Friends, As I read through a backlog of emails, I just had to share the one below from Bob Stilger. Bob is working with the Berkana Institute and recently spent a number of weeks working in Japan. In the story below, he speaks of an Open Space he ran with a group. It touched me and so I send it to you.
appreciatively, Peggy _________________________________ Peggy Holman [email protected] 15347 SE 49th Place Bellevue, WA 98006 425-746-6274 www.peggyholman.com www.journalismthatmatters.org Enjoy the award winning Engaging Emergence: Turning Upheaval into Opportunity "An angel told me that the only way to step into the fire and not get burnt, is to become the fire". -- Drew Dellinger Begin forwarded message: > From: Bob Stilger <[email protected]> > Date: May 24, 2011 8:30:53 PM PDT > To: [email protected] > Subject: [Resilient Japan] May 25 ~ Bob Stilger's Notes from Japan #16: > Intergenerational Leadership > Reply-To: [email protected] > > +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ > > ===================================================== > > I've been in Japan since April 5th. I'm working and meeting with a number of > different groups and stand as a witness to what's unfolding here. I am > working on behalf of The Berkana Institute, New Stories and the ALIA > Institute. If you are receiving this e-mail, it is because you're one of my > friends and I think you may be interested. Please feel free to delete, or > ask me to remove you from this list. I'll appreciate your reflections and > responses to what I write - you help me find my own center here, day-by-day. > In turn, I pass them on to people here and will include them in the new > website, with your permission. Your responses help us all in our learning. > > Please visit www.resilientjapan.org, where earlier notes and eventually other > resources are available. Also, please feel free to share these with others > or invite them to join our listserve at > http://groups.google.com/group/resilient-japan/ > > ===================================================== > > +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ > > > Dear Friends, > > I do love this land. Sitting on the high-speed train from Kyoto to Tokyo, > tanbo (rice fields) covered with water glisten in the morning sun. > Spring's many shades of green cover the nearby hillsides. I've been here for > almost two months and will leave in a week for Thailand. This final week > will be spent reflecting with many partners about what we've learned from the > work we have done together. > > A week ago I was at the KEEP at Kiyosato, a place that has become another > home in Japan. A onsen (hotsprings) bath each morning helps to invigorate my > day. This time we gathered nearly 60 people from across Japan to think > together about what youth leadership is needed in Japan right now. About > three quarters of those who came were in their 20s. The youngest was not > quite 2 and the oldest were in their 40s and 50s. Our intent in this > gathering was to bring people from the Fukushima area together with others > from Japan. In the end, we had about 15 from Fukushima, 20 from Tokyo, 8 > from Shikoku and the rest from all over Japan. > > Many, many learnings! > > The first learning was about inviting from Fukushima. People in the Tohoku > region, of which Fukushima is a part, speak of themselves as being very tied > to their land. Even in these times of tragedy, the tie is very, very strong. > We had clear plans a month or so ago. We'd invite up to 50 youth from > Fukushima, some living in one shelter, others working in the shelter, others > living more normal lives around the shelter. Nothing of the sort emerged. > As I wrote in an earlier note, it is almost as if there is a wall around the > shelter -- hard to enter, hard to begin conversations. There are now about > 1500 people living in the Sports Complex, down from a high of 2000. > Different members of our team made 4 or 5 trips to Fukushima to help and to > see who ought to be invited. Eventually we found 15 who would come. What's > clear to me is that more work needs to be done directly in Fukushima. More > on that later in this note. > > The second learning was another affirmation of what happens when people enter > space. This was mostly a gathering of strangers. Very few people knew > others who were coming. They were attracted to the idea of three days of > dialog about what comes next for Japan with a focus on youth. The people > from Fukushima, especially, arrived with cautious energy, not quite sure what > they had gotten themselves in for. The deep beauty of Kiyosato and the KEEP > was, of course, welcoming. But who were all these other people gathered here > and what am I to do with them? Three days later we had a deeply connected > field of people who had stepped into a new relationship with themselves and > each other. It is always magical when this happens and it happens most of > all because we yearn to be with each other. In the evening of the first day > one of the women from Fukushima said today was fun because we all cried > together. Another spoke of listening so deeply that I, myself, almost > disappeared. > > On the morning of the second day we did Joanna Macy's powerful Seventh > Generation exercise which takes place 100 years in the future. With a circle > inside a circle, facing each other, people gaze at each other across the > generations. The outer circle are people born in the future. The inner > circle are people from these times -- 