While any of us yet live...

[Proteus Communications]

Dear dear Douglas D. Germann:

Thank you, with all my heart, for your letter below.  This question of how
to promote conversation among us also burns inside of me.  I experienced a
taste of what deep conversation can do last year, when Toke Moller
conducted, with others, an "Art of Hosting Meaningful Conversations" session
here on Bowen Island.  After this session I reflected on how profoundly
needed this kind of conversation is...

I experience of the art of hosting as a calling.  And the calling has always
been there, within me.  Together, in this art, this gift, we support
conversations that are meaningful, creative, generative and deeply honouring
of the wisdom and truth that each of us carries within us.  The Art of
Hosting Meaningful Conversation is the path to brining about a new,
collective understanding of what it means to be a human being on this
planet. It is an evolutionary tool for humanity.  The talking together is
the healing together.  There is no other way.  There truly is no other way.

This talking together is a way of thinking together, a "knowing" of one
another; it is how, together, we create these new possibilities that could
not emerge from just one alone.  It's in this collective gathering of our
hearts and minds that I see such hope. 
 
I have been hosting conversations in my community, and in the workplaces
where I consult.  
I ask myself, "what are the conditions needed for genuine dialogue, for a
true coming together of hearts and minds? 

Since joining this list, I feel so connected to others who are on this
journey of healing (ourselves, one another, the planet).  We are not alone,
the Life within us that calls us to connect with one another, holds us,
sustains us, and urges us forward, in love, "while we yet live..."

With much love,

Kathryn Thomson

Proteus Communications
promoting clarity, compassion and courage
in the workplace


-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Douglas D.
Germann, Sr.
Sent: Wednesday, July 20, 2005 11:05 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: While any of us yet live...

To our good friends--

We need to figure out some way to promote conversations. The conversations
ought to be about the importance of conversation and dialogue, about
consciously getting together. It is not just that this is what interests me;
it is because this notion of making evolution conscious is critical to the
growth of the human species.


As we grow, there will be those who do not like it. We cannot expect
everyone to like the notions of peace and justice and love and freedom--much
as we would like to see it, and much as we would expect them to like these
things. It will take work and sweat and blood to get there.
It is a difficult road, this answering violence with love, and it is not
always easy to figure out. But we have those who have tried and succeeded:
Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. Buber thought it would not have worked
with Hitler. Perhaps not--but nobody tried. The Jews just went to their
deaths with as much dignity--hidden and silent--as they could. I suspect
Gandhi would have been more public about it, would have endeavored to get
the attention and active dissent of others who could influence the people in
power. But nobody, absent that kind of call out of our cultural trance,
wanted to name the evil.


Today, it is our job to name the evil, to get people to work consciously for
love. That is the job of conversation. If we do not converse, how can we
love? We must know (and I do mean to include the intimate sense) each other,
and the way we have so far discovered to do that is to converse. It is
critical to the life and growth of the human species. If we do not, we flame
out in violence and death: this is our hell. If we do, heaven awaits:
a heaven of work and sweat and toil and blood punctuated by joy and served
by love. It is our task in this generation to redeem the evil, to bring
those of us back from the brink whom we can. While any of us yet live. It is
our task to unfold our whole species toward love.

                              :-Doug. Germann
                              Seeking people making community change.

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