[Oe List ...] Trying Hard To Get Real -- about the ICA

George Holcombe geowanda at earthlink.net
Sun Jan 14 20:23:29 EST 2007


George Holcombe
Asbury United Methodist Church
1605 38 1/2 St.
Austin, TX 78722
Home: 512/252-2756
Church: 512/477-8122
Mobile 512/294-5952
geowanda at earthlink.net




On Jan 14, 2007, at 5:49 PM, Marilyn R Crocker wrote:

> Dear David,
>
> Thank you so very much for your thoughtful and passionate comments
> entitled "The Challenge of Intentional Community."  I think you
> articulate the pain and concern of many, like Joe and me, who have sat
> for months, knowing of the impromptu shedding of longtime ICA staff  
> --our
> Order Ecumenical colleagues-- and then who stewed, prayed,  
> agonized, and
> remained in stunned silence.
>
> Your letter is a clarion call that we, as OE, need to have a  
> conversation
> borne out of faith, hope and love.  Since the 1988 forced  
> "Diaspora" so
> many of us, in our various secular employments, have experienced the
> reality of being "riffed" and know it usually to be a demeaning,
> dehumanizing, humiliating, horrendous journey.  We stand in your  
> shoes.
>
> As much as our vicarious agony over the devastating loss  
> experienced by
> beloved OE colleagues like you, Jim Weigel and others, we mourn what
> seems to be the apparent erosion of an organizational self- 
> understanding
> that many believed would forever stand "over-against" (as JWM would  
> say)
> that which compromises humanness, both with respect to internal
> operations as well as external programmatic mission.
>
> Your 4 point reflection, including context, is provocative.  I want  
> some
> time to process it more thoughtfully and then to respond.  But before
> another day passes, I want to say "thank you" for being you!
>
> Grace, peace and love,
>
> Marilyn
>
>
> On Sun, 14 Jan 2007 15:23:22 -0700 David Dunn <icadunn at igc.org>  
> writes:
>> This is the second in a series of talking papers that attempt to
>> broaden and
>> deepen the conversation about the future of the ICA USA.
>>
>> ***
>> TRYING HARD TO GET REAL--The Challenge of Intentional Community
>> David Dunn, January 14, 2007
>>
>> As you might imagine, being ŒRIFFED¹ leads to a mini-tsunami of
>> deep
>> emotions and further reflections, along with a trickle of insights.
>> This may
>> also be true for our Board colleagues who thought about and chose
>> Œforce
>> reduction¹ from among the available strategies for saving the ICA
>> from
>> bankruptcy. The upcoming three-month anniversary of what I now refer
>> to as
>> ³the ICA¹s October 16th frontal lobotomy² has prodded me to work up
>> just
>> enough spiritual prowess to set sail toward the abyss of meaning
>> making. It
>> is the new year and it¹s time to move forward
>>
>> It seems important to admit that while I eagerly process my life
>> experience
>> by writing, I don¹t presume that everyone is eager to share in my
>> ³processing out loud.² I will not think less of anyone who chucks
>> the whole
>> thing in the trash. For those who extend the benefit of the doubt, I
>> hope to
>> offer some provocative entertainment, if not priceless insight.
>> Nothing is
>> guaranteed. I welcome feedback, but ask you to be gentle. I¹m still
>> a little
>> tender in spots.
>>
>> I¹ve tried for some weeks now to write insightfully but have become
>> mired in
>> the too-muchness of everything. I get all wound up but never seem to
>> get to
>> the bottom of anything. I also freely admit that I am usually
>> inclined to
>> choose a delimited topic and do my level best to make it broader and
>> deeper
>> than its natural boundaries permit. Sometimes this habit leads to
>> something
>> new and other times it leads to entanglement without enlightenment.
>> So I¹ve
>> chosen a more cautious course this time. I¹ve chucked much of the
>> writing to
>> te and instead I¹m going to try to skim off the obvious stuff that
>> rose to
>> the surface of the bucket before I attempt any Œdunking-for-apples¹
>> type
>> maneuvers. I¹m working out how to separate the disconcerting from
>> the
>> essential.
