Jonas
What’s your name?
Like the song by Wheezer says: My name is Jonas. Jonas Osmond.
What is something you would like Soupsters to know about you?
When I am in a place of true beauty- it could be natural beauty or human crafted beauty- it could be a physical place or a spiritual place- I get this magical electrical charge throughout my body. I love to share special places with others and to celebrate with others the dance our hearts and minds do when we are home in our magical spaces!
What’s your favorite thing about The Soup?
The sense of community is one way to put it, but that phrase really falls short. When a really great band is playing at night, and we are all FEELING it and moving together, and the band is FEELING it and loving our energy, and the night is beautiful and our surroundings peaceful, and our space feels safe and limitless, it’s as if we all journey to a new place together - a special place- a magical place- and we welcome one another to that wonderful place and dance and celebrate together. Later, it may feel as if we have awakened from a dream, but the dream lingers and we know it was true.
What is one thing you hope might happen at The Soup?
In one sense the soup is a marvelously inclusive and beautiful community. In another sense it can feel like an impenetrable group at times. I would like to feel an inclusive softness at the soup that I know exists in the hearts and minds of all there but may get a bit lost at times. Or perhaps that is just my shyness speaking.
What is something almost nobody knows about you?
I have a surprising talent for interior design. I love creating beautiful spaces and am actually very meticulous!
If a giant pile of Soupsters showed up on your doorstep wanting to make the world a better place, where would you have them start?
Breathing. Mindful breathing. When we all sit together, or walk together, or eat together, if we can do so with mindfulness, and if we can pay attention to our breathing together- even for a short time- we create Noble Silence. We create space for ourselves and in turn have space for others. We stop reacting and become compassionate observers. All creatures - children and animals most of all- need to be seen and treated with gentleness and love. When we become loving witnesses of the world within and around us we have space and compassion for all creatures.
What is a memory of Soup that makes you smile?
Was it soup 4? I don’t remember but it must have been 1996. I gave a play ship on bread baking. I was working at the cheeseboard collective at the time, and the Arizmendi Collectives and the Cheeseboard Pizza Collective were both just in their conceptual phases but there was a lot of buzz and energy flowing at the cheeseboard about spawning numerous worker owned businesses throughout the country. I felt passionately about that, and I was a very passionate baker. Jonathan Kaplan had come by several hundred pounds of bread flour and we had baking equipment so I led a playshop on baking. We all baked together- which is a very special experience - and then we all ate together. It was divine.
As M. F. K. Fisher wrote in The Art of Eating:
“The smell of good bread baking, like the sound of lightly flowing water, is indescribable in its evocation of innocence and delight...
[Breadmaking is] one of those almost hypnotic businesses, like a dance from some ancient ceremony. It leaves you filled with one of the world's sweetest smells... there is no chiropractic treatment, no Yoga exercise, no hour of meditation in a music-throbbing chapel. that will leave you emptier of bad thoughts than this homely ceremony of making bread.”
Anything else you would like us to know?
I look forward to seeing you all as soon as possible. I carry you all in my heart each day.