Givens -- Again : some comments

[Chris Corrigan]

On Mon, 22 Nov 2004 13:28:11 EST, everett813 at aol.com <everett813 at aol.com> wrote:

>
>  1.  When an ant carrying a stick comes to another stick, it puts its stick
> down.
>  2.  When an ant not carrying a stick comes to a stick, it picks the stick
> up (and carries it until rule 1 occurs).
>
>  That will build an ant hill within the space of the travel abilities of the
> ants (the container) but you cannot say where it will emerge, but emerge it
> will.
>

That's certainly the kind of givens I am speaking of, and the kind
Harrison means too I think when he talks about gravity and
self-organization (although gravity is a part of
self-organization...how else did all those galaxies clump together in
the first place!)

But what strikes me here is Paul's use of the word "container" and I
resonate with that.  When I hold space, I do often have a sense that I
am holding a container.  Some First Nations Elders here on the west
coast of North America talk about it using the metaphor of the feast
bowl, an ornately carved dish in which food is served at feasts.  The
expression "the common bowl" is often used to refer to the collection
of people and resources available for a task at hand: "What is in the
common bowl?"

Interestingly, I have recently been reading about Bohmian dialogue
again, especially as it was explicated by Peter Senge et. al. in The
Fifth Discipline and especially the new book, Presence..  They use the
term "container" as well.  In Presence, there is a lovely quote from
John Cottrell, the president of local 13 of the the United
Steelworkers of America who used dialogue in labour relations.  He
likened dialogue to the craft of steelmaking:

"We work with energies that can kill you,  The essence of our craft
lies in containing these energies.  If we fail, people die.  The same
is true for human beings: we generate energies that can kill one
another.  The question is, can we hold these energies, or will they
destroy us?  Just as the cauldron contains the energies of molten
steel, dialogue involves creating a container that can hold human
energy, so that it can be transformative rather than destructive."

I think when we work with groups as facilitators we do hold these
energies.  Those of you in very conflicted parts of the world will
know better than I the tremendous strength needed to create and
sustain a container for these energies that is transformative.  My
father in law called us toxin handlers: those who held those energies
in a way that allow groups of people to function in a healthy way.

Sometimes I think we need explicitly stated givens to do this.  In
most cases though I think that the universal givens of
self-organization are the ones we need to invoke, invite and hold
space for.  This is huge, huge work.  But when we fashion the
containers well, the results speak for them selves.  Peace, as
Harrison has noted, requires space and self-organization to emerge.
These are givens, and they are worth holding.

Chris

--
-------------------------
CHRIS CORRIGAN
Consultation - Facilitation
Open Space Technology

Weblog: http://www.chriscorrigan.com/parkinglot
Site: http://www.chriscorrigan.com

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