I hear what you're saying Harrison and I think I'm in the same place as you. The idea of surfacing the private voice of possibility is that it overcomes the public voice of resignation and blame. The fearful aspects of what we have been calling "the phantom menace" (which are really just stories about state run systems) begin to dissolve when we realize and then develop our own individual and communal capacities to create the systems we need to serve life. That, to me, is what drilling the other hole in the bathtub is all about.
<br><br>It's amazing to me how much fear is actually generated by the unknown and imagined rather than the real. Being confronted immediately with a threat of violence or impending death is one kind of fear. You have to actually get out of the way of that one before reframing things in Open Space. But being paralysed by what isn't there, the fear you talk about, the fear that the Illinois State Pork Festival is a terrorist target, well that fear gets undone pretty quickly when we bind passion and responsibility to creating the alternative and get to work.
<br><br>Chris<br><br><div><span class="gmail_quote">On 3/30/07, <b class="gmail_sendername">Harrison Owen</b> <<a href="mailto:hhowen@verizon.net">hhowen@verizon.net</a>> wrote:</span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div link="blue" vlink="blue" lang="EN-US">
<div>
<p><font color="red" face="Arial" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: red;">Something that Chris said caught my eye. "Phill
Cass calls the "private voice of possibility" which emerges into the
public consciousness. Suddenly we're not talking about the fearful
aspects of a state run system of colonization, but rather a community owned and
support enterprise to put the needs of children in the centre as seen by
indigenous folks." </span></font></p>
<p><font color="red" face="Arial" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: red;"> </span></font></p>
<p><font color="red" face="Arial" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: red;">I am not sure that I ended up where Chris
was leading – but for me what came through was the end of "they."
One thing I have noticed in high fear dominated situations is the omnipresence
of "they." Seems like they did everything – or didn't
do what should have been done. But the net effect is that the face of fear is "they."
The only problem is that "they" has no face, which I suppose makes
them even more fearful. And one of the gifts in Open Space is "they"
simply disappears. It is all us. Sounds kind of flip and quaint, but I've
seen it happen so often. In </span></font><font color="red" face="Arial"><span style="font-family: Arial; color: red;">Jerusalem</span></font><font color="red" face="Arial"><span style="font-family: Arial; color: red;"> one time we did an Open
Space (Tova and Avner did the honors) and we had Jews and Muslims. Not just the
polite, usual suspects at such gatherings -- folks on the extremes. One of the
Muslims (reputedly Hamas) offered a session – which attracted one of the
Rabbis, amongst others. I was more than a little curious how it all might work
out, and later I met the Rabbi – and he was bubbling. He said, I've
never really talked to a Muslim before, but they are us! I think there might
have been some problem with the Arabic, Hebrew, English transition, but the
thought was very clear.</span></font></p>
<p><font color="red" face="Arial" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: red;"> </span></font></p>
<p><font color="red" face="Arial" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: red;">Harrison</span></font></p>
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<p style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><font face="Tahoma" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;">-----Original Message-----<br>
<b><span style="font-weight: bold;">From:</span></b> OSLIST
[mailto:<a href="mailto:OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU</a>] <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">On
Behalf Of </span></b>Chris Corrigan<br>
<b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Friday, March 30, 2007 4:04
PM<br>
<b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> <a href="mailto:OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU</a><br>
<b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> Re: Terrorized by terror
-- Space closes</span></font></p>
<p style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></font></p>
<p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-left: 0.5in;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">This
is a wise response Wendy, about Open Space not being safe space but rather a
space in which we can train with our fear. Many of us who are martial
artists will know the experience of bringing your fear to the dojang (in
Korean, the training gym, like the Japanese dojo) and practice it with partners
there so that you can encounter it and know it and then have it as a friend
when you face the fearful things of the world. Being hosted in Open
Space is for me very much like training in a dojang. <br>
<br>
I'm drilling holes in the bathtub at the moment in a number of places, the most
significant of which for me right now is in a year long project which is moving
the decision making authority over child welfare from government to Aboriginal
communities on Vancouver Island,. We've been opening space on this one
for years and now we have an intense engagement strategy set up and underway
which involves convening and hosting meetings of all kinds around the Island
which has, as the premise, "children at the centre." This
premise, this purpose, is the hole in the bathtub that is drawing people into
what my friend Phill Cass calls the "private voice of possibility"
which emerges into the public consciousness. Suddenly we're not talking
about the fearful aspects of a state run system of colonization, but rather a
community owned and support enterprise to put the needs of children in the
centre as seen by indigenous folks. <br>
<br>
Hold fear with consciousness and practice.<br>
<br>
Chris</span></font></p>
<div>
<p style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><span><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">On 3/30/07, <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Wendy Farmer-O'Neil</span></b> <<a href="mailto:wendy@xe.net" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">
wendy@xe.net</a>> wrote: </span></font></span></p>
<div link="blue" vlink="blue">
<div>
<p style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><font face="Georgia" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia;">Dear Harrison,</span></font></p>
<p style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><font face="Georgia" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia;"> </span></font></p>
<p style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><font face="Georgia" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia;">Thank you so much for starting this thread.
