Terrorized by terror -- Space closes

Fri Mar 30 13:04:28 PDT 2007

This is a wise response Wendy, about Open Space not being safe space but
rather a space in which we can train with our fear.  Many of us who are
martial artists will know the experience of bringing your fear to the dojang
(in Korean, the training gym, like the Japanese dojo) and practice it with
partners there so that you can encounter it and know it and then have it as
a friend when you face the fearful things of the world.   Being hosted in
Open Space is for me very much like training in a dojang.

I'm drilling holes in the bathtub at the moment in a number of places, the
most significant of which for me right now is in a year long project which
is moving the decision making authority over child welfare from government
to Aboriginal communities on Vancouver Island,.  We've been opening space on
this one for years and now we have an intense engagement strategy set up and
underway which involves convening and hosting meetings of all kinds around
the Island which has, as the premise, "children at the centre."  This
premise, this purpose, is the hole in the bathtub that is drawing people
into what my friend Phill Cass calls the "private voice of possibility"
which emerges into the public consciousness.  Suddenly we're not talking
about the fearful aspects of a state run system of colonization, but rather
a community owned and support enterprise to put the needs of children in the
centre as seen by indigenous folks.

Hold fear with consciousness and practice.

Chris

On 3/30/07, Wendy Farmer-O'Neil <wendy at xe.net> wrote:
>
>  Dear Harrison,
>
>
>
> Thank you so much for starting this thread.  Chris, your analogy of the
> hole in the bathtub is a very clear representation of what (little) we know
> about creating change in complex systems.  Right now fear seems to be the
> primary attractor guiding the energy in the US system—and has been for some
> time (as you point out Pat).  Attempts to go head to head with that power
> vortex tend to reinforce it (as you suggest Harrison, the BIG EVENT may not
> be the way to influence the most change).  Watching for local patterns and
> opening space around local issues where folks can reignite their passion and
> rediscover their capacity to step into self-responsibility and exert local
> agency, does create new vortices, new attractors that inevitably pull energy
> away from the fear.
>
>
>
> I find that open space is not so much a place without fear, as an
> exceptional place for folks to learn to feel the fear and act anyway—and
> learn that they won't die if they do.  That it's okay to let go into the
> fear, wander around a bit, keep breathing, until you find your feet and move
> on to what's next.  This is an essential skill for thriving in chaotic and
> complex times—and open space is a good place to learn and practice it.
> Acting to create change or social innovation in a system is going to feel
> risky.  Most of us have been trained and educated to create and preserve
> security—so we will need to get used to feeling fear and acting anyway—with
> all of our wonderful flaws and imperfections.
>
>
>
> Whenever we give up basic rights, freedoms, and responsibilities for the
> illusion of security, we end up selling off a large part of our souls and
> our deepest humanity along with them.  A new trajectory of joy is what I am
> busy stumbling around to create.  Attempting to act, not out of fear, or
> against fear, but from a completely new and open space of joy and infinite
> possibility.
>
>
>
> And yes, Harrison, I feel it as a responsibility.  That's why I risked a
> lot and went to Moscow to be there and support the opening of space in
> anyway that I could.  I was overcome standing in Red Square in front of
> Lenin's Mausoleum and the reviewing stand where so many years before I had
> watched on TV Brezhnev reviewing the May Day parade of weaponry.  I could
> not stop the tears from coming or from remembering how I felt in 1982 when I
> addressed an audience (at a 'peace conference') filled with Reagan's cold
> war cronies—that as a 16-year-old, after three days of listening to them, I
> was without hope.  So to find myself standing in that place of such cold war
> symbolism, and to be there not as a tourist, but as a member of the open
> space community—to have actually been a part of an open space event in that
> place—felt like nothing short of miraculous—and at the same time so fragile.
>
>
>
>
> So what am I doing these days to open space in spite of the fearosphere?
> I am working hard with Cheryl Honey to refine and spread the practice of
> Community Weaving, which uses open space principles and takes it to the
> grassroots, non-event, daily life stuff—to remediate poverty and isolation
> and build resilient communities of care and belonging.  I'm hosting an OS on
> my little island on finding abundance doing what you love.  I have started
> the planning for an SOS (Sustainability Open Space) in the fall (I'll be
> calling you soon Chris W.).  I am talking to the local social planning
> council about the possibility of opening space with the homeless.   I've
> introduced the United Way to OS and we are looking at how they might use it
> to grow their new community development focus. Last year, we opened space
> here for a three day land use planning event—we did it by donation and
> covered our costs—and created a tremendous legacy for our community by
> establishing a community commons that actually passed all the zoning and
> land use amendments the first time through!!
>
>
>
> So just a couple of examples of little ways that I'm trying to drill a few
> holes in my local bathtub.  What other ways are you all engaged in this?  It
> would be so inspiring to hear more about the ways we are all opening little
> spaces for something new to emerge.
>
>
>
> Lots of love,
>
> Wendy
>
>
>
>
>
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-- 
CHRIS CORRIGAN
Facilitation - Training
Open Space Technology

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

Principal, Harvest Moon Consultants, Ltd.
http://www.harvestmoonconsultants.com

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