Action is vital and crucial, however it must be directed. You can hit a diamond with a sledgehammer and nothing will happen, but if you hit it with a little hammer in just the right spot....
Saturday House as a group has had two ways of attaining action, and both of them have very significant failure modes. The two methods are of course management by committee , and mini emperor. Our cigar chomping meetings have been wonderful examples of management by committee. We all needed to agree on something needing to happen, however no one steps up and takes the initiative and ownership to get that ball rolling. We decide that we need XYZ, however no one really owns XYZ so no one feels obligated to work on XYZ and XYZ doesn't happen for months. Everyone agrees but no one owns, so no one acts. The other method is mini emperor where one person decides that something is a really good idea (mumble host a conference mumble) and goes of and does it, with little feedback from the group. The one person goes off into the woods sometimes dragging others along but the rest of the group which doesn't really own the action so the group as a whole ignores it, or worse yet feels alienated by the idea and slowly drops out. Both of these methods have lead to the current impasse that we face. No one felt that they owned the G labs space, so they didn't really make it their home, others haven't felt included as others have gone off chasing their ideas, others have gotten the wrong idea(s) about the group, we have had leaders off facing their version of MT Everest... Saturday House if it will go on, needs to have someone step up and say in their best 300 voice, "THIS IS SATURDAY HOUSE AND THIS IS WHAT IT IS AND THESE ARE THE ACTIONS I MAKE HAPPEN FOR IT!" -Rob On Mon, Apr 13, 2009 at 5:51 PM, Lion Kimbro <[email protected]> wrote: > > Action is crucial, primary, hard, and without it, nothing can > happen. Action must be conquered daily; And more than action, -- > working with others. This is clear, and I will never debate > against it. > > This said: > We can make things endlessly, and take things apart endlessly. > What would be gained? What is the point? To what end? > > I type this letter "x" to make a symbol in a sentence, and the > sentence is here to serve the point, and the point is to serve a > communication, and the communication is here to challenge vision > proposals, and the challenge is here to keep our future lives on > track for high ends, and keeping our lives on track for high ends > is to serve the heart at the center of all of our judgments: to > serve the highest values and ideals we can conceive to act by, in > the hope that higher values still will be able to make some use of > our greatest imaginings, hopes, and aspirations. > > Without a chain of embedded links, leading straight into the heart > of life, I do not understand how we are doing anything of value at > all. > > If we perform our acts, we may be able to impress people, and we > may be entertained for a time, but ultimately, our minds must see > through the emptiness of our fabricated fancy. There is a force > at the center of our hearts that can see straight through anything > we invent. > > Who can I act with, from this sober and sometimes stern center? > > Right now, surface crises include the biosphere and the economy. > These are ripe fields full of meaning. Less urgently but perhaps > more deeply, crises include human happiness and our sense for the > value of life. > > Art can be a weapon to defeat sadness, and the background > depression that clouds our culture. We need to strive for > cheerfulness, felicity, creativity, exploration, imagination, and > artistic projects -- no doubt. > > But I honestly do not understand the merit of our actions if they > are not rooted, performed in the spirit of Love, and in service to > high ideals and values. > > > I appreciate the fresh spirit: The challenge, the provocation, the > rush to act -- possibilities latent, and hinted at, becoming real. > The power of dream. A 17 year old young boy, $100 in the pocket, > and a car. Such things require no justification- There is purpose > and meaning enough in opening the door of possibility. The spirit > makes itself visible. > > But we are confused if we believe that we can leave things here, > unexamined further, endlessly repeated; We will wither in one > meaningless project after another. > > > When I first envisioned Saturday House, I envisioned a place of > creativity, shared projects, perpetual new ideas. I envisioned > that we had bought a house, and transformed it; Made it our > "school" (our post-grad Sudbury school, or the "Xavier Institute > of Higher Learning,") that we went to on the weekends. I > envisioned a place of radical change and transformation, of new > efforts, of discovery, of cross education, of humor, of love, of > freedom, of people connected at the heart, and impossible ideas > made possible. High spirits, all around! Open Source > development, people scheduling conversations, people learning and > teaching science, people applying creativity to all things, in > effort, cooperation, and generosity. > > I imagined a structure emerging, and also a way -- A way for > people who wanted to live this way, to learn, so that they too > could bring to reality this kind of life, if it was something that > they could see their own face reflected in. We would need to > learn this way ourselves, of course, but I held (and I hold) a > faith that it is something that we can find out; That there is > nothing that we need from outside of ourselves to do it. > > Now, -- clearly, this did not play out. > > And yet, -- this vision, is the only vision that really makes > sense to me. This is the starting point, for me. I breath so > that I can ask, "How to make this real?" > > > So, these are my deep feelings about Saturday House, about > Spiriata, about the future I dream of for all people who can find > some value in this. > > With You, > Lion Kimbro > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Website: http://saturdayhouse.org/ Post: [email protected] Unsubscribe: [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
