[Dialogue] [Oe List ...] The Spirit of the 10s
Sarah Buss
shbuss at mac.com
Mon Jan 10 12:39:55 CST 2011
I agree with DEl. Keep it simple. I have to print almost everything
I want to seriously read to avoid computer sitting. Adding steps on
my end doesn't help from my personal perspective.
Thanks,
Sarah
On Jan 7, 2011, at 1:04 PM, E B wrote:
> Another option to print only what you want is to highlight the
> text, copy and paste into a another document.
> I actually prefer the full communication thread. I delete the early
> ones from my inbox
> My 2 cents...
> Elsa
>
>
> --- On Fri, 1/7/11, Del Morril <delhmor at wamail.net> wrote:
>
> From: Del Morril <delhmor at wamail.net>
> Subject: Re: [Dialogue] [Oe List ...] The Spirit of the 10s
> To: "'Colleague Dialogue'" <dialogue at wedgeblade.net>
> Date: Friday, January 7, 2011, 11:17 AM
>
> Thanks for the greetings, friends.
>
> Could I suggest to our dialogue, that when replying, please “erase”
> anything except the most immediate thing you are responding to, or
> the whole thing, if not responding to any particular note. I
> wanted to run off this letter and ended up printing off around 7
> pages to get 1 ½ letter.
>
>
> From: dialogue-bounces at wedgeblade.net [mailto:dialogue-
> bounces at wedgeblade.net] On Behalf Of Evelyn Phil brook
> Sent: Thursday, January 06, 2011 7:49 PM
> To: dialogue at wedgeblade.net
> Subject: Re: [Dialogue] [Oe List ...] The Spirit of the 10s
>
>
> Dear all,
>
> Larry and I need to do a family letter on all the things that
> happened last year and this coming... very fast year and lots of
> traveling...and new roles for both of us.
>
> This is a very abbreviated report on what Janet Sanders and Evelyn
> Phil brook did with the PJD in Nepal, but since I sent this to
> Nelson Stover in response to his thinking and John Cock's course on
> the Great Work, I am including it to all of you at this time. It is
> by no means the complete report and I will also send you what Tatwa
> Timsina thought of how the program was received later. However, be
> aware that Janet has had done extensive Social Artistry work via
> the grant from the Jean Houston foundation to be in Nepal, and of
> course ICA Taiwan sending me too, and we had also done the Imaginal
> Education with a twist with Social Artistry prep and added the the
> song, story and symbol workshop...so these folks in Nepal had lots
> of time with Janet and me before getting PJD lab for three hours as
> a research introduction...
>
>
> On the PJD
> Janet and I did a three hour presentation as part of the research
> lab on the PJD. I did the TWLI and witnessed my own Illusion and
> event with the Accepted, Received, Approved, Possible X legacy new
> word in history, and asked for examples of transformation in their
> life. First it was very quiet, and people just wrote in their own
> books, then when invited to share, one facilitator in training
> talked about how she had imaged herself as a black crow by her
> grandmother who did not know how she would get her married off
> because she was so short. So she always though of herself as too
> dark and unattractive to be married until one day, a lighter
> colored handsome man talked to her directly about getting married.
> This was such a shock to her, she said, we don't match, but she
> realized her self story about being an ugly black crow and
> unattractive was not true. So she dressed differently and thought
> differently about herself and decided that she wanted to be an
> independent woman who did not need to depend on caste marriage to
> survive in the world and went to college and is studying
> facilitation with ICA. There were other great stories too.
>
> Then with synchronicity on our side, Janet Sanders did her master's
> thesis on Thomas Berry and did a great job of simplifying the Great
> Work to thinking about how the new Nepal will be responsible for
> the biosphere and the rights of the melting Himalayas, the air, the
> water, the soil, the plants, and the animals as well as
> humans...So Janet's talk was on Observe Judge Weight up Decide and
> Act and render the results to God....and who is our
> neighbor...which was the discussion of the Great Work...She also
> followed up on the wedge blade, the no longer, the not yet and how
> do we be self sustaining in this new edge of history as pioneers.
>
> I am thinking now about...as Those Who Care, as ICA as a community
> and as an organization...
>
> What is our new pioneering mission for the not yet and how do we
> sustain ourselves on this journey and be the sensitive and
> responsible ones...
>
> What do we now turn our back on?, What must we abolish within, and
> lead in the new, repenting on behalf of all now? Is it still
> imperialism, racism, and nationalism?
>
> Off hand, I am thinking it may be it is still racism, but now more
> materialism, and individualism, and only caring for people and me,
> myself, my family and my cat... who actually died three months ago.
