[OSList] Open Space funeral (Greg Rivera, in memoriam)

Sat Dec 12 05:54:18 PST 2015

Kari – I’ve done this before. Elegant, supportive and (odd to say) life giving. Actually, I’ve been privileged to do it twice. The first time it was just “regular” Open Space – sit in circle, create bulletin board, open market place, Go – with the theme “Celebrating the life of XXXXX: Issues and opportunities.” It took the better part of a day and ended with a marvelous dinner. The second occasion had less time available.... so we sat in the circle (about 80 people) and used the Talking Stick. People contributed whatever they felt appropriate – from silence to a song. 

Of course if you are familiar with the Quakers (a largely American religious group) you will know there is nothing new.

ho

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From: OSList [mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org] On Behalf Of Kári Gunnarsson via OSList
Sent: Saturday, December 12, 2015 12:03 AM
To: World wide Open Space Technology email list
Subject: Re: [OSList] Open Space funeral (Greg Rivera, in memoriam)

Dear oslist

One of my dear friends has a disease and is preparing for the long journey of the funeral
She is familiar with open space and has asked me to facilitate an opens pace for her funeral

I wounder how I should approach this and if this is perhaps a wonderful thing that I could offer as a part of the general funeral services.

with love

Kári

On 9 December 2015 at 14:50, Lourdes Adriana Diaz-Berrio Doring via OSList <oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> wrote:

Eleder: 
Thank you for sharing this.

I had a similar experience when my step father passed away. We made a circle and I asked the friends and family members who wanted to say something related with José Luis Gonzalez  it was very  impressive and moving and all listened to the person who had  like a talking stick it was  inspired by my Open Space practice I loved to be able to listen to different stories, we shared tears, we  laughed and remembered many things about this great person who lived 91 years learning and contributing in so diferents ways to in our lives as relatives, friends...

I felt  like if he was there with us.... a live !

Adriana

.

2015-12-09 7:24 GMT-06:00 Eleder_BuM via OSList <oslist at lists.openspacetech.org>:

Good morning,

my mind comes back to a conversation invited by Pernilla last Wosonos in Krakow, in which she asked us, more or less: "what everyday situations do you know in which the OS spirit is  present?". These days I realized funerals can also be open space.

Last Sunday some friends of NY based scientartist Greg Rivera's met to celebrate having had him as a friend, some days after his unexpected dead (Nov 26th). Here you canenjoy some of his paintings <http://www.saatchiart.com/gregrivera> .

He had been living in the Basque Country during the period 2007-2013 and made a big impression on and built close relationships with plenty of social innovators in the area (always a happy spirit, he coined terms suchs as “underground mayor” =UM...:).

So, deep in pain and far in the distance, I wrote a message to a bunch of the ones that had related to him:

Hi, how are you? Next Sunday Dec6 (12:00) some friends of Greg´s will be meeting in Mundaka, near La Bañera (the house they used to live in) to celebrate the joy of having shared life with him. 

Feel free to bring something to eat and drink, as we plan to share lunchtime, after a walk around the village. We´ll be bringing, as well, any object, story, song, paint, idea,... that connects us with him and with each other.

Please, forward the invitation to whoever that would like coming. 

Eleder  638733223

So, some days later, we met last Sunday (Dec 6th) on a beautiful field over the sea and  shared some food and drinks around a table.

The agenda was completely blank. There was nobody in charge and lots of passion on the clear issue: saying goodbye to the big friend.

As we ate and drank, last people arrived and joined the small groups that formed and dissolved spontaneously now and again, people using their two feet.

Then, some time near the end (the end time, I realized, was fixed by the amount of food and drink we served :) someone said he wanted to share a poem inspired on Greg's last days, reflecting on the relationship between life, dead and art.

We listened standing in a circle the 20 folks of us. Then someone put the issue; “would you like to share the story on how you met Greg?”. People spoke from their heart and listened deeply,...

Someone sang a verse following the long tradition os singing improvised verses. Then he proposed to get close one to the other, hugged in a closer circle now. Then he invited us: “would you like to share the feature(s) of Greg you liked and would like to see expanding in the world?”. A wise collective response emerged: playfulness, generosity, love, courage, artfulness, open mind, social awareness, being a “hub”, simplicity, peacefulness, humour, calmness,…

We laughed, cried, chatted, projected, dreamed, hugged, loved (with) each other...

When people left there was a deep agreement: this was great!

Simple, comfortable, enriching, participative, self-managed, joyful, emotive,…

And: it was for me very empowering and releasing to know that we ourselves could manage the mourning in such an elegant way, in a region and time where almost every funeral goes under a catholic tradition, completely in another way.

Many of  us were familiar with OS and familiar with what had just happened: this was great and simple.

This was just life just open space.

Cheers,

 <https://twitter.com/Eleder_BuM> @Eleder_BuM

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