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<DIV>"You can't be this open. After all, even the river has to have banks to
keep the water in." </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" size=2>And what creates the equivalent of the
river banks in Open Space? I believe the convening question bounds
the space. It shapes the container from which all
else flows.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" size=2>overcast in Seattle,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" size=2>Peggy</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=hhowen@comcast.net href="mailto:hhowen@comcast.net">Harrison Owen</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A
title=OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
href="mailto:OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU">OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Sunday, May 29, 2005 1:34 PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: [OSLIST] Craig</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>"You can't be this open. After all, even the river has to have banks to
keep the water in." </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>There is a marvelous systems group in the UK that has
spent a lot of time thinking about the biology and ecology of rivers. Your
friend seems to be saying -- when you reach the banks, you reach the
river. But do you? Where does the river begin, where does it end, and
how is it bounded? Conventional wisdom would place the beginnings in the
headwaters -- but when you get there, you never quite find that first drop
dropping -- the genesis of the river. Could the genesis be the clouds and the
rain? The complex and unending weather systems ? The whole world? The cosmos
itself. As for the banks -- they are a sometime thing. Here today and gone
tomorrow. And as a matter of fact they don't really hold the water in -- for
there is a constant flow between the river and the ground water of which it is
a contiguous part. So how broad is the river? As for ending where is that? At
the mouth?? But when you fly over a river as it runs into the sea it becomes
obvious that the flow of fresh water and sediment extends far out -- until it
blends with the surrounding sea. But no sharp line -- So what is the river
anyhow? And if you can't contain it, how do you define it -- and without
definition control is a phantasm. Or so my british friends say.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Harrison</FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>Harrison Owen<BR>7808 River Falls Dr.<BR>Potomac, MD
20854<BR>USA<BR>301-365-2093<BR>207-763-3261 (summer)<BR>website <A
href="http://www.openspaceworld.com">www.openspaceworld.com</A></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=wcraiggilliam@hotmail.com
href="mailto:wcraiggilliam@hotmail.com">Craig Gilliam</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A
title=OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
href="mailto:OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU">OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Sunday, May 29, 2005 8:36
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Craig</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>Harrison:<BR><BR>I meant to tell you an experience that was
sombering for me. The other day,<BR>I was speaking with a group of
professional clergy about donig OS. I<BR>mentioned the Law of Two
Feet. One minister's eyes became large and he/she<BR>said, "We do not
want our people to learn this one. If they did, what would<BR>it mean
for Sunday morning homilies? Would anybody be left insdie."
I<BR>sensed in the air that this was an existential moment for the
group. There<BR>was a deep gasp in the room as if something was deeply
threatened, and I<BR>guess it was. In the collective psyche, I felt
the earth shook.<BR><BR>This stuff is quiet frightening to a culture that is
permeated with control.<BR> And we often describe control in words
like order, organizing. As we<BR>talked about the process, someone
else mentioned, "You can't be this open.<BR>After all, even the river has to
have banks to keep the water in." In the<BR>conversation and metaphor
was the pervasive issue of fear of lossing<BR>control. We
haven't learned, it seems to me, that we never can keep the<BR>river in with
all of our levee systems, etc. It will find its way to where<BR>it
needs to go. And even if we could keep it in, and New Orleans
struggles<BR>with this issue regularly, what destruction does that create to
the land<BR>around it?<BR><BR>Control, in my experience, is so pervasive in
our culture and many of our<BR>institutions. In some institutions, it
seems to have been there for<BR>thousands of years, so their is a lot of
multigenerational<BR>energy/reinforcement attached to it. Still, I
came back to open questions<BR>about possibilities. Of course, in that
conversation, I had to be aware of<BR>the parallel process going on within
myself that maybe they were mirroring.<BR><BR>I am open to any thoughts or
reflections?<BR><BR>Thanks!<BR>Craig<BR><BR>*<BR>*<BR>==========================================================<BR><A
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