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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Georgia'>Dear <st1:place w:st="on">Harrison</st1:place>,<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Georgia'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
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 <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region> 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 <st1:place w:st="on">Harrison</st1:place>,
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. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Georgia'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
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.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Georgia'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
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. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Georgia'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Georgia'>And yes, <st1:place w:st="on">Harrison</st1:place>, I feel
it as a responsibility. That’s why I risked a lot and went to <st1:City
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Moscow</st1:place></st1:City> to be there and
support the opening of space in anyway that I could. I was overcome
standing in <st1:place w:st="on">Red Square</st1:place> 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. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Georgia'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Georgia'>So what am I doing these days to open space in spite of
the fearosphere? I am working hard with <st1:PersonName w:st="on">Cheryl
Honey</st1:PersonName> 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 <st1:Street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">United Way</st1:address></st1:Street>
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!!<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Georgia'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
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.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Georgia'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Georgia'>Lots of love,<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Georgia'>Wendy<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Georgia'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Georgia'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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