Ive just spent some time reading the last few posts and have been deliberating whether i bring up the topic of finite and infinite games!!! I love it that i move onto the next email and Harold does it for me!! YES YES YES such a useful touchstone about to how to talk about "game" in a spiritual way.
I also love that the people developing Carse's work online created Flickr by serendipty!!!! go seek if you are interested and a Carse's book is a real bible of provocation Best regards, Phelim McDermott ________________________________ I generally pick up emails only at the beginning and end of the working day. I am currently aiming to respond the following day. If it is urgent please call me on 07956 187298. _____________________________________ www.improbable.co.uk @openspacer > On 9 Oct 2013, at 14:29, Harold Shinsato <[email protected]> wrote: > > Harrison, > > Ok, I'll take your word from previous posts that I won't be in trouble if I > risk going up against you again - or maybe it's just a hope that this thread > won't be shut down due to misunderstandings. > > The statement "OST is a game" actually doesn't work for me so much because it > uncomfortably reduces all the ideas and philosophy (and practice) of OST into > a word that unfortunately has for many negative connotations. But perhaps > I'll invite thinking about OST *as* a game instead. Perhaps that can help > prevent cognitive dissonance and allow for this conversation to continue. > > My understanding of the word game as used by Daniel Mezick and others comes > from game theory - and could open up many benefits. > > The briefest way I think to hope to keep this particular door open for those > in this community who might find the word game unpleasant would be to suggest > the book "Finite and Infinite Games: A Vision of Life as Play and > Possibility" by James P. Carse. Mr. Carse actually is a professor of history > and literature of religion - and his thinking in that book is very poetic and > beautiful. And it reminds me much of Open Space thinking - and I won't even > attempt to dive into his thesis any more than to look at what I think sums up > the thinking being the final sentence in the book. "There is only one > infinite game." > > The bigger game of Open Space is the game of life - the unending story - the > "one infinite game". And an OST meeting or conference is a finite game which > seems to open up an experience of the infinite game in a beautiful way. And > yet, there's still value in seeing the finite game aspects of OST in that > context. > > Alas, perhaps this attempt will be futile. But I hold out hope that others > won't be discouraged from this perspective on OST as a game and it's benefits. > > Harold > >> On 10/7/13 1:25 PM, Harrison Owen wrote: >> Dan – Using the word, “game” as you do, I guess it sort of works with OS, >> but I do confess a certain feeling of cognitive dissonance, which I suspect >> may be shared by some of my colleagues. In any event, it certainly would not >> be a word I would use. But that doesn’t mean a great deal. However, when you >> say, “Leaders choose to play OST. Or not,” I do feel called upon to say >> something like... Oh Yes? >> >> Some people refer to the “Game of Life,” but it is scarcely a game you >> choose to play (or not). Not playing is called suicide, I think, and while >> some people do make that choice it is not a choice that most folks would >> considered good, useful, or positive. It is more like canceling all choices. >> Out of the Game, so to speak. >> >> I feel rather the same way about OS, and for all the same reasons. OS for me >> is not a process we choose to do or not do – quite simply it is what we are >> -- Self organizing, and OS is only an invitation to be ourselves fully and >> purposefully. We can chose to be ourselves with distinction, despair, or >> something in between -- but so long as we remain on the planet in some >> viable form, we got no choice. We are what we are, what we are. Put a little >> differently, OS is not something new and different, it is just a small name >> change for what has been around for quite a while: life. I guess you can >> call it a game, but somehow that seems to miss some of the nuances. >> >> Harrison > > > -- > Harold Shinsato > [email protected] > http://shinsato.com > twitter: @hajush > _______________________________________________ > OSList mailing list > To post send emails to [email protected] > To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] > To subscribe or manage your subscription click below: > http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org
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