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<DIV><FONT face="Arial Cyr" size=2>Dear Harrison, Lena, and anyone else who has
survived (like me!) scrolling through lots of html (aargh!) in their OSlist
message,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>Thank you for your replies. For me, there are several ways to
reach the unspeakable, as Tova Averbuch put it. What we as a
group/community/organization want to achieve. It is hard for me to fathom that
OS is THE way.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>On a gut level, I know that offering OS to organizations is
part of my path, not the whole path. And my questions, doubts about OS help
bring me to a more nuanced and careful yet passionate and interested place (in
my attitude towards the technology).</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>I think it is hard to say at this point if OS "works" or
doesn't work here in Russia. While a lot of different people use OS, there isn't
yet a virtual community of Russian-speaking OS'ers. We had a listserv; and Elena
liked my nickname for us: "the silent community". That was because no one
posted. I attribute the non-posting and non-existence of a Russian-speaking OS
community -- real or virtual-- mostly to a lack of trust overall in the former
Soviet Union. It is hard for me not to have judgement about this, because I have
essentially chosen to make Russia my home. Maybe at some point I'll want to go
back to what I call Bushastan (hence its citizens are Bushastanis, pardon the
phrase). So, I think the verdict is out. One of the values of OS and FS here, I
think, is that these approaches build up that key ingredient between
people: trust. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>In terms of OS working (while all the pre-work conditions you
describe happen), that's an important point. Risking making a generalization, I
think that level of thoroughness does not happen. In other words, I work really
hard with clients so that these conditions (doing the preparation work fully)
are observed and it is rare that I feel it has been done
adequately.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>But I do think there may be something to OS being "oversold"
as a mentor and colleague put it. I am not sure I can develop the thought. As an
analogy, I think of NLP. Now, I have never been trained in NLP, but I have read
a number of books by its "founders" and have a friend and colleague who
consciously uses NLP as an English teacher and interpreter. Initially, the NLP
crowd poo-poo'd other therapeutic approaches, specifically humanistic ones. That
therapists kept clients for years dealing with problems that could be solved in
a single session. Now that may have true, but NLP in psychotherapy is not the
answer to everything. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>And I am not sure OS is the answer to everything even when the
basic conditions- presence of passion, space "open", etc.- are met. But I am
loving the exploration for now and I do it with heart!</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Cyr" size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Cyr" size=2>On a side note, is there any way of setting
up receiving the OSlist digest so that I just get text and no html code?
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>Best,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>Raffi</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>
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