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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>I tried this as a response… the cybergremlins intervened, so here goes another!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>ho<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Sagit … I confess that my response to your note was equally, or perhaps mostly… a response to the present moment. This is not the first time that Planet Earth in general and/or your particular part of the world has hovered on the edge of serious chaos. Each of us may hold whatever opinion(s) we wish, and I certainly have mine – but several facts are indisputable: Nobody really understands what’s going on, even less do we understand where it might be headed, and most of all -- nobody has the exit plan. Under these circumstances, and while we hold our breath, a little conversation with our fellows might be in order. But how?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>There are some 8 billion of us on the planet, divided at least 8 billion ways … not all of them happy. Having a useful conversation under the circumstances seems rather impossible. Doubtless there have been processes, procedures and structures developed for human beings to pursue their issues by less than violent means. But all of them seem rather inadequate right now. We do not have sufficient facilitators, interveners, therapists, parliamentarians, process re-engineers, conflict resolvers, etc… for the job, and even if we did have the number, the necessary time for positioning and preparation doesn’t exist. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Are we out of options? Maybe --- or then again there may be an option we’ve had all along and never quite took seriously.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Some people call it Open Space, which could make it sound like a novel procedure or process to be applied immediately and globally. In my experience those words sound nice, maybe even comforting, but do not describe reality. Open Space is nothing new, strange or different – it is precisely what we have been doing for the past million years, or however long it is that <i>Homo sapiens</i> has been doing whatever it does. From the very beginning we sat in a circle, posted our wishes and dreams (sometime on the wall of a cave), opened a market place to trade and share our ideas… and then we went to work. Sometimes these circles formed on a more or less regular basis (weekly market sort of thing) but the really critical and important ones happened when they happened … but always when there was an issue that grabbed peoples’ attention, that was so complex that nobody could figure it, involved so many different sorts of folks that nobody could count their kind, stirred great passion and usually conflict, and had to be dealt with NOW. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Over time there was a move to institutionalize this primal circle and give it a name like Senate or Parliament. And it didn’t take long for some to think they were in charge. Often this worked rather well and it seemed like the established order was maintained. Every so often, however, A BIG one would come along and suddenly we were back to basics. Even in the 21<sup>st</sup> century that can happen. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>So how do you have a meaningful conversation with 8 billion people? We have the means, and it comes with our genes. I suppose the issue of the moment is to get out of the way, and let it happen. Doing that may well open the door to a whole new understanding of who and what we are, where we are going and how to get there. We even have an electronic assist that our precursors could never have dreamed of. To all of this I can add my own personal experience – that never in 30+ years, often in extreme conflict situations have I seen any sort of physical violence and ALWAYS witnessed the previous combatants in respectful relations with each other… sometimes surprisingly so. They shed common tears, danced together, laughed and even hugged each other. They did it all by themselves with no prompting and no assists. Wonderful!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>But what about now? How to get the ball rolling, so to speak? Truthfully, I really don’t know. I can also imagine that it will happen, if only because it has happened before. If anybody out there is searching for a mission, something useful to do with their life and talent … opening this door might well be a good place to start. Or there are other possibilities I would really rather not think about.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Harrison<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div></body></html>