> I went to animal shelter last week and will get others soon...
>
> Nepal, like India is a calling...I understand why people are
> haunted by them both...the poverty and the sheer creativity of the
> mass and promise of depth spirituality...but with Nepal, is the
> delightful openness of the people, (it felt like a unique quality
> of acceptance) ...Historically this is their time of creating
> history and ( with the constitution writing they know it is
> currently at a stand still). But then there is the awesome
> mountains and the beautiful hills as well as the plains...
>
> How do we talk about our new mission which still includes people,
> but goes beyond human development...
>
> I am beginning to think more and more about organic farming, and
> fruit trees as an answer to reforestation because people do not cut
> down olive or pomegranate trees because they produce a product that
> people want... I mention these two because they do not require as
> much water as other trees.
>
> Water and air, water and air, and space...
>
> Currently we are talking about Theory U...Peter Senge and Otto
> Sharmer - Open Mind, Open Heart, Open Will and Leading from the
> Future...www presencing
> there is something about Blind Spots,
>
> How do we let go of the past to allow ourselves to be inspired and
> informed and planning on behalf of the future...there is griefwork
> that needs to take place
>
> Yes, meditation, or prayer, or some practice to listen to God or
> the Source is the key...
>
> Be your Greatness,
>
> Evelyn Kurihara Phil brook
>
> On 12/22/2010 5:49 AM, Wayne Nelson wrote:
>
> I have a paper on this in the works too.
>
> External situation - I think there are several points of “no
> turning back” that we have encountered. “Hell-ooo, welcome to the
> 21st century.”
>
> 9/11/2001 – Can’t go back to the way things were. Can’t see the
> world the same way
>
> Climate Change - Al Gore’s powerpoint presentation. Lights on. We
> see. We can no longer view the natural world the way we have since
> to rise of agriculture and more dramatically since the industrial
> revolution. Down-scaling our lifestyle is an indicative.
>
> 2008 Financial Crash - Our assumptions about what a healthy economy
> looks like and how to establish the conditions for healthy,
> sustainable development are all up for grabs.
>
> Web 2.0 – We’re wired. We’re connected. Small pieces – loosley
> joined. We can participate. We can engage. We can enliven our
> dialogue.
>
> WikiLeaks - The cultures of secrecy have been dealt a severe blow.
> We are really tired of the opacity of those in leadership roles.
> The story will be told. We will know what we have only suspected.
> We will be sharing more and more.
>
>
> There are probably a very few more and I have the feeling that the
> thread running though then is that they indicate the shattering of
> a “paradigm.” Maybe it’s not quite up to paradigm – maybe it is –
> not sure. These things represent a death knell to the ways we have
> have been thinking about things, doing things and how we approach
> our relationships. The house is burning down. And we can describe
> the fire on each piece of burning ember in detail.
>
> I think the internal crisis is related to seeing the end of things
> and not being able to see what will emerge or even what would
> really help a new modality to emerge. We’re standing in the dark,
> looking out at a blank. We know there is unbelievable potential,
> but it is really hard to see the way to a different track. This is
> beyond being overwhelmed by possibility. It is being overwhelmed by
> not knowing how to make an evolutionary leap and the complexity
> involved. We’re kind of stunned at the moment.
>
> I kind of think I might state the existential question and, How the
> hell to I see a way forward in the midst of all this collapse,
> complexity and haze?
>
> I think the escape is scrambling to put together something that we
> recognize. We yearn for the familiar. I think the escape is also
> our inner state of anger – an escape, because it is a great way to
> make sure we will do nothing to make things different. We want
> someone to blame. We’re using our anger to fuel inadequate, off
> target solutions that sound good to us. We are stuck in ideologies.
>
>
>
> This is all ruminating and I haven’t got the article written. This
> is, I believe, a critical conversation. I remember Slicker saying
> something like, take a few things from the past that you’re sure
> of, forget all the rest and start learning about the emerging
> world. It’s a different critter, for sure.
>
> \\/
>
>
> "George Holcombe" wrote:
>
> This is great stuff. I can't find anything I would disagree with.
> Too bad we can't go down to Room A, but maybe this is our Room A.
>
> I would add a tag, or sub-title, to name our present age as the Age
> of Bewilderment. We have come so far, so fast that we have had
> little time to digest our present situation in order to make a
> clear choice or decide the next step that would take us in a
> direction of our choosing. And that time doesn't appear to exist.
