Robert Birch and nobody seems to know quite when it started. Robert Birch also founded other days such as Lumpy Rug Day and Trivia Day. The intent behind Swap Ideas Day is to begin communication. It is to begin to share ideas with one another. As the old saying goes, “knowledge is power” and if 2020 is anything to go by, we have all learnt that there is no such thing as common collective knowledge (I.E common sense).
What can you do to mark the day?
There are so many different things you could do to mark National Swap Ideas Day. The first thing to do is to have a conversation. Sit and swap ideas with your friends over a nice cup of tea. You never know what interesting things they may have to say.
Next, you could write out a list of all the ideas you have personally. Even if you keep them to yourself, you may find yourself thinking about things you never thought of before. Things like; What are your values? What do you believe? What’s your favourite type of music? Who knows what you might think of next? You could even share your thoughts with us if you like, as we simply love hearing new ideas!
What Open Theatre are doing.
Well, the first idea we had, here at Open Theatre, was to write a blog to mark today and to encourage you all to swap ideas. We swap ideas all of the time; in person, over the phone or zoom, or at our practitioner training days. The next time we shall all get together will be in October for an intensive clowning workshop, where we will look at our practice in more depth and gain a deeper understanding of where our ideas come from. We really hope you enjoy discussing your ideas with us and with your friends, and we look forward to hearing what you come up with. Either send us a message or tell us an idea in person when we next meet.
Take care of yourselves, stay safe and enjoy swapping your best ideas!
-Written by Madeleine Levy
References
Days of the year (2021) Swap ideas day [Online] Available from https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/swap-ideas-day/ [01/09/2021]