Gabriela, you may disappear down an endless rabbit hole of semantic (not to mention grammatical) obfuscation and confusion! I think the real point is the meaning, no matter the words. And given the number of languages that OS has wandered into - the words must be infinite! And who knows what the "right" ones are??? For myself the phrase, "Whatever happens is the only thing that could have" - just came out that way. No particular thought on the subject, it just felt right. And over the years it still feels right - but the MEANING (for me) is -
The past is over, the future hasn't happened yet. All we have is NOW. The could-have-beens, might-have-beens, should-have-beens are all (presumably) interesting but also basically irrelevant to our present opportunities Now. Now is where our passion must be focused, and Now is where responsibility must be taken. All the rest is abstract, theoretical, and definitely NOT NOW! Or something :-) And then, of course, if you want to get into some interesting philosophical, esoteric, not to say weird waters, you might ask yourself - How Big is Now? Could be a very small Now, in which case the opportunities and the responsibilities of infinitesimal. On the other hand, that NOW could be huge - like the whole Cosmos. Talk about opportunity and responsibility! Boggles the mind! Probably not worth thinking about!! Harrison Harrison Owen 7808 River Falls Drive Potomac, Maryland 20854 Phone 301-365-2093 Skype hhowen Open Space Training <http://www.openspaceworld.com/> www.openspaceworld.com Open Space Institute <http://www.openspaceworld.org/> www.openspaceworld.org Personal website <http://www.ho-image.com/> www.ho-image.com OSLIST: To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives Visit: <http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html> www.listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html -----Original Message----- From: OSLIST [mailto:osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu] On Behalf Of Gabriela Ender Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2007 11:56 AM To: osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu Subject: Re: whatever happens... Dear John, and others, I want to come back to your wonderful thoughts regarding this principle because I like the way you have been experimenting in Haitian Creole and in English with very much: "What Happens is what happens - learn and move forward." And you have added: "This principle helps us to not lament over should'ves, to not wallow in regrets. We're all responsible for how we use our time and space together during this meeting. Let's assume that responsibility and be prepared to accept what happens and to continually strive to learn and to keep moving forward." I totally agree and I like they way you describe it! I have a question. Would it be also okay to say: "What happened is what happened - learn and move forward." ? I mean "What happened is what happened" (it is past - so we cannot change it anymore) and "learn and move forward." is present ... with responsibility in my/our "here and now". "What happens is what happens" sounds for me (as a foreign English speaking person) like it is the present and for "here and now" we are responsible ... how we use our time. Therefore I think that changing the first part of this principle variant "into past" could express the "when its over its over" in it a bit better and would make a distinction to present and concsious responsibilty. I would appreciate your and the opinion from others a lot. Thank you very much! Warmly, Gabriela * * ========================================================== 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 * * ========================================================== 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