AW: It's a Myth!

[Catherine Pfaehler]

Dear Mike, how very true. Thank you (and sorry I’m so late in reacting, I
only found time to read now
) Catherine

Catherine Pfaehler
Kellersriedweg 8
CH - 2503 Biel
T/F/B ++41 - (0)32 - 365 68 41

-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU]Im Auftrag von Mike
Copeland
Gesendet: Mittwoch, 17. Dezember 2003 21:40
An: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Betreff: It's a Myth!

In response to two myths from Chris, on 4 December Harrison Owen wrote:
 ... when it comes to myths, these are not only dismissed, but dissed. Worse
than a story, myth now means lie and falsehood. How the world changes. And
of course, for enlightened people such as ourselves, we have long since
thrown off the bondage of myth. How sad. And we never really do - throw it
off, that is. We simply develop new ones, and they of course, are understood
to be The Truth, or better yet Scientific Truth. But it is still a story,
now dressed up in different clothes. We call them "Theories" - but at the
end of the day, these Theories are simply likely stories which help us
interpret our world. So our essential nature hasn't changed - we are still
story tellers whose life expectations are shaped by the stories we tell.
Myth by any other name. What is different now is that the formative power of
these tales is somehow out of our awareness. And when the stories are
warped, distorted or partial - the world and our space in that world is
distorted and shrunk. Of course, we could tell a different story. . .

And I think that new story creation is a major part of what happens in Open
Space. But it is not so much telling a story as being a story.

This has ruminated with me for a couple of weeks and is changing my outlook
on life and the systems we have in our world. I really see the myth being
played out largely unconsciously in our world now, especially in our
organizational culture.


I recently attended training in becoming a Conscious Open Space
Organization. Last night while mowing the lawns I thought about an exercise
we did.  Our facilitator, Helen Patterson, asked us to draw a diagram of how
the work gets done in our organization. My picture was of a whiskey still.
The bulk raw material was charred, mashed, and distilled into one drop of
liquid. Not much fun for the mash who gets completely pulverized, boiled and
vaporized.

Today's myth, to me, is we have the state, the omnipotent being, creating
systems and laws that are great at "distilling" ideas and values into laws
and policy. So often I've taken on a task that I was excited and passionate
about only to have the spirit completely wrung out of it by the
organizational structure, where it became blatantly obvious to me that I was
serving a system and not the other way round.

Our modern myth also has a tendency to take something down to its smallest
essence with the belief that by knowledge we will somehow understand or
explain mechanistically the present experience. I reached the limits of this
thinking when I had a bout of illness a few years ago. I was analyzing my
life like it was an archaeological dig.  Everything got dredged up,
categorized, labeled bagged and stored on the appropriate shelf.  After a
while I tried the same with my ever present pain. It was like staring into a
black hole trying to come up with new ways of saying how black it was; of
course this only made it blacker. In short, "I have come to a desert area in
my life where words no longer suffice and only experience counts" (Thomas
Merton)

My feeling is to be careful not to do this with Open Space; to nail it to a
point where it becomes formulaic and mechanistic. And this is what I
absolutely love about Open Space.  It allows space for spirit, passion and
life. For me it is about being open space, living the principles and law,
and giving me a process as life comes out of me and at me. And hopefully
therein beginning a new myth to live by; be prepared to be surprised!

Peace to you all

Mike Copeland






I


.

.

 , whatever happens is the only thing that could have. For me explanations
no longer suffice and only experience counts.










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