2011. Questions are asked and answered > across this span of seven generations. A deep field of both speaking and > listening is woven. One young friend came up to me afterwards and said when > you asked those questions, I thought I had no answers; but when I started to > speak, the words just rushed out from me. This is an almost shamanic process > which reaches deep into our unconscious knowing. > > These long days go quickly as we move from silence into dialog in pairs, > circle, world cafe and open space. We continued to work with the beauty of > our environment, spending individual and collective time on the land -- > usually in silence. There was beauty in the air, alongside confusion and > grief. > > On the first evening one woman from Fukushima said the disaster made us all > the same age; and I understood something more about this work. I think it is > still useful to use the term "youth leadership," because the insights and > energy of people in their 20s are critical to this unfolding. AND, this is > clearly an intergenerational field. We need all the generations, working > together now, to steer a new and more resilient course. This spirit of > intergenerational leadership has become more and more essential to me over > the last ten years. Never before has it been so compelling. Resilient > communities can be build in Japan when all the generations work together. We > know in our bones that this is so. > > One man from Fukushima came filled with grief and anger and hopelessness. He > was in his fifties and said when I saw the flyer for this gathering, I knew I > was too old, but I had to come. Perhaps I could find something here that I > could not find at home. I could tell immediately that before 3.11, he was > the kind of person who was the life of any party, open hearted, gregarious, > ready. He spoke of himself as being broken hearted, frozen in place, unable > to muster clarity or energy to do anything at all. The land he loved was > destroyed. He had shut down, grown more inward and despondent as the weeks > turned. > > The situation is still almost impossible to comprehend. In Fukushima, where > land is life, the land has been destroyed for many generations. AND, we > still don't know when any of the land will be safe, the water drinkable and > crops safe to grow. All this is also invisible. Things look normal. Some > people insist whatever they say, I want to go home. I don't care of there is > radiation. Many in Fukushima say if they here gambre (do your best) one more > time they will go crazy. There is nothing they can do. There is not visible > physical damage. And even if there were, they can't go back to clean up. > They can't go back. So they sit in the shelter day after day, without home > or work or livelihood waiting, waiting, waiting. > > Take one step further into the entire region and a half million people are > either without homes or jobs or both. So many people have no money to spend > that the rest of the economy is teetering. Store owners have goods, but with > so many customers without funds, the shops are on the edge of collapse. > People across Japan, and around the world, want to help -- but what is > helpful? What will make a difference and when? > > For me it starts at a human scale. People getting unstuck in the company of > others. It is a small, but essential first step. People become related > again. And that was part of what happened at the KEEP last week. People > started to remember each other. People started to remember their own > identity. > > On the afternoon of our third day a number of action groups formed in Open > Space (OST). I can't tell you what all their are because my Japanese isn't > good enough. But I could feel the positive energy. I participated in two > sessions. One was organized around the question of "how do we create and > connect more spaces where people can speak the raw truth?" The second was > organized around "how do we create a network of Future Centers in the > Tohoku." It was one of the most energized Open Spaces I have ever seen. And > watching the comments on the list serve created via Facebook for the > gathering, the energy continues. The actions which may result from this may > have importance. What already has importance is that people have shaken > loose some of their inability to move -- and will remember this shaking, if > nothing else. > > At our closing circle, my new broken-hearted friend ran around the circle > shouting I have hope again; I can move again. I don't know how long this > feeling will last when he returns to his local context. But, again, he will > be able to remember the smell of hope and it will help him go on. > > I got to know a few of the people from Fukushima. As we closed, I asked them > if they were interested in inviting this dialog work directly into Fukushima. > They said they were and this seems like one of the next important steps. We > need to work with the dynamic of people from Fukushima not wanting to leave > their land. We need to go to them. Step-by-step..... > > Best, > > Bob > > Bob Stilger > The Berkana Institute > 924 East Ninth Avenue > Spokane, WA 99202 USA > > (509) 835 4128 > > www.berkana.org > www.resilientjapan.org > www.resilientcommunities.org > > Skype, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Plaxo: bobstilger > > As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the > world..as in being able to remake ourselves. Mahatma Gandhi >
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