More on Creation
Michael Wood
mjwood at admin.uwa.edu.au
Tue Feb 17 16:18:45 PST 2009
Harrison et al
You might be encouraged to hear that we have a couple of teachers in the
Business School at the University of WA who are giving students an
experience of Open Space as part of certain courses. For example, in one
semester, the week before exams a space was opened so the students could
float their revision issues - i.e. things they were still confused
about. Topics they wanted to expore in more depth. It created a very
effective co-learning environment. Instead of the typical format of
teacher standing up the front and the students trying to extract tips on
what would be in the exam.
Both these teachers are women (and...Larry...both orginally from
Canada!).
Shhh...don't tell anyone. I want them to stay.
Michael Wood
-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of
Harrison Owen
Sent: Wednesday, 18 February 2009 7:16 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: More on Creation
Wendy(and Ralph too!) This is truly wonderful! OST, for all of the funny
stuff, etc - is really a Trojan Horse, not to say revolutionary. Let
that sucker in the door, and a whole mess of stuff is in trouble. All
the stuff you mention, of course -- but there is more. You really
couldn't teach OST in a standard business school and maintain a straight
face with all those tenured professors and courses dealing with
"Management Control,"
"Organizational Design" -- etc. PROBLEM! Best thing is to say nothing.
Deny everything. Go to ground.
Harrison
Harrison Owen
189 Beaucaire Ave
Camden, ME 04843
207-763-3261 (Summer)
301-365-2093 (Winter)
Website www.openspaceworld.com
Personal Website www.ho-image.com
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-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Wendy
Farmer-O'Neil
Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 2009 3:56 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: [OSLIST] More on Creation
Hi Ralph,
i loved your question. And i have been sitting with it and reflecting
on it through a number of lenses. And i suppose my experience and
deep belief, is that much like everything else, the questioning is
also self-organizing and doesn't arise until the consciousness that is
ready to respond to it has also arisen. Now, of course, consciousness
expands in response to challenges. And so OS might certainly be one
of those challenges, both individually and culturally.
And i hear you also asking if OS could be seen as threatening?
Possibly. Probably. The forces that have driven evolution throughout
time have tended to be pretty threatening to those experiencing them.
Space is always opening everywhere all the time. What we are learning
about evolutionary change is that is not only a slow, iterative,
incremental process, but can also be an incredibly rapid,
revolutionary process. And we know what revolutionary change looks
like. One of the remarkable things about the time we are living in,
is that perhaps for the first time in this planet's history, an
organism is aware that it is evolving and is also an active
participant in the forces that are shaping that evolution. Which
makes this time as exciting as hell to live in (assuming, of course,
that you find hell exciting and not simply terrifying).
So yah, some theologies/ideologies/values systems will find the
concept of self-organization and the experience of OS more threatening
than others. (They are the ones that don't invite you back and tell
others in town not to work with you 'cause you do that weird circle
thing...). I think that most of the folks who encounter OS experience
it in alignment with their own level of consciousness and find their
own way of making sense of the questions it evokes. They experience
what they have the mind and heart and body and soul to experience.
It's all about perspective.
We who open space deliberately are not timid folk.
Some might even say we're peace-full revolutionaries. (slow and
knowing wink)
Keeping the faith in chaos and conflict,
Blessings,
Wendy
"The purpose of conflict is harmony." Terry Dobson Sensei
On 17-Feb-09, at 12:01 PM, Ralph Copleman wrote:
> On Feb 17, 2009, at 2:00 AM, Harrison wrote:
>
>> Well now you have really stepped in it! And for sure you got your
>> response!
>
> (Well, I didn't wade in completely blindly, I hope.)
>
> Thanks, everyone, for this dialogue. I guess I knew many of us here
> see creation as a self-organizing event, as I believe. My real
> question is not about what WE think but what others whom we ask to
> operate in open space might experience. Cognitive dissonance?
> Religious doubt? Fear? A sense of being shaken to the core?
>
> Is open space not a threat to some established orders? Am I
> exaggerating the impact of a world/culture of space opening
> everywhere all the time?
>
> We know that once people step into the space, it works, and they get
> it and enjoy it. But if they sit down and think about it, might
> they have some very interesting questions?
