October 2026: What messy disagreements are for
Happy fall, everyone!
While community and the third spaces that help build it are increasingly rare, their absence has created a hunger for it.
It's that hunger for common ground, despite the many forces pulling us apart, that Do For One is tapping into.
That’s why last Wednesday we hosted an event featuring an exchange of ideas rooted in our mission, live music by Washer Dryer, and a chance to meet other common-good seekers over refreshments.
Check out some of our favorite moments from the night, along with a video of the performance below!
Washer Dryer feat. Alex Aernie
Karen, Alex, and Alex performing at Live Music and Lecture Night.
Alex ('Partner' and singer to the far right) met Alex and Karen in 2022 through Do For One. He says, “We’ve done a lot of rehearsing music together. The song that sticks out the most to me is ‘Alison’ by Elvis Costello.”
Alex ('Advocate' and the singer in the middle) says, “Volunteering for me was always about following direct instructions,” but he found that Do For One is more of an “invitation into a way of living out your core beliefs in a community that is also trying to live that way in a committed fashion… with love.”
Click here to watch a clip of them performing Alison by Elvis Costello at the event.
How to Weave Common Life
“What if our inefficiencies, our messy disagreements, our need for physical proximity, and the painfully slow work of building trust or rebuilding it are not obstacles to human flourishing, but the very way, and the only way, to foster it…?” - Andrew Oliver
During the lecture, titled “Why Is It So Hard to Be Good?”, Andrew explored the idea traditionally known as the common good and answered questions such as:
How did we arrive at a place where it has become so difficult to name what “good” we still have in common?
How have our social environments conditioned us to focus more on what separates us than on what holds us together?
And how do we create the social conditions, as Peter Maurin would say, where it will be easier to be good?
The lecture was followed by thoughtful questions from the audience.
Photos from the night captured by Grace Copeland.
