growth, honesty, compassion

I found my way to Ben Werdmuller through his profile on People and Blogs, and I found my way to his post Building trust in the open by following his RSS feed. 

In the post he discusses his presentation to the Protocols for Publishers meeting, which took place in London at Newspeak House.

Newspeak House is an independent residential college founded in 2015 to study, nurture and inspire emerging communities of practice across civil society and the public sector in the UK.

In the 2025-26 cohort at Newspeak House, I spotted Gamithra Marga, whose tagline is “raves, machines, and dishwashers.”

Gamithra has a rich presence on the web, which includes an evolving statement of mission, the current iteration of which starts:

I want to live in a world that shares, self-hosts, builds, and raves. I want to live in a world that protects humanity, expression, and feeling alive. I want to live in a world where connection is abundant, protocols are open, knowledge is shared, resources are beautifully managed, communication is kind, and structures are co-created. A world of empowered communities that gracefully govern themselves and their commons in harmony with all beings.

And guidelines—growth, honesty, compassion—which they have permanently tattooed on their body:

permanently engraving the Guidelines on skin helps with unconditional commitment to not hiding from truth, not living on autopilot, and unconditionally caring for self

It’s that last point, after following links through the forest of the web, truly resonated with me.

I have no tattoos, for myriad reasons, one of which is that I’ve always thought it to be more permanence than I would ever be able to muster. Whatever could I possibly ever think important enough to be forever.

Gamithra’s tattooed guidelines challenge me on that: growth, honesty, compassion are values that are intrinsic; they don’t come and go. Communicating, in a lasting, personal, that these are what’s held dear and core is a powerful thing.

It prompts me to think “what are my inviolable beliefs,” the ones that I would be willing to have tattooed on me.