Harison,
When my mind contimplates these thoughts, I remember:
One into many, many into one.
Cherish others more than oneself.
Use oneself to cherish others.
From a clear day, after a snowy longest night of the year
on holiday
Cannon Beach
Oregon
Julie Caldwell
On Dec 22, 2009, at 5:56 AM, Harrison Owen wrote:
Ralph puts things in a slightly different way. Which is usual with
Ralph who
always seems to be walking with a different drummer. Under the
heading of,
"What do you do in this self organizing work on a fresh Monday
morning?",
Ralph identifies tasks for himself and his community. At first take
this
made a lot of sense -- there is me and we. And there are appropriate
tasks
for each. But then my drummer spoke up and I began to wonder whether
things
were as clear and simple as they first appeared. First off, you are
never
going to get a we without a lot of me's -- which might suggest that
we is
simply the collective me? And how about the other way around? No me
without
a We. Certainly works out at the reproductive level. It would seem
that
everything is connected in this self organizing world, being both
simpler
and more complicated than we might assume. It might also suggest
that the
distinction we make between we and me may be a little over done. And
just to
really confuse things ... if it is true that action starts with
invitation
-- where is my invitation for my (self initiated) action?
Harrison
Odd thoughts from a Very snowy Washington DC
Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Dr.
Potomac, MD 20854
USA
Phone 301-365-2093
www.openspaceworld.com
www.ho-image.com (Personal Website)
-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of
Ralph
Copleman
Sent: Monday, December 21, 2009 7:39 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: What to do next...
Harrison, you asked...
And I was wondering how would apply what you
have said to an everyday situation? Supposing it is Monday morning
at your
place of work saving the environment in New Jersey. Your inbox and
todo
list
are filled to over flowing -- and that cup of coffee (if you had
one) is
getting cold. What do you do next?
Hmm. Cool question.
My life as director of our small nonprofit has been reinforcing two
lessons.
One is Yin, the other is Yang (though I cannot tell which is which).
One lesson: there are steps I can take to help move my community
toward
sustainability. I can and must take action on my own.
On the other hand (lesson two), I know it's not up to me alone. I
hold
space for many others who participate in this work with me, and I must
accept that each of them moves in their own way and their own pace.
Often I
find I am watching others hold space, too. Our collective activity
adds up
to a self-organizing system, as you'd expect.
If your question is, how do I decide what to do, well, I get my
answer from
the 50 Swedish scientists who created the definition of
sustainability known
as The Natural Step. They set out four system conditions that we
have to
meet to achieve sustainability. These four are, in effect, the
criteria
established by Earth during 4.55 billion years of self-organizing
evolution,
and that had been working fine - until modern humans came along and
sold
ourselves a large set of lies about ownership of the planet.
When I get up in the morning, I ask myself, quite simply, what can I
do
today to more effectively live within one or more of the self-
evolved system
conditions. You could say I'm holding space for Earth and the
sentient
species known as homo sapiens to re-consider their relationship.
But I have a feeling I have not completely understood your
question. Is my
answer missing something?
Ralph
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