>>
>> The first thing that I need to get off my chest is a simple
>> admission:
>> I am always falling down, but I know what I can do: I can pick
>> myself up and
>> say to myself, I¹m the greatest two.
>>
>> There I¹ve said it. I knew that I had to come clean on that first,
>> key
>> point. It seems important to acknowledge that I know and believe
>> that this
>> is an appropriate understanding of the way life is. What is striking
>> to me
>> is to be discovering the difficulty of living out of this
>> understanding for
>> the first time at age 64. I¹ve lived a sheltered life.
>>
>>> From this side of the RIF, the sanitary acronyms related to
>> Œreduction in
>> force¹ are at best quaint euphemisms. Yes, they reference fair
>> labor
>> practice laws intended to keep bosses and Boards fair-minded and
>> even-handed. But reduction in force is a labored contrivance that
>> avoids the
>> human truths. Its use is an insult to our souls.
>>
>> The truth about a reduction in force is something far broader and
>> much
>> deeper than a sterile acronym can ever convey. In human terms and in
>> no
>> particular order, a reduction in force is a reduction in vision, a
>> reduction
>> in wisdom, a reduction in energy, a reduction in trust, a reduction
>> in good
>> will, a reduction in context, a reduction in possibility, a
>> reduction in
>> imagination and a reduction in momentum. I¹m headed toward praise
>> and
>> dedication here, but I can¹t not pass go. Avoiding confession on
>> this walk
>> around the board (no pun intended: game board, not board of
>> directors) lands
>> us somewhere in life where we don¹t want to be.
>>
>> So I¹m going to offer a little perspective on what a reduction in
>> force
>> creates--in human terms--not in the language of platitudes,
>> euphemisms or
>> wish dreams. I¹m going to try to get us grounded in reality so that
>> we know
>> what we¹re up against when we come to the spiritual prowess part
>> that moves
>> us from ³life is never the way we want it² to ³nevertheless we are
>> free to
>> live.² Yes, the man at the pool picked up his bed and walked, but
>> I¹ve not
>> had any real luck with quick miracles and believe that gradual and
>> considered miracles are a better bet.
>>
>> THE WAY LIFE IS AFTER A "RIF"
>> There are a number of interesting and disconcerting physical,
>> emotional and
>> mental realities after a RIF. As stress levels go up, anxiety
>> attacks and
>> tightness in the chest are not uncommon. Eating levels may go up;
>> Pecan
>> Sandies offer relatively low risk, if temporary solace. It may be
>> hard to
>> get to sleep some nights and it may be hard to stay asleep other
>> nights.
>> Some nights, especially when I¹m sans my usual bed mate and have to
>> throw on
>> three extra blankets just to stay warm, I don¹t want to go to sleep
>> at all.
>> I stayed up until 5 a.m. once last November. It¹s not hard to wake
>> up,
>> shave, dress and put on my shoes in the morning, but it¹s devilishly
>> hard to
>> face the day two hours later.
>>
>> Self-confidence and esteem are a sometime thing--not that they
>> weren¹t
>> always a little shaky. These days they seem to ebb and flow like the
>> tides
>> at the Bay of Fundy. Just when it might be really nice to enjoy a
>> little
>> playful, adult intimacy, my adult self can¹t quite imagine how to
>> pull it
>> off. Furthermore, while the first floor part of my adult self can be
>> light,
>> steady and unruffled, the basement part of my adult self is quite
>> another
>> matter. When I need to rummage around in the cellar for something
>> I¹ve lost
>> or need or want or whatever, light, steady and unruffled promptly
>> give way
>> to anger, frustration, grief, feelings of betrayal and shrill
>> demands for
>> acknowledgment, justice and redress. It ain¹t no emotional picnic
>> down
>> there; all is not sweetness and light.
