Hi Doug, This is probably not very helpful, but I think, I hope, we are becoming wise fools. And I like to think that we are always going to be "half-way to what?" as I believe this is a journey of endless evolution, not one to any particular destination.
What is emerging? What is this larger trend? I ask myself: If self-organization is our heritage and our future, then what is different? What has this millennia long journey been about? My two-bits: engaging in self-organization unconsciously is very different from engaging in self-organization as a conscious choice made from a place of wisdom and faith. Real power/freedom lies in the capacity to make conscious choices. (We don't really have the choice to engage in self-organization or not--that's just life--we really only have the choice to engage in it consciously or not.) We go from being merely leaves caught up unknowingly in the swirling chaos of life, to beings who jump with eyes wide open into the flow and play with what we find there. And so, for your enjoyment, but not alas enlightenment, here's a poem from one of my favourite mystically insane English poets, Robert Graves. A Warning to Children Children, if you dare to think Of the greatness, rareness, muchness, Fewness of this precious only Endless world in which you say You live, you think of things like this: Blocks of slate enclosing dappled Red and green, enclosing tawny Yellow nets, enclosing white And black acres of dominoes, Where a neat brown paper parcel Tempts you to untie the string. In the parcel a small island, On the island a large tree, On the tree a husky fruit. Strip the husk and pare the rind off: In the kernel you will see Blocks of slate enclosing dappled Red and green, enclosing tawny Yellow nets, enclosing white And black acres of dominoes, Where the same brown paper parcel-- Children, leave the string alone! For who dares undo the parcel Finds himself at once inside it, On the island, in the fruit, Blocks of slate about his head, Finds himself enclosed by dappled Green and red, enclosed by yellow Tawny nets, enclosed by black And white acres of dominoes, With the same brown paper parcel Still untied upon his knee. And, if he then should dare to think Of the fewness, muchness, rareness, Greatness of this endless only Precious world in which he says He lives--he then unties the string. Cheers all, Wendy A riddle or the crickets cry, Is to Doubt a fit reply. (Blake, Auguries of Innocence) -----Original Message----- From: OSLIST [mailto:osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu] On Behalf Of Douglas D. Germann, Sr. Sent: April 2, 2006 2:13 PM To: osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu Subject: Half-way to this? Good friends-- Open Space is a half-way technology. So says Harrison. Half-way to what? Open Space Technology, The World Café, and the dozens of other meeting formats that have been appearing among humans the last few decades are harbingers of a growing shoot. The growing edge is to see what can be done to improve humanity in a fundamental way. The direction is toward collaboration, or more precisely toward growing us from the fact that there is something larger afoot. That something larger suggests that we are an intricate interwoven pulsating and throbbing one. Or can be. So we are half-way, perhaps, to developing technologies and sciences that bring us together, foster and grow from conflict, increase diversity and passion, and ensure that each generation following ours is more human than the one before it. Are we making any progress on the question of Half-way to what? :-Doug. Germann Seeking people making community change. * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.385 / Virus Database: 268.3.4/299 - Release Date: 31/03/2006 * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist