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<FONT FACE="Times New Roman" DEFAULT="FACE"><FONT SIZE="3" POINTSIZE="12" DEFAULT="SIZE">Dear Bernd,<BR>
I feel that one of the consequences for the way we communicate on this list and elsewhere, and I experience it in this list a lot already,<BR>
is to show myself. <BR>
Seems that the more I am able to do that (and I need a hell of a lot more practice at this)<BR>
the more I feel others do it and vice versa.<BR>
Showing myself is stuff like asking questions, sharing my joy and hope and my fear and doubts,<BR>
and also showing up at my local stammtisch, in the learning exchange, on the world map, at OSonOS, at trainings<BR>
and also showing/sharing my learning (it belongs to all of us) and showing my efforts/talents/work <BR>
in enabling more ost events, developing the peacemaker in me, creating structures and dismantling them or adapting them....<BR>
and then there are hugs and smiles and ...which I show.<BR>
In Pakistan at the first open space in the training to which people from Karachi had been invited to under the heading<BR>
"Harmonizing religious and ethical issues through social dialogue for democratice governance in South Asia"<BR>
one participant offered his issue:<BR>
"Smile".<BR>
It drew a big crowd while the sponsor was wondering what the hell this had to do with his topic.<BR>
It definetely did some magic for what we would call "community".<BR>
Its not that easy to feel community in this social agglomerate we call the "list"<BR>
but then the "list" would not really walk or work or live if there were not all the other ways we see each other.<BR>
Just recently in Halifax.<BR>
Next year in Moscow, for instance.<BR>
Or at perhaps 15 different stammtische around the globe on September 5.<BR>
(Got one in Mozambique already?)<BR>
(Want to find out where the closest is on September 5? Click the button on the world map).<BR>
Or this coming weekend at the retreat of 11 os-workers from Berlin that joined in a coop.<BR>
Or at the gathering in Florence in November with ho and a bunch of Italians.<BR>
Or at the ost event with 250 students, teachers, policemen...in September in Berlin...with a team of 7 os workers,<BR>
working the night before setting up the event.<BR>
Stuff like this is going on all over...I remember the times when Chris Corrigan reported on every os he facilitated.<BR>
He really was showing himself and that was fabulous.<BR>
That, I think, is a practice we could all participate in...all your lurkers out there,<BR>
next time you facilitate an ost event, show yourselves.<BR>
I will.<BR>
Greetings from Berlin reflecting on our community at 0:05 local time<BR>
good night<BR>
mmp<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
--Original Message Text---<BR>
<B>From:</B> WeBe TrainConsult<BR>
<B>Date:</B> Tue, 23 Aug 2005 14:56:59 +0200<BR>
<BR>
Dear Harrison,<BR>
<BR>
I am very happy to find your posting here, thank you.<BR>
<BR>
I think this is really the key point, we (the western world people) are so very much used to think in this logical framework, that we do it "automatically" by reflex, not noticing, that this thinking is based on the notion of separability. In the case you are promoting (community><individuum), it is very much clear that there is no individuum thinkable without its social context ("local community"). The wisdom of language tells us exactly this aspect: in-dividuum. The other aspect is, that the person, we would call an individuum can not become a such, without experiencing "individualization", without getting into conflict with this (inseparable) context, without passing through phases of clear contradiction with its community.<BR>
<BR>
And if I look back at my in-dividual development, I have to admit, that it was by far not enough to "understand" this, but it needed and needs a lot of practice and exercise to be able to not react according to the logical reflex. Living in Africa helped a lot, because I notized, that I am not forced to think that way, and that it is not self-evident, and that others think in other ways.<BR>
<BR>
Our language is not always "wise" and the either-or reflex is very much hidden in our grammar and syntax. Which means, that talking about this problem produces lots and lots of complexity and make it difficult to be understood. If we stay below the level of being driven by our thinking reflexes (in meditation or contemplation) it seems to be easier because we do not "think it" but "feel IT" (the fundamental interconnectedness of the "conflictuous" poles).<BR>
<BR>
This gives me a hint to what many in this list seem to be pointing at, when they use the word "community". They seem to mean a social agglomerate, where all the interacting persons do not only "understand" this aporetic/dialectic situation, but FEEL it. And Open Space practice seems to be quite good in producing this feeling.<BR>
<BR>
A question to all of you: If what Harrison wrote is true, which are the consequences for our way of communicating in this list (and elsewhere)? Or are we not "part of the problem" and driving the ball on and on?<BR>
<BR>
Any ideas?<BR>
<BR>
Bernd<BR>
<BR>
Am Tue, 23 Aug 2005 08:13:49 -0400, schrieb Harrison Owen:<BR>
> It has often occurred to me that the "problem" of individual and<BR>
> community is less a function of our experience than our logic. Or<BR>
> maybe our logic forces a false distinction so that we expect the<BR>
> individual to be in conflict with community? This is the logic of<BR>
> "either/or" -- and not both/and. It is a logic dominated by an<BR>
> awareness of contradiction as opposed to paradox -- and somehow all<BR>
> paradoxes are thought to be contradictory and therefore to be<BR>
> resolved and eliminated.<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
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