Marei wrote: "Writing this I realize that now, barely a year later, I go directly into the question: What do I really want? What do I really think? What do I really want to say? Where and with whom do I really want to be?"
More experienced OS practitioners undoubtedly already know that "the law of two feet' is rooted in love. Love for the collective and love for one's self. In order to genuinely honor the law of two feet, to genuinely and authentically in each moment be where it is that we truly wish to be and to say and do what it is that we truly wish to say, we must exercise rigorous self love. If we ground all our thoughts, words and deeds in self love, we are simultaneously grounding ourselves in love for the whole. I am reminded of a quote that I believe comes from Martin Luther King but has often been attributed to Nelson Mandela: "I cannot be who I ought to be until you are who you ought to be." We serve the collective when we love ourselves and OS is a fine framework in which to practice. To be grounded in self love, we must ask the questions Marei has posed. In my humble opinion of the moment. I have been reading Artur's recent posts with deep interest. I have been resisting writing my own thoughts about open space organizations. I have wrestled with the idea of whether or not an open space organization can actually exist quite deeply and, even, painfully at times. I have come up with different answers in different moments. I agree with you, Artur, that this online listserv 'thing' is an OS community, not an organization. I also agree, however, with Harrison, that this online listserv 'thing' is an organization. For the umpteenth time, I have just spent some time looking at dictionary definitions of words like "organization" and "collective". After a few dictionaries, I become unable to decide for myself what an organization is. . . Language is an ephermeral container for our thoughts, our ideas. I conclude in one moment that "organization" means one thing. . . and then I conclude in the next moment that "organization" means something else. In this moment, I sorta kinda believe that most organizations are actually OS organizations that cling to the illusion that they have structure and form. In this moment, I believe that nothing gets done in organization that does not have heart and meaning for one or more of its members. In this moment, I believe that things always start when they start and end when they end. In this moment, and I am starting to lose the clarity I possessed when I began this note. . . even when it looks, superficially like maybe the wrong people have shown up to do the wrong job. . . that this belief that the wrong people have shown up is incorrect. . . that even the wrong things are inescapably leading to the right things and the wrong people are the right people and the right moments unfold all the time no matter what. So. Whereas a few months ago, I was twisted in knots fighting with myself to find what I believed to be a genuinely open space organization, in this moment, I see OS in everything. And it is moments like this that I hope to 'open' for people at OS events. Form, in my present moment, seems irrelevant. It is about 'being' first, then, maybe, only maybe, 'doing'. . . _________________________________________________________________ Is your PC infected? Get a FREE online computer virus scan from McAfee® Security. http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963 * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected]: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
