[Springboard] Denver Gathering

[david442 at cox.net]

Jack,

My response to an ongoing research dynamic is to share some reflections I've been doing.  You guys trained me to be a researcher and this is what I've become:

Step 1 - HOPE - this the hope beyond hope -- not an idle wish nor exactly an eternal optimist.  It is hoping for a future I'm convinced is going to happen whether any one of us participates in it or not.  It's what "God is wroughting" these days.

Step 2 - OPEN - While I'm committed to creating a symphony of peace through spiritual practices for all earth people, I'm very open to what exactly that looks like.  It is interfaith in the widest, deepest meaning of that image.

Step 3 - LOOK - To do this one by one, group by group it is essential to look deeply into each heart and soul in "the fear of God". Only one who fears God can be a true soul friend to anyone else.  Reading who and what each person and each group is really about is an art to continue to be cultivating.

Step 4 - GATHER - That Step 3 and only that step is essential to know what the hell you are gathering.  This is far beyond the usual "data gathering"  all of us have done bookoo of by reading, going to movies, etc. It is putting your arms around the states of being actually present in the world today and nurturing what you've found.

Step 5 - ORDER -  Then, you are ready to share --- an essay like this one, a talk, a discussion, a muse, a poem, a sculpture, whatever.  Present to others what you know in your heart of heart is where the Spirit is moving NOW!  Not how it used  to move, but NOW!

Step 6 - ACT - The achilles heal of all mystics like us is putting our feet down on the pavement.  It is not rearranging the socio-economic furniture in a community or an organization.  It is going through the veil of that aspect of society you find yourself in or consulting with to all that it can be.  That takes a radically innovative mind and a set of deeds that makes its future a reality.

Step 7 - RENDER -  Once the deed is done, let it go!!!  Give it up to history.  All is now in God's hands and the hands of those doing that social entity.  It's not your possession.  Render it up.  Let it be and be able to glory in the new aspects that emerge quite without you even if you don't fully approve of what it becomes  --  like most of our children did, remember?

Step 8 - CELEBRATE - When you can glory in the future babe that has been born, that you have only midwived, then you can truly celebrate it -- dance, it, sing it, feast it, whatever.  Ain't the ICAI a beauty to behold? Fantastic!!!

What this has to do with the Repository interactive research vehicle I haven't the foggiest.  But it is intimately related in my own heart and mind as long as we remember KISS -- Keep It Simple Stupid.   Let computer advocates take many deep breaths and make it easy for our grandmother users' sakes.

Wishing you nothing but the best in every way.   I let it go.

Dave