whatever happens...

[Harrison Owen]

Gabriela, you may disappear down an endless rabbit hole of semantic (not to
mention grammatical) obfuscation and confusion! I think the real point is
the meaning, no matter the words. And given the number of languages that OS
has wandered into - the words must be infinite! And who knows what the
"right" ones are??? For myself the phrase, "Whatever happens is the only
thing that could have" - just came out that way. No particular thought on
the subject, it just felt right. And over the years it still feels right -
but the MEANING (for me) is -

 

The past is over, the future hasn't happened yet. All we have is NOW. The
could-have-beens, might-have-beens, should-have-beens are all (presumably)
interesting but also basically irrelevant to our present opportunities Now.
Now is where our passion must be focused, and Now is where responsibility
must be taken. All the rest is abstract, theoretical, and definitely NOT
NOW! Or something :-)

 

And then, of course, if you want to get into some interesting philosophical,
esoteric, not to say weird waters, you might ask yourself - How Big is Now?
Could be a very small Now, in which case the opportunities and the
responsibilities of infinitesimal. On the other hand, that NOW could be huge
- like the whole Cosmos. Talk about opportunity and responsibility! Boggles
the mind! Probably not worth thinking about!!

 

Harrison

 

Harrison Owen

7808 River Falls Drive

Potomac, Maryland   20854

Phone 301-365-2093

Skype hhowen

Open Space Training  <http://www.openspaceworld.com/> www.openspaceworld.com


Open Space Institute  <http://www.openspaceworld.org/>
www.openspaceworld.org

Personal website  <http://www.ho-image.com/> www.ho-image.com 

OSLIST: To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives
Visit:  <http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html>
www.listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html

 

-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Gabriela
Ender
Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2007 11:56 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: whatever happens...

 

Dear John, and others,

I want to come back to your wonderful thoughts regarding this principle
because I like the way you have been experimenting in Haitian Creole and in
English with very much: "What Happens is what happens - learn and move
forward."

 

And you have added: "This principle helps us to not lament over should'ves,
to not wallow in regrets. We're all responsible for how we use our time and
space together during this meeting. Let's assume that responsibility and be
prepared to accept what happens and to continually strive to learn and to
keep moving forward."

 

I totally agree and I like they way you describe it!

 

I have a question. Would it be also okay to say: "What happened is what
happened - learn and move forward." ?  I mean "What happened is what
happened" (it is past - so we cannot change it anymore) and "learn and move
forward." is present ... with responsibility in my/our "here and now".

"What happens is what happens" sounds for me (as a foreign English speaking
person) like it is the present and for "here and now" we are responsible ...
how we use our time. Therefore I think that changing the first part of this
principle variant "into past" could express the "when its over its over" in
it a bit better and would make a distinction to present and concsious
responsibilty.

I would appreciate your and the opinion from others a lot. Thank you very
much!

Warmly,

Gabriela

* * ==========================================================
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/20070509/86ec5790/attachment-0007.htm>