100 Rose Game

I'd like to meet:

Now, the theory behind the Game: compassion is contagious. By now the whole world is familiar with Gandhi's famous quote "be the change you want to see in the world." We admit it was part of our inspiration. You see we feel that some people go out of their way during the holiday season to spread love and cheer and really get into the spirit while others allow the rush and bustle and long, cold nights to dampen their spirits. Ashley Steele aka Andicat reminded me, Nanda, recently that what you see is a reflection of where you are at any given moment.

The world is a mirror.

Last but not least I took the name and part of the idea from the 100th monkey theory, a story about critical mass of social consciousness changing the world. I don't know (or care) if the story is true. Like many spiritual doctrines we believe it is meant to be taken figuratively and wholeheartedly embrace what it implies, the underlying meaning. It mirrors our personal belief that little things mean a lot and that a single act of kindness can and does change the web. We are all inseparably interconnected. Om mani padme hum.

Feel free to start posting comments about roses you've given and spread the word through your network to friends.

Now go have some fun spreading holiday cheer my little monkeys! Namaste.

Nanda & Ashley "Andicat" Steel

10/04/2008

You may be asking yourself how the hell this all started? That is a very good question my new friend!

Well, about a year ago I found myself in a terrible place in life. I lost my work contract because of a moral decision that I had made involving my refusal to accept the monstrous behavior of an employer who hurt a beloved friend of mine. While I was content with my decision I found myself unable to carry the weight of my double mortgage and the lifestyle I had accumulated, for lack of a better term, and my reserves quickly plummeted. Strangely at the same time my work seemed to dry up and I soon lost all hope that I would be able to keep my home.

I wish I could tell you that this was the only problem I was facing but it’s just not the case. It was just the beginning of the storm and oh baby what a storm it was! Cheating girlfriends, fighting with friends, betrayals, and mounting bills were all a part of it. Having embraced a spiritual path more than a year back with extreme devotion and commitment I turned to the tools I had learned and worked my vows. For a while it seemed like it was working. I just kept telling myself over and over again “this too shall pass.”

The proverbial straw that broke the camels back came when my cat got sick. The short version involves my ex’s BFF nearly killing my cat and me spending money I didn’t have and countless hours nursing him back to life after being told he would not live. It was a hard time and my cat resented me, not knowing why he was so sick. Every day was a regimented schedule of force feeding him water, food, and meds every couple hours and then cleaning up when he puked or pissed on everything I owned. The days grew emotionally darker and darker, dragging on with a bittersweet melancholy, and soon it was hard to remember what I was living for. I prayed and prayed and meditated but nothing seemed to help. I began to worry that I couldn’t feel connected anymore. I found myself sitting with my cat on the floor while I was feeding him not noticing that I had been crying for ten or thirty minutes. I don’t miss those days.

Then one day I caught a homeless guy behind a Taco Bell dumpster fishing through the open bin for a snack. Without even thinking about it I went in, bought him some tacos, and brought them back out handing them to him. My new friend would certainly be glad that I so compassionately intervened on his behalf right? Not even close. He snatched the bag out of my hand, looked disgustedly in the bag, grumbled a thank you, and stalked off behind the building again. He didn’t even look up as I walked away. He tore into the tacos though and devoured them. I have a pretty twisted sense of humor so I began to laugh. I realized as I drove away that I felt good for the first time in weeks. That’s how 100 Rose Game was born. By the time I got home and invited Andicat to help me start this movement I already had ten roses, no joke.

I rang Andicat and told her my thoughts and she immediately agreed to be a part of it. She sent out the emails to most of the first fans and registered our URL’s. I told her that I thought it would be better if I had someone to push me to do this. Turns out I didn’t really need a push. I designed the site and got to work, growing ever more imaginative while my old friends looked at me like I was crazy when I tried to explain it all.

Soon I was planning days to hit all my roses. I made 50 brown paper bag lunches with a sandwich, a bag of chips, and a piece of chocolate then drove them to Echo Park and Santa Monica and handed them out. I will never forget that day. That day everyone thanked me. I asked the girl I was dating to come along but she wasn’t interested so I did it alone. It was amazing.

What I found in Santa Monica was that most of the people that I talked to just appreciated being treated as human instead of being ignored. Most of them opened and ate the food right in front of me. A surprising number of them just wanted me to touch them, shake their hands or hug them. I never thought about how important being touched and acknowledged is and how homeless people lose that because they are dirty from sleeping on the street and not bathing. It must be so hard to be ignored and have people recoil from your touch. That day I hugged a lot of dirty street people and it felt good. I can still see their smiles. I have to do that again.

Time moves quickly and before you know it life had moved on. Things didn’t get better like you would think but everything happened just right, like it always does right? I haven’t kept up this promise as much as I wanted.

Andicat and I camped with Bat Country this year at Burning Man. One of the guys from the camp Ed helped build the temple. I very much feel like Burning Man and the spirit and energy of Black Rock City helped contribute to the birth of the 100 Rose Game. One night Andicat and Halcyon and Ed and myself went to the Temple to get the insider’s guided tour and hear Ed talk about building it. While we were there I met a member of this group. Imagine my surprise having someone call out Nanda and then tell me how they practice the 100 Rose Game – in the middle of the desert well past midnight. It was an extraordinary moment and it made me want to keep this thing going.

I want to add galleries and video clips. I am going to work on it. This thing is way too special to just let fade away. Let’s keep it going. I need your help. I need your stories. This just doesn’t belong to me, or to Andicat, but to all of us.

Thanks for reading,

Devan aka Nanda