THE STONE TABLE SONG A Cybernetic Moda for Friends in Brumadinho [Verse 1 — Gathering] Come gather round the table, friends, The table made of stone, In Brumadinho, Minas Gerais, Where no one stands alone. Bring your questions, bring your stories, Bring the things you think you know, For once we start a conversation We don’t know where it will go. [Chorus] Round and round the stone table, Talking as long as we are able, You change me and I change you— That’s what conversations do. Yes, yes, yes, and no, no, no, Round and round the meanings go. Laughing, listening, having fun, Many voices—not just one. And whoever joins the conversation Never leaves quite as they came, For the people change the talking, And the talking changes them. ⸻ [Verse 2 — The Cyberneticians Arrive] Old Stafford Beer comes walking in: “There’s a system here, my friends!” Then Gordon Pask asks quietly: “Where does understanding end?” One speaks and another listens, Someone draws upon the ground, Someone watches who’s observing, And the question turns around. [Chorus] Round and round the stone table, Everyone willing, everyone able, I observe you observing me— What a curious world we see! Yes, yes, yes, and no, no, no, Who controls? We do not know. Perhaps control begins to change When the controller joins the game. ⸻ [Verse 3 — The Ground] But underneath our conversation There’s something older than our words: The mountain and the running water, The soil, the insects and the birds. So listen to the people, Listen to the water, Listen to the mountain, Listen to the ground. For before we make a system And give everything a name, The world was already moving— And will move when we are gone again. ⸻ [Bridge — Recursive Conversation] I talk about you, You talk about me. We talk about us Talking recursively. I see you seeing, You see me see. And somewhere between us Appears a WE. But then someone laughs And asks with delight: “Who’s observing the WE tonight?” ⸻ [Verse 4 — Feedback] The viola gives an answer When a hand begins to play, But the player hears the answer And their fingers change their way. So the player changes music, And the music changes too, Just as every conversation Changes me and changes you. Feedback isn’t going backward, It is neither start nor end; It’s the circularity of living, Of becoming with a friend. ⸻ [Chorus — Everyone] Round and round the stone table, Talking as long as we are able, Old ideas and something new, A little me, a little you. Yes, yes, yes, and no, no, no, Round and round the meanings go. Difference dancing in the sun— Cybernetics should be fun! ⸻ [Verse 5 — Confluence] Like rivers meeting other rivers, We arrive from different ways, Carrying different histories, Different languages, different days. Do two rivers become one river When their waters intertwine? Or do they remain together, Different waters for a time? Maybe friendship is a confluence, Not agreement, not control: Making something in our meeting That belonged to neither whole. ⸻ [Final Verse — Brumadinho] So here we are in Brumadinho, Around a table made of stone, Talking about everybody And discovering our own. No final word is necessary, No conclusion must be found. Just another good question Passing gently round and round. Raise a glass, a cup of coffee, Let the viola start to play. To the friends around the table, And the friends who came our way. To the earth beneath our footsteps, To the water, sky and sun, To conversation without ending— And cybernetics having fun! [Final Chorus] Round and round the stone table, Everyone willing, everyone able. You change me, And I change you, And together We make something new. Yes, yes, yes! No, no, no! Where it leads We do not know. And just when everybody thinks Our cybernetic song is done… Someone asks another question. And around we go again.
