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TALK IS CHEAP
Sure it is, saye Utne Reader salon keeper Griff Wigley, but you get a lot of it for the money
By Laura Billings
Minnesota Monthly, July 1993
It was in the spring of 1991 when Utne Reader, Loring Park's groovy bastion of clean thinking and recycled articles, put out a simple call to its readers. Anyone interested in getting their neighbors together for
conversation that would rise above chit-chat about mowing and second
mortgages, and focus instead on the heady issues of community, citizenship, and culture, should let them know.
Their timing was right-knee-deep in a recession of
economy and national spirits, many months away from housecleaning in Washington, Michael Bolton on the top of the charts-and the staff at the Utne was deluged with 8,000 responses from all over the country.
To unite the tired, befuddled masses, yearning to breathe free, hold forth, and drink coffee, publisher Eric Utne called on Griff Wigley, a 43-year-old former
social worker, family therapist, and father of four, to make the connections.
Now there are about 12,000 paying members of what has become the Neighborhood Salon
Association (at $12 a head, talk continues to be cheap), and some 320 active salons throughout the country. We talked to Griff Wigley about his job, the salons, and how to sound smart over espresso and biscotti.
MM: What is your official title?
GW: "Salon Keeper" is actually what Eric cooked up.
MM: Do you get a uniform to go with that?
GW: No, I'm afraid not.
MM: You'd have to be a master host to group 10,000 people throughout the country into little conversation groups. How did you do it?
GW: Initially, we did it terribly. We sorted them by zip code and it was a disaster because 55403 is not necessarily right next to 55404. It worked well in some places, but in other places
people were on the other side of mountains or on the other side of the metro area, and they weren't too happy about driving.
MM: Why are people attracted to the idea of a salon?
GW: People are really interested in looking for a place for stimulating conversation beyond just chit-chat or party talk. We're seeing a revival in citizenship in some ways and we see salons as
sort of Civics 101. What a citizen does is talk about things beyond their personal problems and their own needs. There's something, too, about people re- alizing it's not enough to be a passive
listener or a watcher of the ten o'clock news to be informed.
MM: But doesn't all this earnestness get to you?
GW: The earnestness could be overwheleming, but successful salons will find a way of mixing serious talk and fun with questions of "how does this affect my life?' Calling them salons and
conjuring up images of aristocrats is sort of kooky in a way. We all know we're just plain old folks pretending to be the intellectual intelligentsia, so a lot of salons make up funny names for
themselves-Wine and Whine, The Cincinnati Rads. In Northfield we call ours the Jesse James salon-talk first, shoot later. We also encourage people to socialize before and after the salon.
MM: Speaking of that, is there much dating action in these salons? Mstorically speaking, Madame de Stael's salon was a pretty hot singles spot.
GW:.People have written to us that it's a different way of finding potential mates. There have been some camping weekends, weekend retreats--we've even gotten some pajama pictures. But mostly, it's pretty boring.
MM: Do you let Republicans into the salons?
GW: It would be hard to have a salon with people on the opposite ends of the spectrum because
you'd be clashing all the time about basic issues, but we do tell people your salons will be more interesting if you find ways to become more diverse. It's hard to be too preachy about that
because we get a lot of letters from people who say, "It was so great to find a group of 'like-minded people in this intellectual wasteland where I live.
MM: What do you do if you've got a real domineering.- opinionated jerk in your salon?
GW: Occasionally you have to be willing to confront someone and say, 'Hey, are you just
interested in propogating your own opinions or are you also here to listen and learn?' We encourage salons to have a real structure, either with a facilitator or with a "talking stick' that is
passed to a speaker while everyone else listens.
MM: There are lots of books out now saying that men and women can't communicate. Is that playing itself out in these salons?
GW: More women than men are attracted to the idea of a salon-certainly through history there are many more women who led salons than men. I think, in part, it's because of the different
conversation required in a salon-there needs to be more listening, and conversation as a way of learning instead of posturing. The kind of debating and opinionating that men are more
comfortable with tends not to work in a salon.
MM: Let's say I get invited to a salon, and I'm a little nervous, but I want to make a good impression on my cohorts. What's one great thing I could say?
GW: How about, "I'm from the federal government and I'm here to help.' |
