Necessity of space

Pat Black patoitextiles at gmail.com
Thu May 7 10:26:44 PDT 2009


Amen.Pat Black

On Thu, May 7, 2009 at 11:04 AM, Brendan McKeague
<mckeague at iprimus.com.au>wrote:

>  beyond knowing, beyond words...this poem speaks to me of such a
> space...cheers Brendan
>
> *Learning to pray without words
> *by Fredrick Zydek
>
> You must turn away from the speech center
> until the desire for language slips beyond
> the weary orbits of vocabulary and definition
> into that place where wordless desires and urges
> become the parents of deeds. In that moment,
>
> a sacred place will seem to open and envelop
> you like a room, but you will know it has been
> there all the time. You will know without words
> that you are suddenly doing more than just passing
> through and that you have not so much entered
>
> anything as regained an awareness of a place more
> comfortable than your favorite pair of old shoes.
> If you doubt this, try to remember that a kind of
> chatting goes on all the time between trees, rocks,
> clouds and the great I Am. The oceans know
>
> when the moon pulls at them and the fishes too.
> There is an understanding that goes on between
> everything that is and what’s happening around them.
> Call it discussion if you like. I think of it as prayer­
> that stuff that looks for the slightest chance or hope
>
> for knowing it is alive. It’s what we want whether
> we make poems or just burrow beneath the sand.
> The moss growing on the north side of trees knows
> this. It doesn’t take words to lean into the wind
> and know that something living has come your way.
>
> *Fredrick Zydek lives in Omaha, Neb.
> *From: “The Mennonite” a periodical of the Mennonite Church USA.
>
>
> At 11:49 PM 7/05/2009, you wrote:
>
> Christy--
>
> Wow! You have left me saying Wow!
>
> What an evocative notion--the space is alive. Is this true? Can we make
> it so? Can we at least meet it so?
>
> There are excerpts of Alexander's 4th book here:
> http://books.google.com/books?id=6CIHB3_1tLMC&printsec=frontcover&dq=christopher+alexander+nature+of+order#PPA1,M1
>
> I have found his writing evocative as well. His books are huge, and sell
> by the pound. Now I have to mortgage my house to get these books....
>
> What do you suppose might be the recursive structures built up in open
> space?
>
> Harrison said that it takes a lifetime to explore open space, and here
> for me is a new main artery.
>
> Catherine, I like your image of a porous embrace. How do you see time
> fitting into this living space of recursive structures? Could you say a
> little more, please?
>
> Still pondering....
>
>                           :- Doug.
>
>
>
>
> On Tue, 2009-05-05 at 23:09 -0700, Christy Lee-Engel wrote:
> > Hi dear Doug,
> >
> > Well, your question reminds me of hearing friends talk about architect
> > Christopher Alexander's work, in which he emphasizes that "space must
> > be considered an almost living entity ­ a kind of stuff which,
> > depending on the recursive structures that are built up in it, becomes
> > progressively more and more alive."
> >
> > So that space can be more alive or less alive.
> >
> > I haven't read Alexander's 4-Volume "The Nature of Order" yet, and so
> > I don't know what "these fifteen properties" are - but this quote from
> > a book review makes me want to read it and find out!:
> >
> > "Systems in space which have these fifteen properties to a strong
> > degree will be alive, and the more these properties are present, the
> > more the systems which contain them will tend to be alive."
> >
> >
> > http://natureoforder.com/overview.htm
> >
> >
> > love & blessings,
> >
> > Christy
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On 5/5/09, douglas germann <76066.515 at compuserve.com> wrote:
> >         Hi space dancers:
> >
> >         Recently someone pointed us to a poem about how open spaces
> >         are
> >         necessary for a fire. It has had me pondering.
> >
> >         At first I said, Sure, she is speaking of oxygen. Fires need
> >         oxygen. Now
> >         I am not so sure that is what she meant, or at least what is
> >         true. So I
> >         am asking you my friends, what you have observed.
> >
> >         Just how important is the physical space for opening space? I
> >         am not
> >         talking about amenities like chairs and windows and air, nor
> >         about the
> >         exact number of square meters needed per person (this is
> >         cultural: some
> >         cultures want to be close enough to feel each other's breath;
> >         some want
> >         more distance). In Open Space Online we have a metaphorical
> >         space for
> >         our chats; in face to face, we have that physical space. Is
> >         that space
> >         in the center of the circle a separate, unnoticed but
> >         essential, element
> >         in conversation?
> >
> >         The flames need to lick upwards, the heat needs someplace to
> >         go, the
> >         light needs to escape. The betweens are necessary to give
> >         birth to the
> >         what and who is emerging from our collective. What is the role
> >         of space?
> >
> >                                        :- Doug.
> >
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