<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><head><meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"><meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 12 (filtered medium)"><style><!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri;
panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Consolas;
panose-1:2 11 6 9 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:blue;
text-decoration:underline;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:purple;
text-decoration:underline;}
p.MsoPlainText, li.MsoPlainText, div.MsoPlainText
{mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-link:"Plain Text Char";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:10.5pt;
font-family:Consolas;}
span.EmailStyle17
{mso-style-type:personal-compose;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:windowtext;}
span.PlainTextChar
{mso-style-name:"Plain Text Char";
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-link:"Plain Text";
font-family:Consolas;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
--></style><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026" />
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapelayout v:ext="edit">
<o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" />
</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal>Chris’s meditation on Passover set me to thinking. I in no way hold him responsible for what follows, but that is where I started...<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I have often wondered what a casual passerby would be thinking were they to read our various postings here on OSLIST. Such things as, Woo-Woo, weird, naïve, disconnected, unreal ... immediately spring to mind. After all, could anybody really believe that sane, rational, “organization types” would engage in such emotional trivia? It might seem that we moved easily from revival meeting enthusiasm to funereal despair in the twinkling of an eye. One minute we are engaged in a poetry contest, and next there is a Passover Meditation. And it seems it has been going on for years and years. As the fellow just said,<span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Consolas'> “</span>Open Space is where you meet old friends for the first time.”<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Somehow it all reminds me of the 1<sup>st</sup> Open Space in Monterey, California – 1985. We were gathered in a Hilton Conference Center. One of those with several big rooms down a hall and a larger one at the end. We occupied one of the smaller rooms, and at the end of the hall in the big room there was a Free Real Estate Seminar. All the folks who attended the Real Estate Seminar had to pass our doors which were usually open. Sometimes it was total chaos. Sometimes pure silence – and usually just a pleasant, quiet buzz. Over the days that we met, I noticed that more than a few of the “Real Estaters” dropped in every now and again. And on the final day in the closing circle, I saw that one of the folks had joined us. Didn’t know him from Adam, so when the stick arrived in his hand, I was all ears.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>He held the stick with something approaching reverence, and I noticed a tear in his eye. Quietly he told us that he was a Vietnam Vet, that he had been home for a bit, and never felt welcome or comfortable. Then he said, that day it all changed. “I feel I’ve come home,” he said. “Thank You.”<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I love Passover. It is a time to remember where you’ve been, and who you are. The good, the bad, and the ugly. Thank you Chris.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Harrison <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Harrison Owen<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>7808 River Falls Dr.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Potomac, MD 20854<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>USA<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>189 Beaucaire Ave. (summer)<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Camden, Maine 04843<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Phone 301-365-2093<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>(summer) 207-763-3261<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><a href="www.openspaceworld.com%20">www.openspaceworld.com</a> <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><a href="www.ho-image.com%20">www.ho-image.com</a> (Personal Website)<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Consolas'>To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of OSLIST Go to:<a href="http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org">http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>