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<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Bon Voyage -- and you know there are a whole mess of folks
out there who will welcome you. And Thank God - no more nasty limericks for the
moment!</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>ho</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </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>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=rcopleman@comcast.net href="mailto:rcopleman@comcast.net">Ralph
Copleman</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> Monday, May 30, 2005 9:37 AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Only "so long" (Long)</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV><FONT face=Times>Hi,<BR><BR>In about two weeks, I'll be heading
off for a summer-long trip that will essentially keep me off the internet.
In an effort to prevent out-of-office e-mail inbox build-up, I will soon
unsubscribe to all listserves, including this one, and I'll re-subscribe in
September.<BR><BR>I've been following the thread here about what people learn
from "doing" open space and a related one one about "process" and its
relationships to self-organization, control, and power-seeking.<BR><BR>And it
struck me as I reviewed several of these messages this morning that what I
have gained most from open space events (as facilitator and participant) is a
deep sense of the wonderfully squishy, bounded/unbounded, unfolding nature of
community and the rich, easy way OS both creates and supports it. How
often do you find something that is simultaneously about <I>both </I>the
purpose<I> and</I> the process of community?! <BR><BR>How, I realize, I crave
being near community – and <I>in</I> it. And how I adore any opportunity
to serve it, from time to time, as a consultant, and how I <I>miss</I> it when
I cannot sense it. Communities of many kinds spring up all the time and
just as often sort of melt away when their object is supplanted in hearts and
minds by other pursuits - or other communities. This is okay, another
lesson from open space and the practice of peace.<BR><BR>Nothing is forever,
with the possible exception of self-organizing evolution, so it is heartening
to know some communities endure and grow. For example, this one. I
harbor hope that the <I>urge</I> toward community (and concomitant
understanding, tolerance, peace, and justice) is a permanent human trait.
I hold this hope in a very close embrace and wrap myself in it nearly
every day. I think it is the chief motivating force in my life as a
consultant, as a member of a family, and in my efforts as a sustainability
advocate.<BR><BR>My summer will be taken up with a bicycle trip from the
Pacific ocean in Oregon (USA), across the continent to the Atlantic Ocean at
the mouth of the Delaware Bay – 5000 kilometers or more. In the planning
stages for nearly two years, this is my 60th birthday present to myself.
On some level, though, I think my trip will be about a search for
community in America, this troubled, deeply divided, seductive Gargantua of a
country I love, and which has broken my heart so often of late. I will
pass through mountains, over plains, along dramatic rivers (North America has
SO much beauty), across Native American lands, through large cities, and more.
Others who have taken similar trips have said the best part of their
ride has been meeting people in small towns all across the continent.
I'm looking forward to conversations about this urge we humans have to
be with one another in community. With a bit of luck (and, one way or
another, the emergence of a little open space), I’ll have some.<BR><BR>Ralph
Copleman<BR><BR></FONT>* *
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