Dear Mike, how very true. Thank you (and sorry Im so late in reacting, I only found time to read now ) Catherine
Catherine Pfaehler Kellersriedweg 8 CH - 2503 Biel T/F/B ++41 - (0)32 - 365 68 41 -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht----- Von: OSLIST [mailto:[email protected]]Im Auftrag von Mike Copeland Gesendet: Mittwoch, 17. Dezember 2003 21:40 An: [email protected] Betreff: It's a Myth! In response to two myths from Chris, on 4 December Harrison Owen wrote: ... when it comes to myths, these are not only dismissed, but dissed. Worse than a story, myth now means lie and falsehood. How the world changes. And of course, for enlightened people such as ourselves, we have long since thrown off the bondage of myth. How sad. And we never really do - throw it off, that is. We simply develop new ones, and they of course, are understood to be The Truth, or better yet Scientific Truth. But it is still a story, now dressed up in different clothes. We call them "Theories" - but at the end of the day, these Theories are simply likely stories which help us interpret our world. So our essential nature hasn't changed - we are still story tellers whose life expectations are shaped by the stories we tell. Myth by any other name. What is different now is that the formative power of these tales is somehow out of our awareness. And when the stories are warped, distorted or partial - the world and our space in that world is distorted and shrunk. Of course, we could tell a different story. . . And I think that new story creation is a major part of what happens in Open Space. But it is not so much telling a story as being a story. This has ruminated with me for a couple of weeks and is changing my outlook on life and the systems we have in our world. I really see the myth being played out largely unconsciously in our world now, especially in our organizational culture. I recently attended training in becoming a Conscious Open Space Organization. Last night while mowing the lawns I thought about an exercise we did. Our facilitator, Helen Patterson, asked us to draw a diagram of how the work gets done in our organization. My picture was of a whiskey still. The bulk raw material was charred, mashed, and distilled into one drop of liquid. Not much fun for the mash who gets completely pulverized, boiled and vaporized. Today's myth, to me, is we have the state, the omnipotent being, creating systems and laws that are great at "distilling" ideas and values into laws and policy. So often I've taken on a task that I was excited and passionate about only to have the spirit completely wrung out of it by the organizational structure, where it became blatantly obvious to me that I was serving a system and not the other way round. Our modern myth also has a tendency to take something down to its smallest essence with the belief that by knowledge we will somehow understand or explain mechanistically the present experience. I reached the limits of this thinking when I had a bout of illness a few years ago. I was analyzing my life like it was an archaeological dig. Everything got dredged up, categorized, labeled bagged and stored on the appropriate shelf. After a while I tried the same with my ever present pain. It was like staring into a black hole trying to come up with new ways of saying how black it was; of course this only made it blacker. In short, "I have come to a desert area in my life where words no longer suffice and only experience counts" (Thomas Merton) My feeling is to be careful not to do this with Open Space; to nail it to a point where it becomes formulaic and mechanistic. And this is what I absolutely love about Open Space. It allows space for spirit, passion and life. For me it is about being open space, living the principles and law, and giving me a process as life comes out of me and at me. And hopefully therein beginning a new myth to live by; be prepared to be surprised! Peace to you all Mike Copeland I . . , whatever happens is the only thing that could have. For me explanations no longer suffice and only experience counts. * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected], Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html _____ Attention: This e-mail (and attachments) is confidential and may be legally privileged. _____ * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected], Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected], Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
