This article originally appeared in Vol. 4 No. 4 (Aug. 1996) of the Facilitated Communication Digest, [pp. 11-13].

[Editor's note: The three authors of this article were co- presenters of a workshop on collaborative songwriting at the May 1996 Syracuse Facilitated Communication Conference. Eugene Marcus and Robin Smith are both associates of the Facilitated Communication Institute; Sarah Pirtle, a singer, songwriter and educator, has been a frequent participant at the Syracuse conferences.]

We wish to acknowledge the following people who participated in the collaborative songwriting workshop: Aaron Bar David, Mary Carley, Brittany Cook, Katy Haigh, Sharisa Joy Kochmeister, Steven Nephew, Tom Paige, Chammi Rajapatirana, Salvatore Scro, Terri Spilseth, Scott Tagariello and Aaron Ulrich.

As we planned and led our workshop on songwriting at the conference, we gained valuable insights about collaboration and partnership. We worked together as friends with a shared love of songwriting. At our first planning meeting by telephone, we all candidly revealed our hopes and fears. Eugene referred to the South, and being in the back of the bus. Although he saw himself in the driver's seat, his words in Sarah's notes included "Afraid... driver's seat... both of us." As those words sank in for Sarah, she realized she had to get out of the songwriting driver's seat. Her images of the process shifted and shifted, going away from the image of riding tandem on a bicycle, to supporting someone as they rode a bicycle. Finally, she realized she was doing none of these things, but rather was being a loving witness to the creative process.

Here is a portion of their early conversation:

Sarah: Would you like to write a song right now?

Eugene: Yes.

Sarah: What picture comes first?

Eugene: I am on the think train and I am on the run.

Sarah: Is there a tune you want to suggest or should I suggest?

Eugene: Suggest.

Sarah: (sings Eugene's words)

Eugene: I am in the song tank and I am in the sun.

Sarah: (sings two possible tunes) Which do you like better?

Eugene: Second.

Sarah: (reflects on whether she was jumping into the driver's seat because she liked the second tune better) Did I push my thoughts forward?

Eugene: Yes, I liked the first.

This was a turning point as Sarah and Robin learned to distinguish between what Aaron Bar-David, a participant in the workshop, later termed the two kinds of pushing. Aaron said facilitators can either push their own thoughts into the process, or they can push facilitated communication speakers on their own path. Eugene described what we were doing during our planning time as outrigging the partnership. We spent time learning a way of being together that Sarah called being in the shining mind. We learned how to do our work in a shared state of mind where these ingredients were present:

• Mutual respect.
• Everyone's presence matters.
• Everyone being unafraid to show who they are, each being proud of who he/she is.
• Making it a safe emotional space together.
• Everyone being alert to his/her unique preferences while uniting with each other.

Our intention was to bring this shared state into the workshop so that the participants could join us in that "shining mind" of mutual respect. As Robin expressed it, "We worked through the problems involving wanting to please each other, wanting to not put words into each other's mouths or run over each other's ideas and suggestions." We brought those directions to the group.

The workshop began with Eugene's song: I am on the think train and I am on the run. I am in the song tank and I am in the sun. As Aaron expressed, when he first heard Eugene's song, "I love that it's so strong. I feel so little strength outside of here (FC conference and community)." The workshop participants decided to have Eugene's song as the seed for their own. Each person who wanted to added a stanza.

Eugene commented afterward, "Thinking together and working together was moving. I want to say that I am in love with both of you and I am in love with each of the participants in the workshop. I think that they sang out to the world that they could think together."

Robin singled out two key things she learned as facilitator. "When you're facilitating, you're not just a conduit like a telephone. Typically, a translator or sign language interpreter is effaced, their personhood is not there. But in facilitating, al- though you are assisting communication, your personality and preferences may become involved. You must learn to work in service to the facilitated communication speaker instead of overriding them. You are often part of the relationship. You learn to actively pose questions like 'Do you want to do this or that?', and 'What do you mean?' This becomes actualized respect."

During the first phone call, when Robin was facilitating for Eugene, Robin asked, "Am I also interfering?" and Eugene replied, "You are in the soup." As their dialogue continued about what it means for the facilitator to be "in the soup," Eugene distinguished that we were all in the soup of collaboration and creation. Robin realized that her efforts were not to keep out of the soup, but be aware of how she was in it. For example, during the workshop Eugene typed a question that he wanted voiced while Sarah was in the midst of mirroring and affirming the words of a participant. Robin realized that interrupting didn't fit her own social comfort level, but she was alert to her own patterns and ways of thinking. She checked in with Eugene, "Do you want me to say this now?" and when he did, she brought it forward and his comment helped rather than hindered the process. They reflected later that when facilitators think they know better than the person with whom they are facilitating, they are running them over.

As Eugene expressed it, "The train is on the track and all we need to do is get on it. Everyone in the room is in the theater. The theater is an invitation to join our minds with FC friends and create the world we always wanted." As a group, we moved into the place of not-afraid together. We shared reflective space, quiet, and respectful turn taking during the workshop. There was a shared agenda and a common purpose. Sarah and Robin reflected that Eugene set a tone of dignity and empowerment and all participants got aboard the train.

As Sarah sang the song to the conference at the closing, she hoped that the significance of the process itself could be passed along. Eugene distinguishes between word sense and heart sense. In the workshop, everyone went beyond using words for naming, for participating in social conventions -- for "word sense" -- and moved into "heart sense" -- deep hearted meaning, trying to share what we experience with those we love.

THINK TRAIN

I am on the think train and I am on the run
I am on the think train and I am in the sun

CHORUS:
Come on, friend, ride with me
Come on, friend, ride with me

The think tank is on the line
I want to open it up and take a ride
I want to open it up for everyone
I think the tank is run on thoughts that everyone can share

I was sitting in the sun and thinking about it -- grilled cheese and soup

I want my words to flow like a drive on that think train
My words are but a way to ride that train
Come on, friend, ride with me
I go on and on, riding my words, going deep into me

Dream for me too
For I want to see far
Go far, go for a happy time
Do happy things

Gaining speed, going on
Gaining partners
Gaining energy, never stopping

My move is paper in life
Paper is my cannon
Poetry is pie

Uplifting dumb voices we sing
Was I on the train?
Jubilant, solitary boy longing to sing
Greetings on the train

Around this world we live in sorrow
Around this world we live in pain
But around us all is love and healing
And together we tie a knot around the world
Hiding my soul inside I run from life
But then I turn and fly into the wind

Music is the language of the soul and the universe
Listen to the voices of the heavens as they sing
Get on board for the journey to discover the celestial conversation that is free

Comfort me in the light of your presence
Comfort me in the light of your love

Yearning, yearning
Eased by singers
I am going sunward

Yearning and learning
All together we make the journey

No one is alone
When there is music in the air

The wind beneath my wings causes me to soar with jubilation
Then the wind subsides and I panic with each fall
The hope again takes over and keeps me going forevermore

I am lifted and I soar
On the breezes of the heavens
To the answers of the universal sky

The think train is on the run
The think train is in the sun
Say it, the train is on the run