Full Circle Meal 2019: Alisa's Reflections (Part I)
For years, now, Alisa Tongg and the Bacon & Lox Society have been creating new traditions, finding new ways to celebrate and come together as a group of creatives determined to keep themselves free from the demands of commerce and competition.
Of the many different celebratory traditions they’ve developed over the years, though, it’s probably safe to say that the Full Circle Meal has emerged as one of the most meaningful. 2019 marked the fourth annual Full Circle Meal, which found the B&L Society coming together with its favorite friends and collaborators, for a meal surrounded by the cool and quietly rushing waters of McMichaels Creek, a tributary to the mighty Delaware River, in rural Pennsylvania. It really doesn’t get that much more magical.
With every passing year, the Bacon & Lox Society has found ways to add to the Full Circle Meal, the goal always being to create something that amounts to much more than the simple sum of its parts. This year, as Alisa worked alongside friend and collaborator Will Croasdale to design and create a brand new pavilion at Promise Ridge (her own special ceremony space perched above a secret creek spot), she found her heart full with the memory of her friend Renee Bower, who had been laid to rest earlier in the year.
Renee and her partner Derek had, year after year, contributed the massive tables that served as the lodestone for the incredible Full Circle Meals: Beautiful, sturdy, hand-crafted works of carpentry that brought everyone together around them for the creation of memories and a celebration of talents. Alisa knew it would be difficult to create and celebrate without her this year...but eventually, there came a realization: She would be there.
Renee (center) and Derek (left, in aviators) at the 2018 Full Circle Meal
Renee would be at the center of the meal, in the form of their communal table, made up of the eight farm tables that Renee and Derek had always contributed. Incorporating Renee’s legacy and memory into the Full Circle Meal gave it yet another layer of meaning, adding another part to that magical sum, and it eventually became clear that Renee’s contribution was one drop that created a much larger ripple. Her creative contributions had resulted in their own full circle: the ripple of her legacy, growing and radiating outwards, touching everyone who took part in a day full of so much inspiration and so many expressions of gratitude.
At the start of the dinner, Alisa spoke a bit about what putting this year’s Full Circle Meal together meant to her:
As creatives and creators, we have a responsibility to bring our vision and collaborations into existence. In its purest form, creativity involves a lot of risk. There are so many unpredictable and lovely consequences that can occur when we put something out into the world. And once we give our creations to the world, they take on a certain life of their own: They interact differently with the people who consume them, and they develop their own kinds of meaning..meaning that might stand apart from what we had intended. When we do this right, what we create takes on a life of its own—it resonates with who it’s meant to. And to give in to this process involves a certain kind of courage, and Renee lived that courage to the fullest.
Sometimes the things we have in our mind to create, the thing that is going to have a ripple effect out in the world, often lets us know that we need help from another (or others) to bring it into existence. This gathering is a great example of what can grow from turning a crazy idea—setting up a dinner table in the water—into a dreamy reality. It’s the magic of collaboration. This Full Circle Meal idea gradually took on a life of its own as we invited more creatives to share in the vision and help bring it into being, growing it into something much more significant than any simple meal could ever be. It became a way to encourage artistic collaboration, free from any kind of competitive or commercial spirit. It became a way to celebrate with old friends and form exciting relationships with new ones. And for me, it became a way to memorialize my friend Renee by encouraging connection over her table. Renee’s ripple became its own Full Circle, and we’ll never fully know just how many lives it touched.
We all are responsible for starting our own ripple, and if we want to live life to the fullest, we’ll pay attention and bear witness to how that ripple’s perfect circle takes on new shapes as it expands. Over the years, we’ve taken new inspiration and meaning from the formal name of this event. In the past, the full circle represented the experience of transformation. This year, we understand “Full Circle Meal” through a new lens; we understand it through a question that only you can answer for yourselves…
What do you think your ripple will be?
What will your ripple be?