What is the magic we see?

Bea Kisszolosi beahun at hotmail.com
Fri Feb 11 00:19:17 PST 2005


Hi Dug,

In my first OS, I was the so called "donor". The magic, what you mentioned
grabbed me and took me to my current journey.
Since that I participated in the OS, without magic and I experienced the
simplicity of OS, which was also a necessary experience. BUT I am looking
for the magic, this keeps me going, I am searching it and creating it.

It would be great if you could find words for the magic, you found:)

Bea



>From: "Douglas D. Germann, Sr." <76066.515 at compuserve.com>
>Reply-To: OSLIST <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
>To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
>Subject: What is the magic we see?
>Date: Thu, 10 Feb 2005 18:03:14 -0500
>
>Hi--
>
>Have just come off a 2.5 day community OS gathering, upon which I will
>report
>to you later, after I process it a bit.
>
>One thing that has been on my mind: what is the magic of this kind of
>meeting? Surely it is not just another way of arranging the chairs....
>There
>is something there that is elusive, hard to capture in words.
>
>This morning, this clue:
>
>In OS we are engaging people:
>their creativity;
>their passions;
>their minds:
>wholly and nothing held back.
>
>What do you see? Hear? Smell? Touch? Taste?
>
>                               :-Doug. Germann
>                               Seeking people making community change.
>
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>From  Fri Feb 11 00:36:35 2005
Message-Id: <FRI.11.FEB.2005.003635.0800.>
Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2005 00:36:35 -0800
Reply-To: chris at chriscorrigan.com
To: OSLIST <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
From: Chris Corrigan <chris.corrigan at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Word from a US soldier
In-Reply-To: <005601c50e01$998d5620$49bae30a at DSDICO.local>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Finding myself witnessing this exchange, and using it to practice
asking some questions:..


> I agree with you that force was used to open the space which is obviously
> not an OST principle (but I don't think that means that the space can't be
> 're-opened').  I disagree that it started with lies but that's a political
> debate and not one of open space, so I won't go there.  As for 'US style
> Democracy' being the only choice, who's making the decisions as to how Iraq
> will operate in the future?...the Iraqi's.  I think their space is open to
> let the majority of the Iraqi people decide...that's why the voting turnout
> was so good.  I believe the U.S. will eventually "let go" of the outcome so
> this doesn't just 'close the space' in my eyes.  Again, this difference of
> opinion can be another political debate and I don't intend to do that in
> this forum...but will gladly have a constructive debate one-on-one, if you'd
> like.
>

The question for me always in working with a community is not "is the
space open or not?"  Space is always open, even a little.  The bigger
question is "how can we open more space here?"  If you have a
situation where there is violent conflict, you need more space.  Iraq
is not a peaceful place at the moment.  That tells me that space wants
to be cleaved open even further.  If it is your feeling that the
United States should not leave Iraq for a while, then we might ask
"what is the most space we can open here together?"  If you think that
Iraq should be able to do fine on its own, then, as an American you
might ask "where can we let go some more?"  But if, in this situation,
I really wanted to open space, I might ask "what if we had peace now
and what if together we created that?  What would we have to do to
stop the violence and sustain a peaceful civil society in Iraq?  What
might our roles be here on the ground to bring peace to life?"
Something like that.  For sure I would encourage talking rather than
fighting.  I believe that most people would choose even banal
constitutional conferences to killing one another.  So if we are still
killing one another, what is the space that we can open to be bigger
than the killing impulse?

> Thanks for your kind words about this soldier.  I only wanted to share the
> story to those interested in seeing it from an angle that isn't always easy
> to get.  An even more interesting thing is that this soldier admits that he
> had doubts about the war before arriving in Iraq.  Here's a blurb from
> another message from him:
>     "When I was first coming over here I had my own inner personal doubts
> about the war, but after being over here and seeing, hearing, experiencing
> what I have,     it's changed.  They never tell you on the media about the
> nearly 400,000 up-to-date immunizations that children now have, or a
> continually improving and
>     much needed sewage system, or the fact that school books don't portray
> Saddam as a God anymore and that girls are now allowed in schools.  They
>     don't tell you that the US Army is paying for any damages to civil areas
> we cause AND the ones the insurgents cause.  They only show US soldiers
> geting
>     killed and beating up prisoners."
 > Sounds more open to me than it was when Saddam was in power....it's no
> longer a country that has "no choices"...
> Judy

He's one voice.  That's his story.  It's great but it's hardly enough
to give us a picture of life in Iraq.  I find that in North America,
we are often guilty of judging an entire complex situation with a
sound bite.  This type of debate is very common, and supported by our
culture of punditry, where the goal is to talk and listen to debate
and win a point rather than to incur deeper understanding of one
another's positions and interests.  And so pundits invoke sound bites
like this and draw wild conclusions about a situation based on a small
fact.

Whether that sound bite comes through TV or through a forwarded email
of a soldier, it's just a small small small piece of story.  I can't
judge the health of civil society in Iraq based on what he said.  This
report tells me that there are 400,000 immunized children, new sewers,
new text books AND much damage to civil areas and death and beaten up
prisoners.  That sounds complex, messy, full of guesses, rounding
errors and assmuptions.  I can't possibly read that and draw
conclusions about how open Iraqi society is now compared to three
years ago.  And, I assume, as this soldier showed up in Iraq only
after the war started, I'd be surprised if he could make an accurate
comparison either.  He can share his story though, and that's fine,
for what it's worth.

I think it's not easy to say whether THIS Iraq has more or less
choices than THAT Iraq.  Perhaps you have gained the right to vote,
but you have lost a constant power supply.  Perhaps you have immunized
kids but no husband any more.  Maybe you no longer live in fear of the
secret police, but you are now afraid of being accidentally shot or
bombed to death.  I don't know.  I don't believe one man, even if he
is in the middle of this, can really know how Iraqis feel.  I would
bet that it's not as simple as "it's more open."

Given this report and this curious email exchange on the OSLIST how
can we practice holding open judgement and suspending conslusions?
As Open Space facilitators what is our responsibility with respect to
witnessing this situation?

It's a complex world and these are complex questions.

Chris

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

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

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