After dinner conversations

[Harrison Owen]

Interesting! Several years ago I opened space with a group of First Nation folks in the US Southwest. The topic was pretty mundane (roads as I remember) but the reaction was enlightening -- to me at least. We did all "the usual" and during a small pause in the action (maybe Lunch?) one of the participants came up to me and said, "What took you so long, White Man?" The implication being -- "we" were way behind the power curve. Maybe several thousand years?

Harrison
Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Dr.
Potomac, MD  20854
USA
301-365-2093
207-763-3261 (summer)
website www.openspaceworld.com


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Susan M Kerr 
  To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU 
  Sent: Thursday, June 09, 2005 9:22 PM
  Subject: Re: After dinner conversations


  In a message dated 6/9/2005 7:58:38 P.M. Central Standard Time, duff at innergy.ca writes:
    I never thought of these as "open space" but now that I look at it, I suppose they are.

    duff

  Reading this brought an experience to mind that I would now call open space. 

  It was a Native American pipe circle held in a buffalo field (we went to Janesville, WI, to pay homage to a white buffalo calf born there). We first stood in an open circle, one person walked it silently as we smudged (sweet grass burning in an abalone shell; we drew the smoke towards ourselves while this person holding it fanned it to us with a feather), then we sat and passed a pipe, again, silently. The pipe held some kind of tobacco but nothing hallucinogenic (more sweet grass? I'm not really sure). Afterwards when we were mingling and talking I saw into another's eyes deeper than I ever had (with anyone - I did not even know this person). I remember thinking, "why is he letting me look so far in?" 

  So maybe open space works even when the communication is not in words?
  * * ========================================================== OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist

*
*
==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
------------------------------
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu:
http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html

To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:
http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openspacetech.org/pipermail/oslist-openspacetech.org/attachments/20050610/cb826d02/attachment-0016.htm>