Great thread, you all. I've been working on the notion that when we participate in Open Space Technology we are acting as hunters and gatherers do -- following our intuitive and rational capacities across a diverse and shifting landscape into situations that seem meaty (or may bear fruit)...then returning to the circle around the fire to share what we found for the nourishment of all. In a multi-day OST I often use the metaphor of a group moving thru the wide forest by day and then meeting in a clearing at night and the next morning.
I see "open space" as exactly that - a large, open field filled with issues and opportunities. We are individually invited to make our own journeys thru this open space, working alone, in pairs, or in small groups as the situation requires, in service to the whole group as well as ourselves. It's a wise way to make sense of a shifting, chaotic environment. Maybe this is one way to see why open space helps people and organizations in modern societies develop the wherewithal to respond to chaos. Perhaps we are re-learning capacities that have been dormant because of the controlled environments we have attempted to live in for several generations. (Then again, is there anything so hunter/gatherer as taking a family thru a shopping mall during Christmas season?) Hugh Brody's book Maps and Dreams contains wonderful descriptions of the holistic work of hunting/gathering. It's a current practice of life for many thoughtful, technology-using, and spiritually competent people. If humanity is evolving, we are all evolving together, and I don't want to disregard the experience of those outside our familiar circles, because we will probably need it. Jeff - Jeff Aitken NOTE NEW PHONE STARTING 11/15: (01) 707-769-8155 Petaluma CA USA j...@svn.net * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu, Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
