This came to me - and I presume Deidre intended it for everyone. So I pass it on.
Harrison From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Tuesday, May 24, 2011 2:11 PM To: Harrison Owen Subject: Re: [OSList] The 5th Principle / Sardinia Harrison and all, I am returning from Madrid and had to share what I saw as I dropped by Puerta del Sol to see Spain's youth at work calling for governmental reform...Open Space in action!!! I was tickled to see bulletin boards, dialogue circles forming and breaking apart in a delicious organic dance. The principles were at work and I am suspicious that there was some OST expertise in the mix. What captured my attention as I walked that there was just enough structure. After a week of manifestations, there was a nurse's tent, a kitchen, a place for press and other constructed desks where questions could be asked and themes could be entered. Meanwhile, new ideas and creativity had added a meditation circle that evening. I thought of you all, this work and the perfection of self organization when it is allowed. I look forward to seeing what this experiment yields. With gratitude Deidre Combs Sent from my Verizon Wireless Phone ----- Reply message ----- From: "Harrison Owen" <[email protected]> Date: Mon, May 23, 2011 5:31 pm Subject: [OSList] The 5th Principle / Sardinia To: "OSLIST" <[email protected]> The recent gathering in Sardinia was a treasure. But then again, every such gathering is unique and rich. A special gift for me was a series of extended conversations with Claudia, whose last name has disappeared in my senile brain. She had been in Egypt with the Facebook crowd in the square - and how she came to Sardinia is a story in itself. Seems like the young Egyptians were opening space right and left as they negotiated their way through their version of The Arab Spring. Somewhere along the line they went online in search of more information - connected with my youngest son (of the same name) who passed them along to me. We exchanged several emails, and I suggested that were it possible to come to Sardinia they would have the opportunity to connect with many marvelous new colleagues whose collective wisdom vastly exceed my own. Only Claudia could come but she carried the tale. Marvelous! So we talked. And as she described the happenings of those interesting days it gradually dawned on me that the Open Space of major significance was not so much the several gatherings convened under that title - but rather the ebb and flow of Tahrir Square. That indeed was a convening of those who cared. In palpable ways they brought their passion and responsibility into that present moment. And while it is true that they never sat in a circle or created a bulletin board, they surely opened a market place of ideas, hopes, and dreams - which in turn created new circles of caring. Claudia said it was a dance, a massive, multiple circle dance as those who cared shared their passion(s) with responsibility. The circles formed and broke, only to form again in new, richer and more complex patterns. Who can say what the precise results are or will be. (The Proceedings have yet to be printed J) - but the typical behaviors of every good Open Space were manifest in abundance. "High Learning" - in which previously impossible ideas and aspirations came alive. "High Play" - in which strangers and sometime enemies ate and laughed together. Serious moments for sure but leavened with a lightness that comes when the flood gates of renewal are wide open. "Appropriate Structure and Control" - God knows how many people were there, and for sure nobody was in charge. But that did not mean that violent and bloody chaos was the order of the day - although doubtless nobody would have been surprised had they appeared. But there was structure as the dance circled on. And the control was emergent from the people, born of their passion and responsibility. "Genuine Community?" - Total strangers coming home, wrapped in the care and concern of their fellows. And "Authentic Leadership?" You bet! - Not the sort of Leadership that supposedly resides in the appointed leaders - by way of the divine right of kings. Indeed, the King had been sent out of town! But Leadership was there in abundance, blossoming (what else in the Arab Spring?) where and as needed. It appeared at the nexus points of passion and responsibility and passed from person to person as the dance rolled on. And that is the story, at least as I heard it told.
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