If LMT doesn’t ring any bells for you, here’s the short story. At its core, LMT (Leaders for the Third Millennium) is an educational programme focused on leadership and soft-skills, programme in which I work myself, as a trainer. Just a few years ago, as the programme engulfed high-school after high-school all over the country, gathering thousands and thousands to its courses, an initially small group of student trainers and alumni formed Club LMT, an NGO firstly destined to put the theory learned in the programme into practice. That initial raw and nebulous goal for the new-born NGO now concretized in its vision - we encourage youth to participate (pro)-actively in building their own future - and its mission - our mission is to transform Romania’s youth through their involvement in educational, cultural and civic projects, to build together the country in which we can evolve harmoniously professionally and personally.

From the collective work of the Club’s members, Branding Romania was born - a national seminar/boot-camp (13th-19th of August) designed to amass and inspire 65 of Romania’s most valuable youngsters. The participants were scattered to the workshops ( Communication & Advertising, Tourism & Environment, Traditional vs. Urban Culture, Entrepreneurship, Education ) where they were introduced to key-concepts of the respective domains of interest and project management. The end result was a combination of self-improvement and well thought out projects that could be implemented back in their communities.

So far so good. But why does this seemingly serious and business-like post has for a title ‘an enlarging microcosm’? Why do I relentlessly associate LMT with the concept of ‘microcosm’? By definition, a microcosm is a world in miniature, in which the elements share one specific characteristic, like the elements in a mathematical set. To those who have felt it, the question will seem rather silly and out-of-place. Try and follow me and you’ll see why.

[...], but in later years he recalled that there had been one moment which had given him intimations of another mode of being. His father had taken him to watch the ceremonial ploughing of the fields before the planting of the next year’s crop. All the men of the villages and townships took part in this annual event, so Suddhodana had left his small son in the care of his nurses under the shade of a rose-apple tree while he went to work. But the nurses decided to go and watch the ploughing, and, finding himself alone, Gotama sat up. In one version of this story, we are told that when he looked at the field that was being ploughed, he noticed that the young grass had been torn up and that insects and the eggs they had laid in these new shoots had been destroyed . The little boy gazed at the carnage and felt a strange sorrow, as though it were his own relatives that had been killed. But it was a beautiful day, and a feeling of pure joy rose up unbidden in his heart.

You’re probably wondering, what on earth do LMT and Gotama’s episode have in common? Well…Extasis. That’s right. Extasis. But don’t be tempted to interpert the word through the prevalent pejorative filter that associates extasis with drug usage. Extasis literally means ‘to stand outside the self’. And that’s the widespread phenomenon that’s gripped LMT. If it should be explained furthermore, I’d say it’s a stance in which one experiences unpremeditated joy, while fully empathizing with those around him. I daresay this stance, fundamentally based on spontaneous compassion and selfless empathy, triggers a rapture so strong that it brings for those who feel it a moment of spiritual release.

Given the fact that I had been through somewhat similar stories, I figured beforehand that it would mean just work to me. But, ‘expect the unexpected’ eh? As the event unfolded, whatever role I played - organizer, trainer, participant, etc - it was innevitable not to feel the vast surge of energy that now has all of us pointing confidently at whichever goal, dream or vision we hold dear. One big collective thank you. :)

Note: What do you think, fellas? Feel free to add some more thoughts, voi, cei mai iubiti dintre pamanteni.