Terrorized by terror -- Space closes

Fri Mar 30 15:47:39 PDT 2007

I hear what you're saying Harrison and I think I'm in the same place as
you.  The idea of surfacing the private voice of possibility is that it
overcomes the public voice of resignation and blame.  The fearful aspects of
what we have been calling "the phantom menace" (which are really just
stories about state run systems) begin to dissolve when we realize and then
develop our own individual and communal capacities to create the systems we
need to serve life.  That, to me, is what drilling the other hole in the
bathtub is all about.

It's amazing to me how much fear is actually generated by the unknown and
imagined rather than the real.  Being confronted immediately with a threat
of violence or impending death is one kind of fear.  You have to actually
get out of the way of that one before reframing things in Open Space.  But
being paralysed by what isn't there, the fear you talk about, the fear that
the Illinois State Pork Festival is a terrorist target, well that fear gets
undone pretty quickly when we bind passion and responsibility to creating
the alternative and get to work.

Chris

On 3/30/07, Harrison Owen <hhowen at verizon.net> wrote:
>
>  Something that Chris said caught my eye. "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."
>
>
>
> I am not sure that I ended up where Chris was leading – but for me what
> came through was the end of "they." One thing I have noticed in high fear
> dominated situations is the omnipresence of "they." Seems like they did
> everything – or didn't do what should have been done. But the net effect is
> that the face of fear is "they." The only problem is that "they" has no
> face, which I suppose makes them even more fearful. And one of the gifts in
> Open Space is "they" simply disappears. It is all us. Sounds kind of flip
> and quaint, but I've seen it happen so often. In Jerusalem one time we did
> an Open Space (Tova and Avner did the honors) and we had Jews and Muslims.
> Not just the polite, usual suspects at such gatherings -- folks on the
> extremes. One of the Muslims (reputedly Hamas) offered a session – which
> attracted one of the Rabbis, amongst others. I was more than a little
> curious how it all might work out, and later I met the Rabbi – and he was
> bubbling. He said, I've never really talked to a Muslim before, but they are
> us! I think there might have been some problem with the Arabic, Hebrew,
> English transition, but the thought was very clear.
>
>
>
> Harrison
>
>
>
> Harrison Owen
>
> 7808 River Falls Drive
>
> Potomac, Maryland   20854
>
> Phone 301-365-2093
>
> Skype hhowen
>
> Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com
>
> Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org
>
> Personal website www.ho-image.com
>
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>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> *From:* OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] *On Behalf Of *Chris
> Corrigan
> *Sent:* Friday, March 30, 2007 4:04 PM
> *To:* OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
> *Subject:* Re: Terrorized by terror -- Space closes
>
>
>
> 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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-- 
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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