> It's like the time you got caught in a wave, the water is all
> around you; up down and sideways, and you think you have a general
> idea where the beach is, but the undertow is pulling one way and
> the wave is pushing you another, and you're not clear which is
> which, so you just swim for all you're worth. One of our
> colleagues told me the other day he wanted to pay off his house
> loan, but because his loan was part of a derivative or credit-
> default swap, the bank couldn't find it. Or the folks who found
> radiation behind the Big Bang, which could mean it was just one of
> the Bangs. Or the doctor in Boston a couple of weeks ago who had
> inserted genetic material into a man paralyzed from his shoulders
> down and declared we had entered into a new era of medicine, which
> would eclipse the chemical treatments up 'til now. Then last week
> they cured a man of AIDs by using material from another person's
> immune system. Even the spiritual and religious types are shaking
> like they're standing in front of a Tsunami of some sort. Hardly a
> day goes by without some earth shattering announcement, and it's
> not confined to any one field. In a visit with Slicker a couple of
> weeks ago, after he had returned from India , he said “presently we
> are headed in a hell of a direction, not an Armageddon, but an
> explosion to newness." We know or can know that wealth is getting
> more concentrated than ever and the elements used to produce wealth
> are limited and the processes that the developed world is addicted
> to are problematic, and we're hemorrhaging poverty and the climate
> is warming just like the climatologist said it would. We just had
> an announcement today that a company is splitting off one of it's
> land development units to be it's own company in town, which for
> whatever reasons has changed the landscape for realtors, banks and
> government taxes. I have no idea how to make much sense of all
> this, but would like to hear more.
>
> George Holcombe
> 14900 Yellowleaf Tr.
> Austin , TX 78728
> Mobile 512/252-2756
> geowanda at earthlink.net
>
> “...we have the choice: we can gratefully cultivate the
> relationships that make us part of a vast network, or we can take
> them for granted and allow them to wither and die.” Brother David
> Steindl-Rast, Deeper than Words
>
>
>
> On Dec 20, 2010, at 6:19 PM, Jack Gilles wrote:
>
> John,
>
> I love the work you've done. I think your examination of the last
> several decades is on target. I see the external situation for the
> 10s a bit differently. Although technology certainly has come on
> strong and is affecting everything we are engaged in, I think this
> decade is going to be addressing people's lives in a different
> way. I would call it Hitting the Wall of Sustainability. This
> will be the decade when we are forced to face our limitations in so
> many areas. I love Jeremy Rifkin's articles on the role of energy
> and the impact of having hit peak oil and the Empathic Society. I
> think this will come crashing home in this decade. We have, of
> course, climate change and I think that although there is debate
> right now and lots of "inaction", this decade will force us to face
> that reality and its consequences unlike we've ever seen before.
> Add to this the questions of sustaining a growing gap between the
> wealthy 1-2% and the rest of society. It cannot continue and I
> think that this decade we will be forced to deal with it. Add
> collective and individual debt (credit card), trade imbalance,
> spending on armaments, and several other areas and in all of them I
> see us hitting the wall, where consequences will have to be faced
> and hard choices having to be made.
>
> Now I'm not sure of the escapes, but I did live through the period
> of "this is my bomb shelter" and I think we could see the same
> response. My survival is at stake and I'll do what it takes for
> me and my family to make it. Collectively we could experience
> paralysis of complexity and the unknown. There will be choices
> that require major sacrifices and moves into the unknown, and the
> question, as David Whyte talks about in his DVD, we are not sure we
> have the interior capacity to deal with the world that is coming.
>
> There are signs of creative response every where and I think
> replicating and sharing approaches that work will really come into
> its own this decade. Here technology will be a critical tool and
> we are on the cusp of fantastic creative sharing methods and
> technologies. I just upgraded my Skype so that several can share
> video capacity and there are now numerous ways for inexpensive on-
> line conferencing and collegium type events. And data storage,
> retrieval and "mining" are also coming of age. But for me, the
> underlying critical response will be providing the spirit capacity,
> the collective and individual dimensions of that. That is why I
> feel so strongly that now is the time for us to get our wisdom in
> these domains into forms and forums for the sensitive and
> responsive part of society that will have to lead the way.
>
> That's my 3 cents worth (inflation you know).
