[OSList] The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

[Harrison Owen]

Chris’s meditation on Passover set me to thinking. I in no way hold him
responsible for what follows, but that is where I started...

 

I have often wondered what a casual passerby would be thinking were they  to
read our various postings here on OSLIST. Such things as, Woo-Woo, weird,
naïve, disconnected, unreal ... immediately spring to mind. After all, could
anybody really believe that sane, rational, “organization types” would
engage in such emotional trivia? It might seem that we moved easily from
revival meeting enthusiasm to funereal despair in the twinkling of an eye.
One minute we are engaged in a poetry contest, and next there is a Passover
Meditation. And it seems it has been going on for years and years. As the
fellow just said, “Open Space is where you meet old friends for the first
time.”

 

Somehow it all reminds me of the 1st Open Space in Monterey, California –
1985. We were gathered in a Hilton Conference Center. One of those with
several big rooms down a hall and a larger one at the end. We occupied one
of the smaller rooms, and at the end of the hall in the big room there was a
Free Real Estate Seminar. All the folks who attended the Real Estate Seminar
had to pass our doors which were usually open. Sometimes it was total chaos.
Sometimes pure silence – and usually just a pleasant, quiet buzz. Over the
days that we met, I noticed that more than a few of the “Real Estaters”
dropped in every now and again. And on the final day in the closing circle,
I saw that one of the folks had joined us. Didn’t know him from Adam, so
when the stick arrived in his hand, I was all ears.

 

He held the stick with something approaching reverence, and I noticed a tear
in his eye. Quietly he told us that he was a Vietnam Vet, that he had been
home for a bit, and never felt welcome or comfortable. Then he said, that
day it all changed. “I feel I’ve come home,” he said. “Thank You.”

 

I love Passover. It is a time to remember where you’ve been, and who you
are. The good, the bad, and the ugly. Thank you Chris.

 

Harrison 

 

 

Harrison Owen

7808 River Falls Dr.

Potomac, MD 20854

USA

 

189 Beaucaire Ave. (summer)

Camden, Maine 04843

 

Phone 301-365-2093

(summer)  207-763-3261

 

www.openspaceworld.com 

www.ho-image.com (Personal Website)

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