I Fell in Love with the Piumani 2/2

a Piuman iterview to the Piumani

I Fell in Love with the Piumani 1/2, cont’d

“Yes but, in concrete, what do you all do there?”
This one is also not really easy to answer, because there are no real and exact rules. Shall we say that, by and large, given a general program, a lot of “flow” will follow. The practices are similar to those in rainbow gatherings: no alcohol or drugs, and lots of love. We all eat together, in a circle, always celebrating with songs, dances and lots of hugs. Above all, people use non-violent communication, in particular the Cycle Way style from Native Americans. Moreover, at the appropriate moments, anyone can propose workshops any kind, to share and exchange knowledge and know-how.

What I like most is the affectional company that weaves every moment together, the great value given to others and to affectivity: in other words, the “Cuddling”!

…Depth with lightness
also means a caress
it mens respecting sadness
[…]
Another custom of Piumani
is sitting not too far from each other
and consider, instead: “You know what I can do?
I can place myself next to you and then we hug.”
And with bodies tangled together,
rubbed and superkissed,
one never feels alone,
undervalued, or bored…

Suffice it to say this: every day, there must be at least two people in charge of the wake up ritual–the sveglia piumana, as they call it, because, while one plays and sings good morning, the other one goes from bed to bed to hug everyone, considering that people usually sleep together as much as possible. If this were not enough to give you the idea, another common practice is offering a welcome greeting for every group that arrives exhausted from a journey, in order to shake off a bit of the hangover from Babylon. This includes a welcoming song, stretching in pairs, five minutes of wild dancing, a group hug and a piuman greeting. At departures, when someone leaves the gathering, the offer is a hand love shower and a circle of appreciation, also from the practices of the Manitonquat’s Circle Way. In this circle everyone says something he or she appreciates about the other person, and we all know how difficult it can be to receive appreciations.

We don’t have to necessarily imagine all Hippies as all naked and promiscuous. Some follow standardized fashions and are very reserved. The Piuman philosophy of life simply tries to look at qualities instead of problems, to emphasize love and beauty (which are always present, even in defeat), and to overcome fear with trust. This is all that makes these much denigrated revolutionary, the hippies, appear so alien, blasphemous, and especially dangerous. Because in the world out there, all this power, the immense energy we have if we allow ourselves to be covered in light, if we hold hands, is deliberately denied and ridiculed. And yet it is something so simple, honest and immediate, like every child’s joy and game. The finest culture and education turns us graceful into bonsais cut especially for this society, but if we grew according to nature we would be immense trees in a virgin forest.

“Yes, but in practice …”

In practice, even if I assure you that one paper it does not render, this was the general program of a typical day at the Piumanno 2017, for example. This event was held from 12/27, 2017 to 01/04, 2018, partly at Casale dei Giganti, near Vasto, in the Abruzzi, and partly at the ecovillage Giardino della Gioia (Garden of Joy), in the Gargano peninsula in Puglia. This is where the 2020 Piumanno will also be hosted. Day Program:
07.00 awake with song and hugs
07.30 meditative walk / yoga
08.30 breakfast
09.00 activities
11.00 free time
13.00 lunch in a circle
15.00 activities
17.30 free time
19.30 dinner in a circle
21.00 evening
11.00 cuddly good night

I can also add details and anecdotes from my personal experience. For example, to me it meant a lot not to look at a watch throughout the new year’s eve, and to do without the hateful countdown of the minute to get to the firecrackers, while us Piumani in the fire clan was preparing great special effects for the bonfire, and while we were involved in a continuous ritual of passage under the stars with play, dance, fun, emotion and sacredness. Yet I do not believe in any way that I’d be able to describe why and how much I fell in love with this unapologetically piuman humanity.
So much I was involved that I can affirm, with every one of my cells, without fear, and, indeed, with a happy emotion of pleasure that “yes, I admit it, it’s true: me too, I am a Piumano!”

“there is freedom waiting for you
on the breezes of the sky
and you ask “what if i fall?”
oh but my darling
what if you fly?”

(Erin Hanson)

by Selva (Michele Galasso) from YanezMagazine

a co-translation into English by Dr. SerenaGaia and Selva

#GEN #RIVE #ecovillages #Piumani #YanezMagazine

 

I Fell in Love with the Piumani 1/2

by Selva (Michele Galasso) from YanezMagazine

“I fell in love..” I’ve been saying as of late – and with whom? – people ask me
– with Piumani!
It is always difficult for me to explain who the Piumani are to those who do not know about them: as with anything else, Piumanitas should be experienced.

If I’m talking with foreigners, I also have to explain, in another language, the impossible triple pun implicit in the Italian neologism piumano, which is their name: “more human” [piu’ umani], “more hands” [piu’ mani] and, even more challenging, also a little bit “feather like” [piuma meaning feather]. Then I indulge in weaving on the latter considerations, as in, “because they know how to flutter like angels and they are cuddly like pillows”.

“Depth with lightness,” says as a motto at the beginning of their Piumanifesto, a manifesto written out as a rhymed poem:
Stop! Don’t throw it in the bin
it is a Piumani’s manifesto,
it serves to explain to those who don’t yet know
who these people are …
and, I swear, there are people who’ve learned it all by heart, just so they can, every time, answer this typical  question:
– I’m going to an event hosted by the Piumani . . .
– by what?!?

Yet nothing can explain exactly how featherlike it is to participate together. How can I manage to even help you imagine the strange alchemy of openness and exchange that can be created in that feathery atmosphere. Because the Piumani are after all very regular people: just as any other alternative freak who professes universal love, they are people who, seen in a normal context (for example in a queue at the post office), cannot be distinguished all that easily.  Maybe they tend to smile a bit more or be a bit more colorful than most, but sometimes they too have moments when they huff off and are pissed off. Some arevegan and some even tend to fruitarian raw fooders. Others, on the other hand, happily eat meat, drink, smoke, and don’t even recycle. Some are polyamorous, others less so; some live in ecovillages, others have normal work routines in big cities; some have “feathery” names, like Majid, Lapis, Kalish, others less so, like Lapo, Dinamite, Ama, Saggio, and still others are simply called Guido.

In short, describing them is not easy. One could tell of how they came to be, of how they were formed within the seasonal gatherings of the RIVE (Italian Network of Ecological Villages) where they brought a big load of joy, sharing, music, dances and abundant “hugs.”

From there they slowly began to organize themselves as a group, with the awareness that “the arrival of a good clown benefits the health of a city more than twenty donkeys loaded with medicines,” as Patch Adams reports quoting a 17th-century doctor.  This is why eventually the Piumanis decided to multiply their events and contributions to humankind.  Most of all, events worth saving the date for include Piumanno (New Year Piumani style) & Piumancamp (summer gathering Piumani style).  The upcoming Piumanno is planned for Dec 29-Jan 5, 2019-20 at the ecovillage Giardino della Gioia. For more detailed information about all upcoming meetings the reference email is piumaposta@gmail.com

Continued here next week: I Fell in Love with the Piumani 2/2

a Piuman iterview to the Piumani

a co-translation into English by Dr. SerenaGaia and Selva

#GEN #RIVE #ecovillages #Piumani #YanezMagazine