>
> Thanks again for getting this on to our "table"
>
> Grace & Peace,
>
> Jack
> On Dec 20, 2010, at 5:23 PM, jlepps at pc.jaring.my wrote:
>
> Colleagues:
>
> One contemporary task of this group of people is to keep track of
> the "signs of the times." I've tried it for the past 5 decades, and
> below are my current thoughts about the teens. Please comment with
> your perceptions. This task takes us all. Anyway, have a very Merry
> Christmas, and here are some thoughts:
>
> The Spirit of the 10s
> John Epps, December 2010 (draft)
>
>
> We have made a practice of looking at the various decades and
> seeking their underlying spirit quest. We have used the categories
> of External Situation which creates an Internal Crisis that leads
> to an Existential Question from which we tend to Escape. Those
> categories have provided a way to look beneath the surface and
> discern some underlying issues and struggles that provide a way of
> making sense of what’s happening and addressing it creatively. With
> a new decade well under way, it seems time to have another go at
> that task. But first a quick review.
> In the 70s we experienced expanded horizons. The oil crisis
> and the Vietnam War brought globality home to us personally. Our
> internal experience was unity: we sensed a common humanity with
> people everywhere. Our existential question was “How can I
> participate?” and we often escaped the demand of that question
> through withdrawal, either into ourselves with a self-sufficient
> style or into the cheap euphoria of drugs. One authentic response
> to this existential question was the development and promulgation
> of the Technology of Participation (ToP).
> The 80s were a time when we experienced the collapse of
> separating boundaries and encountered the inescapable diversity of
> planet Earth. The existential question it raised was one of
> integrity: “Where do I stand?” With all the options so visible (and
> none of them universal) what standpoint can be the basis of my
> integrity? We tended to escape through mindless relativism (“When
> in Rome , do as the Romans do”). The authentic response in this
> decade came in the formation of collaborative efforts and alliances
> among dramatically different groups.
> In the 90s we encountered a time of the intangibles: in
> science, nano-physics disclosed that nothing is substantial in the
> materialistic sense. Everything is energy in motion. Technology
> focused on information management, business on vision and values,
> medicine on preventive practices, cultures on foundational
> traditions. Our internal crisis was meaning. The question raised
> was: “What’s worthwhile?” Where is it possible to find the
> significance that will add fizz and mischief into life?
> Spiritualism was our escape in which we pursued mysticism and
> various Eastern religions as a New Age search for human
> authenticity. Authentic responses came in the disclosure of depth
> in the midst of ordinary experiences, a transparency sometimes
> disclosed in photography and art.
> In the 00s, the turn of the century was a decade in which we
> experienced the collapse of sustaining structures. It was not
> simply 9-11 that occasioned our perception of collapse. Economic,
> political and cultural institutions which had provided a sense of
> stability and predictability seemed no longer to work effectively.
> Even the environment showed its fragility. In this situation we
> encountered a terrifying crisis of security. Our underlying
> question was “What can I trust?” We attempted to escape the turmoil
> of that question through a belligerence that seemed prepared to do
> battle with anyone and anything that called into question
> dependence on our favorite institutions. Another attempt to escape
> the question was through establishing security systems, notably at
> airports in an attempt to thwart the aims of “terrorists.” We also
> developed regulatory systems for economic institutions. Authentic
> responses to this situation came in the formulation of new myths.
> This was the time of Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings in which
> authors were developing stories that showed heroism in the face of
> unavoidable insecurity and terrifying danger.
> We've just turned into a new decade, and hopefully one that
> can diminish some of the hostility of the past ten years. Certainly
> Obama’s election seemed to herald a new time, though subsequent
> events have shown belligerence to have a residual persistence that
> remains disruptive. Still, there is a new scent in the air that may
> herald a distinctive decade ahead. I’d like to explore that a bit now.
> The 10s seem to be a time of intensifying technology. Our
> dependence on gizmos and gimmicks has never been stronger. While
> watching young children lined up with their parents to see Santa
> Clause at a shopping mall, I noticed a couple with two children in
> the queue both intently fiddling with their smart phones, probably
> surfing the Web or social networks. Even their two children were
> playing with toy cell phones. Later driving home I met numerous
> cars whose drivers were talking into their cell phones. A colleague
> spoke recently about college students who were unable to take a 4-
> hour examination because they couldn’t be away from their smart
> phones that long – they were addicted. Of course it’s not only the
> cell phones and their remarkable inclusion of apps for unimaginable
> activities that capture addicts. Computers, automobiles, TV’s, and
> other technologies that have defined modern life have developed
> their own dependents. A recent NY Times article describes a local
> coffee shop as “laptopistan,” complete with its own economics,
> polity, culture, and ethics. Looking at research into energy
> generation, biotechnology, robotics, and artificial intelligence,
> technology seems only to be in its infancy (but in a phase of rapid
> growth). It’s little surprise that Time magazine selected the
> founder of Facebook as their “Person of the Year” for 2010.
> The function of technology is to expand human potential.