>
> Ralph
>
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>
Wendy Farmer-O'Neil
CEO Prospera Consulting
wendy at xe.net
1-800-713-2351
The moment of change is the only poem. -- Adrienne Rich
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>From Tue Feb 17 22:08:44 2009
Message-Id: <TUE.17.FEB.2009.220844.0500.>
Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2009 22:08:44 -0500
Reply-To: 76066.515 at compuserve.com
To: OSLIST <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
From: douglas germann <76066.515 at compuserve.com>
Subject: Re: FW: Creation
In-Reply-To: <6C9098F11802AB4E820B84BADAB78E5702A219D4 at ADMIN-SERV48.admin.uwa.edu.au>
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Hi friends--
Michael: I and Thou author Martin Buber is said to have translated this
opening verse: In beginning God.... Without "the" it turns the meaning
around, grabs our head and makes us look.
Tenneson: I also very much like the way William Blake had it--we are the
divine human. Sounds similar to what you were suggesting. This is
evocative for me...as is much of what you write.
:- Doug.
On Tue, 2009-02-17 at 15:25 +0900, Michael Wood wrote:
> I'd echo what Doug has written and add...
>
> The New Revised Standard Version of the Bible suggests several ways of
> translating into English the first few verses of Genesis: These could be
>
> In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth (which NRSV
> prefers);
>
> OR When God began to create(foot noted)
>
> OR In the beginning God created (foot noted)
>
> If the first translation is accepted, then creation happens out of "the
> formless void and deep" which seems to already exist.
>
> This suggests to me that something which is not particularly
> differentiated gradually becoming differentiated into different forms.
> The new Biology (see Capra - The Hidden Connections - a science for
> sustainable living) suggests this is exactly what happens through the
> power of self organising systems. Where God is within that process is
> poetry!
>
> I also like Sally McFague's (A New Climate for Theology) observation
> that the bible speaks in the language of metaphor and we need to
> remember that Metaphor is not the same as metaphysics. I think that
> scientists and theologians can have good conversations whilst also being
> clear what territory they are operating in.
>
> If I get further onto theology I fear I'll be moving from the point of
> this list, but happy to continue the conversation to my email address.
>
> Michael Wood
>
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of
> douglas germann
> Sent: Tuesday, 17 February 2009 1:41 AM
> To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
> Subject: Re: Creation
>
> Ralph--
>
> All of our human creation stories, or at least all of the 6 or 10 of
> them which I have read, start with something pre-existing: a god, a ball
> of mud, a turtle's back.
>
> The Biblical story in my view is not antithetical to the Big Bang: Let
> there be light and there was light. What you hold in your mind when you
> read it affects directly what you get out of it-or put into it.
>
> Stuart Kauffman has recently written a book which posits that God is not
> a being who creates but creativity itself. If he is correct, then that
> means that there is no difference between the Biblical notion of
> creation and self-organization.
>
> (I think the concept of ex nihilo is not necessarily in Genesis.)
>
> Ralph, thanks for this tickle.
>
> :- Doug.
>
> On Mon, 2009-02-16 at 09:54 -0500, Ralph Copleman wrote:
> > If we say we live in a self-organizing universe, and if we also say
> > there is no such thing as a non-self-organizing system, then where
> > does that leave us with regard to the biblical creation story of the
> > original seven days -- which seems to lay down holy word that it is
> > possible create a comprehensive order out of nothing?
> >
> > It's irrelevant that the biblical story may or may not be literally
> > true. We must recognize the impact this version of creation has had
> > on our collective consciousness in the West, if not all over the
> > world. This model of order-out-of-chaos dominates most, if not all
> > our modern institutions. It lays the framework for how we see the
> > world and how we seek to relate to it, its systems, and itc
> > challenges. It's the pattern for government, business, education,
> > community development, religion, etc. It even dictates how we shall
> > relate to Earth itself.
> >
> > When we ask people to accept the belief that there is no such thing as
>
> > a non-self-organizing system, aren't we saying, "The story we have all
>
> > lived by, whether we consciously realize it or not, is wrong,
> > profoundly inaccurate, and dangerous"?
> >
> > Ralph
> >
> > *
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