Rome was one year ago - any news?

Artur Ferreira da Silva artsilva at mail.eunet.pt
Thu Jun 26 11:28:37 PDT 2003


Dear Michael (Berlin)

>At 10:24 26-06-2003 +0200, Pannwitz, Michael M wrote:
>which rule of os did ho break, cleverly?

Thank you very much for your question. This is only one opinion and HO will
correct me if he wants to - or any one of you, for that matter.

I don't know exactly what was planned for the last day of the event in
Rome. But I assume that it was normal OST stuff. One could expect the
facilitator to "not be interested in content", "letting go", and saying to
himself "whatever happens..." and indeed taking a nap in the previous
evening and then reconvene the session in the last day in a normal way.

But then, we notice that this (very special) facilitator they got (after
the one he recommended could not come - but I am sure it would be different
but also brilliant), we notice that the facilitator in the evening of the
second day was very concerned with content and in the morning of the last
day he did a completely surprising (and NOT-on-the-book) thing: he
intervened about content. Avner commented at the time, and I agree, that
this was a touch of genius. (Genius is one word we use if there are two
conditions: (1) someone broke the rules - written by others or by himself -
and (2) it worked well. If condition (2) is not true, we call the same
attitude silly...)

Let me quote his words - that are no longer in the archives of the OSLIST
but here http://www.openspaceworld.com/new_page_4.htm

By late afternoon, I found myself
sitting on a bank of steps in front of the villa
between two large groups in heated debate. I could
hear some of the words, but didn’t need to listen in
order to catch the tones of anger, despair, fear,
frustration ­ all came rolling towards me like a heavy
surf ­ acid discontent and pain. It was deep and it
went deeper.

And later

That night, after a meal I would hardly touch, I went
to my room, which was located  (...)  If I slept that night, I can’t
remember. I do not know what the others felt as they
wrestled with the night, but I knew waves of fear and
anger, fear and desperation.

And still later (next morning):

The night ended and the dawn broke, and once again we
were sitting in a circle. 50 Palestinians and
Israelis, on our final day together. I opened the
circle with a few words. Exactly what they were, I
can’t remember ­ but something like... We have known
some hope and light together. We have entered into the
darkness. This is a day of choosing. I propose that we
take the next hour to be with our selves and/or talk
with our friends. In one hour, I will ring the bells.
Those who wish to return to our circle, please do so.

So, my opinion is that ho broke the rules (at least the ones of the version
of the OST User's Guide I red). And I am glad he did it. First, because it
worked. Second, because maybe we can learn some important lessons from
observing the artist in real life and in "fly".

Polanyi once wrote (defining tacit knowledge) that "we know more that we
can say". On myself and on the others I use to compare what one says and
what one does (how one walks the talk). And I always think that what one
does is more important then what one says he does. Sometimes the two things
are completely different - even opposite. In some others, like in the case
of ho, the doing just slightly clarifies (and slightly transforms) the saying.

That is only one humble opinion, of course. What do the others think?

Regards from the extreme West of Europe

Artur


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