Variation(s) – March 21st and 26th, 2026
Gathering
This month, 3 of us gathered to enjoy the changing seasons and to explore the theme of variation together. For the first time this month, a second meetup also brought 8 participants together at Wesley Seminary in Washington, DC.
Opening Reflections
Centering activities, including group breathing and gentle stretching, have become a meaningful part of how we begin our time together. In DC, Jessie Houff graciously volunteered her experience to guide us through these practices. Music and poetry also played an important role in our opening reflections.
Ben Townsend shared examples of variation within Appalachian fiddle and banjo traditions at both meetups, an example of which can be heard as the featured musical portion below. Bailey Blumenstock offered examples of poetry that rely on repetition and variation, including Sylvia Plath’s “Mad Girl’s Love Song” and Paul Celan’s “Todesfuge.” In North River Mills, Townsend also shared the poem “juggler, magician, fool,” by Peter Schaeffer, along with a brief introduction to the pantoum poetic form, which similarly weaves repetition and variation together.
Themes and Discussion
What follows is a shared reflection on the conversations that unfolded in both West Virginia and Washington, DC. While each group began at different places, both gatherings gradually moved toward similar insights.
In West Virginia, participants pointed to clouds, grass, Arizona sunsets, and daily commutes as examples of variation in everyday life. A participant shared the quote “How do you take pictures if you don’t travel?” voicing our culture’s predisposition to prioritize adventure and consumption. Commutes stood out as a symbolic way of talking about the importance of being present and of noticing the beauty that surrounds us in familiar places. This offered a gentle counterpoint to the idea that meaning can only be found through travel or constant novelty. Instead, participants reflected on the richness of small, ever-changing details in the places we inhabit daily. Even as we move along the same roads and pathways, the world around us is always shifting. Through the seasons, through light, through the subtle movements of creation itself, constant variations invite us to take pause and notice. Over time, the conversation widened, and many came to see variation as something woven into all of life. Even our DNA, unique to each of us, can be understood as an expression of this deep and ongoing creativity.
In Washington, DC, the conversation began from an opposite point of origin, focusing first on variation through the lens of evolution. Participants reflected on the many ways living things change and adapt, often becoming quite different over time due to small shifts in environment or experience. The concept of carcinization, a new idea for many of us, describing how different crustaceans independently evolve crab-like forms, brought moments of laughter followed by a much deeper recognition of how much we share in common despite our perceived differences. As the conversation bloomed in DC, the focus zoomed further and further in to include rituals like choosing a daily outfit, a process that is always different, but at the same time always the same, and making our daily coffee, a process that is often the same, but yields a variety of results.
Both gatherings focused on the importance of variation in creation. We talked at length about how different faith traditions are connected by their inclusion of some sort of creation story. We identified these creation stories as variations on a theme that unite us through the commonalities of our various traditions. The idea of God the creator was lifted as a unifying vision of God that led us to explore the idea that we creative people, through our various creations, honor God the creator. Our creative endeavors in this sense become forms of prayer with the power to transform us and those we love. In closing, we started to examine the importance of ritual and discipline both in aiding our creative processes and as a vessel through which we can order and offer our creative outpourings for ourselves and others. This, we accepted, would be a great topic for another gathering.
Creative Practice
In North River Mills, Townsend shared a detailed explanation of various styles of traditional banjo and fiddle playing, which you can find below. He shared thoughts on how a “skeleton melody,” the melody at its most basic, should “open up like a flower” through improvisation and variation to become something uniquely beautiful each time played. “Old Mother Flannagan,” a tune from the playing of Lester McCumbers, served as his example.
At Oxnam Chapel, participants made a paragraph used to revisit the “I Am Sitting in a Room” idea from Alvin Lucier, which read:
“You do not have to be good. Flowers slow my mind. How rare & beautiful it is to even exist. Have you ever heard of an “exquisite corpse?” Welcome to the buds, leaves, birds, bees, spring, because you are water babe. We sit together in this room celebrating each other in all our wonderful ways.”
It was read by Jessie Houff and featured in our Third Space Archives.
Looking Ahead
Join us this later month in North River Mills on Saturday, April 18th, and/or at Wesley Theological Seminary on Wednesday, April 29th, where we will explore the topic: displacement. Musical offerings will include guided improvisation on this theme, played by anyone in attendance excited to participate.