> Current research and inventions seem to offer undreamed of
> possibilities. Virtual meetings, satellite radio, microwave meals,
> robotic surgery, online shopping with digital assistants, self-
> driving automobiles, self-diagnosing body parts, space travel –
> even avatar immortality – are all either currently available or in
> pilot stages. The interior crisis occasioned by all this
> possibility is pure potential. Clearly the old structures are past
> their usefulness as we saw in the past decade. Now we have pure
> potential for creating a new functioning civilization. Technology
> is no longer a constraint: we can do even more than we can imagine.
> Our imaginations, however, seem constrained by established images
> of systems and structures that are no longer effective. We don’t
> know how to think in new categories, or even what those categories
> might be. People often speak of this as a digital generation gap,
> and to be sure there is one. But I suspect even the brightest young
> geeks haven’t set themselves to thinking of new ways to operate as
> a global society. Pure potential is an abyss – a gap with no place
> to stand, no security, and no certainty. That’s the situation in
> which we find ourselves.
> Our existential question is “How shall we operate?” and even
> the “we” is not clear. At one time it could refer to the family or
> our network of friends or colleagues or the community or the state
> or party or nation or race or even in our more generous moments,
> humanity as an inclusive whole. Now even that seems inadequate. The
> environmentalists have expanded our horizons. All animate beings
> now seem to have a claim on us, and that includes flora and fauna.
> Even the mineral resources which we’ve extracted and manipulated
> with abandon seem to be crying for attention. Neither our economic,
> political nor cultural systems are equipped to address those cries.
> We seem to have developed two means of escape from this
> question. One is the more political in which we latch onto any
> person or group that pretends, not so much to have a solution as to
> point the blame at someone else. In the USA , the Tea Party is rich
> in its objections to “the system” but sparse in its alternatives.
> More radical groups and movements seek to destroy existing systems
> in favor of a greatly reduced grouping that is pure in its ideals
> but exclusive of diversity.
> The other approach is more cultural and can be found in the
> media. Programs like “The Biggest Loser,” “Lost,” “The Survivor,”
> “Amazing Race,” “Apprentice,” “Undercover Boss,” “Slapdown,” and
> other so-called “reality shows” have captured a huge market in the
> US and abroad. Their common feature is the depiction of people in
> terribly difficult circumstances, and their appeal is in presenting
> the mental, physical, and emotional struggles of protagonists in
> agonizing detail. We seem to take some comfort in seeing others
> going through internal uproars similar to our own. The reason these
> are escapes is that on television there is always a way out, a
> winner, or a rescue. At that point their analogy to our experience
> of reality breaks down.
> Authentically facing up to the existential question requires us to
> build new models, models that are inclusive in their scope and in
> their development. We need models for a global economy, for a
> polity that is inclusive, for a culture that respects diversity.
> There are pilots in all these arenas, but none has the recognition
> that might lead to widespread adoption. And the old systems will
> not go quietly away. There is opposition to be faced. Much is at
> stake. The trap here (perhaps another escape) is to become
> enthralled with the newest technological gimmicks. It is important
> to be aware of developments, but continually to raise the question
> of applying them to development of new systems for civilization.
> In the 60s and 70s, the EI/ICA set out to develop a “New
> Social Vehicle” based on a “New Religious Mode.” We succeeded
> admirably in formulating the rational and spiritual frameworks for
> those realities. And we put into place numerous pilot projects
> demonstrating what the future called for. We even experimented with
> replication in which those pilots could set in motion a rapid
> expansion. Those are valuable resources for the task at hand.
> After four or five decades, the environment has altered
> dramatically. Globality is no longer an edge concept; it’s an
> operating reality, thanks in part to technology. Instead of
> expanding people’s horizons, we now need to enhance the recognition
> and appreciation of diversity. Learning from the past, we will need
> collaboration with dissimilar groups, appreciation of depth in the
> ordinary, stories and myths that support creativity, and, of
> course, the technology that is newly at hand
> The alterations that have come to “us” as a group have been
> numerous and substantial going far beyond the inevitable process of
> aging. But, in the words of Tennyson (thanks to Gordon Harper),
> Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
> We are not now that strength which in old days
> Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
> One equal temper of heroic hearts,
> Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
> To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
> There are far more of “us” ready and willing to work on the
> project than were available in the 60s and 70s. There is much more
> potential for communications. “We” now represent a wide diversity
> of viewpoint and experience. Maybe these are the times and we are
> the people.
> _______________________________________________
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>
> < > < > < > < > < >
> Wayne Nelson - ICA Associates Inc
> ICA - 416-691-2316 - - - Cell – 647-229-6910
> http://ica-associates.ca
>
>
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