mother list

[Ashley Cooper]

chris wrote
So, like I say, if there’s a moose under the table, to me it still looks a lot more like a food cache than a problem!

a problem, who said anything about a problem? ;-)

ashley
----- Original Message -----
From: Chris Corrigan
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Sent: 12/5/2003 4:35:58 PM
Subject: Re: mother list


There are about 350-400 people on this list Judi.  WAAAY more lurkers than writers, or more butterflies than conveners…

Chris W refers to “mother list” and that’s kind of how I think of this “place.”  It’s like a sourdough starter, which is the piece of bubbling yeast and flour that bakers use to get sourdough bread to rise.  As long as you keep feeding it, the starter keeps living, and lots of loaves of bread keep getting made from the same jar of stuff..

And at the risk of Harrison jumping in with another New Testament allusion, I’ll also say that vinegar starts with a “mother…”

ANYWAY…

OSLIST mothers an awful lot of stuff for me.  And sometimes my engagement here is very strong and other times I go away for a while and do other things.  But in my own life it has spawned many interesting things like the wikis, the non-guide, my weblogs (and other people’s!), collaborations with people like Michael Herman, Avner Haramati, Brian Bainbridge, Peggy Holman, Joelle and Paul Everett, Julie Smith, Dan Chay, Judi Richardson, Ashley Cooper, Birgitt Williams and it has led to many face to face conversations with countless other people, often over food, in places like Toronto, Vancouver, Bowen Island, Fairbanks, Bellingham and Whidbey Island.

And most importantly, this list got me started, and with very kind and careful attention from Larry Peterson, Dianne Gibeault, and Harrison I took my first steps into OST seven years ago or so.  So I have never forgotten that, and it’s always led me to treat this list, and the community of this list, with great care and affection.

So, like I say, if there’s a moose under the table, to me it still looks a lot more like a food cache than a problem!


---
CHRIS CORRIGAN
Bowen Island, BC, Canada
http://www.chriscorrigan.com
chris at chriscorrigan.com
(604) 947-9236

-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Judi Richardson
Sent: Thursday, December 04, 2003 12:22 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: mother list

Chris, Tova, Ashley and others.

Many thanks for the deep contemplation and challenging languaging.  In watching the posts over the last week or two it is evident that a few feel at a crossroads -- and only individuals can know if that is personal or community.  This list, for me, is organic, it becomes what I need it to be over and over.

I, too, experience this community as a source of professional and personal challenge -- expanding my capacity.  It can be an "energy leak" if I choose for it to be.  When I'm on the road, reading the postings can be like finding old friends.  Sometimes I long to have the time to write an observation of work with a group while I'm already on my way to another group.  Those postings that challenge me I can choose to respond to or not.  I appreciate the many stories started and expanded on this list and often wonder how they are spinning.  For some of us this may be one of the few places we tell a different story -- perhaps from our original voice.  I see expansion of stories here and, in my experience, stagnation occurs when we tell the same story of limits over and over -- like continually placing our hands on a hot stove, or spend all our time teaching each others our complaints.

I think someone mentioned there are over 4,000 people on this list -- seems to me we will all make it what we choose for it to be.  I see an OST event like a cosmic mirror -- the participants, if they are open to it, can see habitual patterns, see how they affect others in their organizations.  It is like a Time Out Of Time (TOOT) -- a reflective tool, out of our natural reactions we can choose to respond.  The quality of "beginner's mind" that offers when someone new comes to the list never ceases to amaze me, as well as the quality of our disagreements! <grin>

ciao
Judi Richardson

www.ponoconsultants.com
www.emergentfeminine.com

----- Original Message -----
From: chris weaver
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Sent: Thursday, December 04, 2003 10:53 AM
Subject: mother list

Tova wrote,

I believe our energy as a community was and is so powerful that a lot of seeds had enough wind and spirit to go very far and enough warmth and nourishment to sprout in many places. I believe that now we are on a crossroad of our story, the question is what is the new being of 'mother list' we wish for, where do we take our story ?

What do you think?

Dear Tova,

You have stated this beautifully:  wind, spirit, warmth, nourishment, and sprouting seeds, yes.  I count myself as one whose daily work and life would be entirely different without the gifts and professional connections born out of this list over recent years (when I see the sprouting seeds, they're on the muddy back of a turtle!)

I don't have a feeling that we are at a "crossroads," however, because to me the list is a river rather than a road.  A river has its own life, and a powerful river is beyond any human efforts at engineering.  Yet a river is supremely receptive.  As Sheila Chandra sings, "the Ocean refuses no river -"  and the river does not refuse its tributaries...the tributaries are received...and then the opposite pattern unfurls, as the river divides into a delta, with separate, more-focused streams spinning out their own fractals...?

So I think the multi-focused aspect of the list seems likely to be its way and its nature.

I am curious about what you describe as "energy leakage," and I think maybe I understand.  To continue with the metaphor, the OSLIST, big and wide-focused as it is, is usually not the right river to spin my own little waterwheel.  As my own daily work has focused on the care and feeding of a small "Open Space Organization," I have devoted my attention mostly to my local work relationships in real time and real space, where we are all focused and busy weaving waterbearing baskets...

The OSLIST is more like a sort of cyber-Ganges, where I go every few days before dawn and jump in.  I continue to be amazed that something so Big can be so responsive.  And I continue to be surprised at how often I emerge dripping and watch the sun come up as a transformed person.

My thanks to Reinhard & Ashley for the spark (takes a little flint & steel if you want to cook a moose), and for all the fine responses.  I spent two hours on this extended thread this morning, thanks to the river, which rose into the sky last night, and froze, and blanketed these mountains with enough snow to close all the schools & block my road to Cherokee.
Chris Weaver
Swannanoa, North Carolina, USA
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