mother list

Sat Dec 6 08:22:16 PST 2003

mother listAnd every good baker knows that bread needs to be both
"stretched" and "rolled", "stretched" and "rolled"!!!

J
  -----Original Message-----
  From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU]On Behalf Of Chris
Corrigan
  Sent: Friday, December 05, 2003 8:36 PM
  To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
  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

  ---
  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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