SUUSI

SUUSI - An intentional community

SUUSI is an intentional community, and we make time to build community. We are a diverse mix of ages, philosophies, and interests, and it's stimulating to make new friends as well as meet old buddies at SUUSI each year. About one-third of the 1,000 or so participants are attending SUUSI for the first time, and a special effort is made to build that sense of community with the "newcomers" or "first timers." Each afternoon we gather at Community Time to connect as a group.

SUUSI is both a vacation week and far more than a vacation week. Many experience the workshops, expeditions into the Appalachians, music, and the relaxed conversations with new friends as a welcome time of recharge and re-creation before returning to hectic lives a week later. They discover new interests, new ideas, and new friends in an environment that is safe and family-oriented, but also offers opportunities to stretch and accept new challenges. Some challenges are physical - if you have never been canoeing or caving, or want to "get into" biking, then SUUSI is a great place to give it a try. Others discover a deeper understanding of their spirit and emotions, especially through the worship services, theme talks, and workshops. There's also a subtle change that comes from living for a week with 1,000 others who have a wide range of perspectives on politics, food preferences, music, and all the other facets of life. So often, those differences can divide us. At SUUSI, we create an "intentional community" where we acknowledge our diversity and reconnect with others based on our shared humanity. At the end of a week, our sense of trust and confidence in the inherent goodness of others reaches a new level. The good feeling is often reflected by simple things, such as a willingness to sit at a table with strangers and make friends through casual conversation. We sit down at the table in the cafeteria with people we've never met, start a conversation ("So how did you find out about SUUSI? What did you think about that worship service last night? What's your favorite workshop experience so far at SUUSI?"). By the time a meal is over, tablemates are not strangers. That's part of the SUUSI community magic - could you behave the same way at a regular restaurant? After SUUSI, you may still choose to bury your head in a book when eating alone at a restaurant on a business trip. At SUUSI, however, the sense of "aloneness" tends to fade and the sense of belonging to a supportive community tends to grow. The good feeling from knowing that the strangers are not strange tends to stimulate proposals to extend SUUSI for another week - but the alternative is to extend SUUSI into our "regular" lives, and create more of a sense of community with those who have not attended SUUSI... yet.

SUUSI community expectations

We have an abundance of freedom at SUUSI, and with it comes full responsibility. Some basic expectations of all participants include: * Be alert to the needs and personal boundaries of others. Help make SUUSI safe and enjoyable for everyone! In our communinty of 800-1000 people, let us remember to respect each individual's rights and privacy. * Parents and guardians are responsible for their children when the children are not in SUUSI-sponsored activities for youth. * Excessive noise when others are trying to sleep is inappropriate. We ask that you be mindful of others and that you move to an area that will not be disruptive. * Leave pets at home. There are no accommodations on campus for live animals. * Skates and skateboards are not welcome in many areas - please respect the local rules. * Fire is a serious concern in college residence halls. Best way to deal with it - don't use any open flames inside any building on campus. We have special arrangements when we light the chalice at Ingathering, Theme Talks, and Worship Services. * The breaking of alcohol, drug, or any other local laws will not be tolerated. The Staff and Board are all committed to compliance with these laws and will not allow violators to remain at SUUSI. * SUUSI affirms its commitment to maintain an environment free of discrimination, harassment, and violence based on sex, race, color, ethnicity, religion, national origin, age, handicap, gender, or affectional orientation. * SUUSI expects its board, staff, and participants to conduct themselves in a dignified manner, showing concern and respect for their colleagues, participants, and the surrounding community.

How some participants have described their experience with "intentional community"