Chris, your analogy of the hole in the bathtub is a very clear representation
of what (little) we know about creating change in complex systems. Right
now fear seems to be the primary attractor guiding the energy in the US
system—and has been for some time (as you point out Pat). Attempts
to go head to head with that power vortex tend to reinforce it (as you suggest
Harrison, the BIG EVENT may not be the way to influence the most change).
Watching for local patterns and opening space around local issues where folks
can reignite their passion and rediscover their capacity to step into
self-responsibility and exert local agency, does create new vortices, new
attractors that inevitably pull energy away from the fear. </span></font></p>
<p style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><font face="Georgia" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia;"> </span></font></p>
<p style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><font face="Georgia" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia;">I find that open space is not so much a place
without fear, as an exceptional place for folks to learn to feel the fear and
act anyway—and learn that they won't die if they do. That it's okay
to let go into the fear, wander around a bit, keep breathing, until you find
your feet and move on to what's next. This is an essential skill for
thriving in chaotic and complex times—and open space is a good place to
learn and practice it. Acting to create change or social innovation in a
system is going to feel risky. Most of us have been trained and educated
to create and preserve security—so we will need to get used to feeling
fear and acting anyway—with all of our wonderful flaws and imperfections.</span></font></p>
<p style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><font face="Georgia" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia;"> </span></font></p>
<p style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><font face="Georgia" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia;">Whenever we give up basic rights, freedoms, and
responsibilities for the illusion of security, we end up selling off a large
part of our souls and our deepest humanity along with them. A new
trajectory of joy is what I am busy stumbling around to create.
Attempting to act, not out of fear, or against fear, but from a completely new
and open space of joy and infinite possibility. </span></font></p>
<p style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><font face="Georgia" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia;"> </span></font></p>
<p style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><font face="Georgia" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia;">And yes, Harrison, I feel it as a
responsibility. That's why I risked a lot and went to Moscow to be there
and support the opening of space in anyway that I could. I was overcome
standing in Red Square in front of Lenin's Mausoleum and the reviewing stand
where so many years before I had watched on TV Brezhnev reviewing the May Day
parade of weaponry. I could not stop the tears from coming or from
remembering how I felt in 1982 when I addressed an audience (at a 'peace
conference') filled with Reagan's cold war cronies—that as a 16-year-old,
after three days of listening to them, I was without hope. So to find myself
standing in that place of such cold war symbolism, and to be there not as a
tourist, but as a member of the open space community—to have actually
been a part of an open space event in that place—felt like nothing short
of miraculous—and at the same time so fragile. </span></font></p>
<p style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><font face="Georgia" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia;"> </span></font></p>
<p style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><font face="Georgia" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia;">So what am I doing these days to open space in
spite of the fearosphere? I am working hard with Cheryl Honey to refine
and spread the practice of Community Weaving, which uses open space principles
and takes it to the grassroots, non-event, daily life stuff—to remediate
poverty and isolation and build resilient communities of care and
belonging. I'm hosting an OS on my little island on finding abundance
doing what you love. I have started the planning for an SOS (Sustainability
Open Space) in the fall (I'll be calling you soon Chris W.). I am talking
to the local social planning council about the possibility of opening space
with the homeless. I've introduced the United Way to OS and we are
looking at how they might use it to grow their new community development focus.
Last year, we opened space here for a three day land use planning
event—we did it by donation and covered our costs—and created a
tremendous legacy for our community by establishing a community commons that actually
passed all the zoning and land use amendments the first time through!!</span></font></p>
<p style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><font face="Georgia" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia;"> </span></font></p>
<p style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><font face="Georgia" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia;">So just a couple of examples of little ways that
I'm trying to drill a few holes in my local bathtub. What other ways are
you all engaged in this? It would be so inspiring to hear more about the
ways we are all opening little spaces for something new to emerge.</span></font></p>
<p style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><font face="Georgia" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia;"> </span></font></p>
<p style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><font face="Georgia" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia;">Lots of love,</span></font></p>
<p style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><font face="Georgia" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia;">Wendy</span></font></p>
<p style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><font face="Georgia" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia;"> </span></font></p>
<p style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><font face="Georgia" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia;"> </span></font></p>
</div>
</div>
<p style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></font></p>
<p style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">--<br>
No virus found in this outgoing message.<br>
Checked by AVG Free Edition.<br>
Version: 7.5.446 / Virus Database: 268.18.22/739 - Release Date: 3/29/2007 1:36
PM</span></font></p>
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<br clear="all">
<br>
-- <br>
CHRIS CORRIGAN<br>
Facilitation - Training<br>
Open Space Technology<br>
<br>
Weblog: <a href="http://www.chriscorrigan.com/parkinglot" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">http://www.chriscorrigan.com/parkinglot
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</a><br>Site: <a href="http://www.chriscorrigan.com">http://www.chriscorrigan.com</a><br><br>Principal, Harvest Moon Consultants, Ltd.<br><a href="http://www.harvestmoonconsultants.com">http://www.harvestmoonconsultants.com
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