In 2003, one message on the listserver generated quite a response, summarized below. The discussion started with: bq. ...SUUSI was a huge first for me in many ways. Not only my first SUUSI, it was my first retreat of any sort. It was the first time I've ever shared my spirituality with a community. It was my first extended interaction with strangers in three years. It was my first real UU participation. These things I knew, but it turns out that SUUSI was a first for me in ways that I never could have imagined. I have lived my life in a bitter, cynical world full of bitter, cynical people. This is what I have known, and for all my worldly viewpoints, this is what I believed that all people have known. I never could have conceived that such a thing as SUUSI could exist. I could never have been prepared for what I would find when I pulled onto that campus. I found myself Friday night at a local pizza joint trying to explain to one of my bitter, cynical friends exactly what it is that I found. Try as I might, despite all my over-developed skills of articulation, I could not communicate in words this thing I now carry inside myself. "It's a social club," he said. "It's a chat room without computers." In the world he lives in, the world I so recently inhabited, there is no context for understanding it. There is no frame of reference to give it meaning. Last night, I was speaking to one of my less-bitter, less-cynical friends and I was able to convey it in a word. I found beauty. I found people who see beauty in life. And now my life can never be the same. It has been a week back in the Real World, and my head is still spinning. It looks the same. It sounds the same. I have the same apartment with the same cats and the same messy kitchen. I have the same parents, the same friends, and the same neighbors. But everything is different now. I have this force inside me, this connection, and it will not rest. It dances, it leaps, it twirls. And it sings, oh how it sings. My old life is quite simply inadequate now. I have no choice but to orient my life around this amazing new thing I have found. I don't have the slightest idea how that will happen at this point, but I have faith that it is inevitable. New places, new jobs, new people, and somewhere a congregation that I can finally call home... perhaps. We shall see what shows up. But whatever may or may not come, I cannot escape a single, pervading feeling: I have only just begun. I told several of you that when I discovered the SUUSI website, I declared myself a UU and signed up. But I think I got it backwards. I think I signed up and then during SUUSI I became a Unitarian Universalist. You have indeed given me your treasures, and I do love you so. Thank you, from every part of my soul, thank you. - Chris One response was: bq. SUUSI is not a special time. SUUSI is not a magical place. It is created by each of us. Each of us experiences something different --- some negative, mostly positive. What each of us experiences at SUUSI, we each create for ourselves. The physical happening of SUUSI is made possible by a relative small group of dedicated staff people who work their bottoms off for most of the 12 months --- including the week of being there. That it happens at all is something just short of a miracle. And what they create is the environment in which your --- and our --- SUUSI happens. The rest is up to us. Seems to me the beauty of SUUSI is that participants both get and give themselves permission to be themselves, in whatever form that may take --- again, some negative, mostly positive. Many of us take that permission to heart, hence the frequency of hugs, smiles, hellos, hugs, tears, laughter, hugs, being silly, kindness --- many of those things not found on this side of reality, or if found, seems to be rationed out as if they are on short supply. Hard to imagine what miracles might happen in a business setting staff meeting which begins with many of the people hugging each other prior to getting started --- and again at the end. And what most folks, primarily those following their first year or two don't realize is that they can take that experience home with them and transform their lives and perhaps the lives of those around them. A matter of record is that many SUUSI people go home and experience depression, not knowing how to cope with the transition from SUUSI to the home reality. What we miss is that we don't really have to make a transition --- we have a choice of the hugs, smiles, hellos, hugs, tears, laughter, hugs, being silly --- those things which 'make' SUUSI what it is. Those things are normally not part of our reality --- and we can make it so --- we just have to choose it. On Friday a.m. of SUUSI this year, I was going down the steps at Owens, two new comers were walking up ---- one said to the other: "can you imagine doing this for TWO weeks?" Well, I think that most of us would be completely exhausted rather than 80% that way and probably could not make it thru 2 weeks. Nor do I think most individuals could maintain the same pace at home for the remainder of the 12 months. What we can do however is take the attitude of SUUSI home with us: be kind to others, be kind to ourselves, do good deeds --- and get lots of hugs. Imagine your life being on the 'high' of SUUSI. Wonderful! - Alexis Another response was: bq. SUUSI gives us the "simple gift" of an amazing glimpse into who we can be at our best... what life would be like if we lived as our best selves. - Ethel-Marie Chris reacted with: bq. I'm reminded about a conversation I had at SUUSI about ways in which we might change the world. I said that I believed that when we go out into the world, who we are radiates out and effects everyone we encounter. These effects are usually very subtle, but they are always present. Thus by seeking an ever truer expression of our highest self, we radiate that out into the world. I'm also reminded of a more recent conversation about getting back what we give to others. She said that when we reach out to help others, we help ourselves, that when we send healing without, we receive healing within.