>>
>> Concentration is either non-existent or hyper-focused, depending on
>> the time
>> of day, or the relative humidity, or the barometric pressure, or the
>> phase
>> of the moon, or how long it¹s been since I had a job interview or a
>> breakthrough in my business plan, which ever I¹m into that day. I¹ve
>> become
>> a great story teller, working over the same material from a
>> different angle,
>> finding a nuance in the familiar drama that I had not noticed
>> before. Though
>> I¹m boring myself to tears and want to ³get on with it,² whatever
>> ³it² is, I
>> seem to be harnessed to this persistent, iterative load from the
>> last year,
>> recalling the events and players with whom I was more or less
>> hauling in
>> synch until the ground opened up and swallowed us whole, team,
>> harness,
>> wagon, and cargo.
>>
>> This is where it becomes immensely fascinating and frustrating to
>> observe
>> how skillful I¹ve been--or not--in grounding myself transparently in
>> The
>> Power that posited me, while still working on taking an honest,
>> creative and
>> constructive relationship to my situation, my interior and my
>> undoubted
>> freedom to decide.
>>
>> If I have forgotten any important experiences of the recently-RIFFED
>> I¹ll
>> receive any and all additions, amplifications and corrections.
>> I have not forgotten the other side to this coin, the other partner
>> in the
>> tango. I have no doubt that the members of ICA Board of Directors
>> have their
>> own litany of bodily woes, emotional frailties and mental mayhem
>> that has
>> accompanied their journey this last year. I pray that they may find
>> a way to
>> speak their truth.
>>
>> ANOTHER LEVEL OF ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
>> Why am I carrying on like this? Hasn¹t this just been a rehearsal of
>> the
>> obvious? Doesn¹t this just rumple the sheets of the bed about which
>> we all
>> know I must someday make a decision? Why not just walk away from the
>> pool
>> right now, the bed be damned? I can think of at least two good
>> reasons to
>> attempt to be both sharper and clearer than broken crystal.
>>
>> One, though the ICA¹s Board of Directors seems to me to have ignored
>> the
>> fact, we are, at bottom, an intentional community, and our
>> community‹we
>> might say our corporateness--has taken a beating in recent years,
>> economic
>> realities and necessities notwithstanding. Remember the three
>> dynamics of
>> the social/organizational dynamics triangles? We¹ve witnessed the
>> inevitable
>> result of not just an imbalance in an organizational process, but
>> the
>> collapse of any organizational process. We¹ve not just witnessed an
>> imbalance among the democratic, bureaucratic and symbolic aspects of
>> the
>> ICA¹s corporate life, our corporate creation has fallen victim to
>> the
>> simultaneous inattention of all three. Staff, board of directors and
>> the
>> ICA¹s supporters and friends have been asleep at the switch for at
>> last ten
>> years and more likely the last twenty years. Hear me well. ³I, David
>> Dunn,
>> former staff member of the ICA, was asleep at the switch.² We all
>> were.
>>
>> The result of our inattention is having profound human consequences,
>> some
>> having to do with our relationships with one another and others
>> having to do
>> with the very being of our creation--the Institute of Cultural
>> Affairs.
>> Two, the corollary to ³symbol is key² is ³story is all.² Our
>> movement and in
>> particular our intentional community, has been adept at telling
>> stories.
>> Sometimes we told stories with the strategic intent of energizing
>> our
>> partners and colleagues. Think ³5,000 Town Meetings.² At other times
>> we told
>> stories to avoid the truth. Think ³Children need alert and honest
>> adults to
>> protect them from abuse.² Secondary integrity is a slippery slope
>> from
>> strategy to illusion and even worse, to subterfuge.
>>
>> It will be tempting to create a fiction about the reduction in force
>> that
>> laid off nearly all of ICA USA¹s senior program staff--notably the
>> staff
>> with values, practices and images grounded in the Order Ecumenical.
>> A smiley
>> face is not adequate. We need to be honest about the operating
>> images,
>> patterns, systems and structures that led both staff and board down
>> the
>> primrose path toward the insolvency of the institution with which we
>> were
>> entrusted. If we try to invent something new and durable out of
>> fiction or
>> ignorance, we¹re likely to create something new without integrity or
>> flawed
>> or both.
>>
>> Our intentional community needs to stand up, ask questions, take
>> stock,
>> engage energetically and think acutely. We need to attend to the
>> human
>> fallout of this bomb that has just exploded in our midst. I have
>> reason to
>> believe that the ICA¹s board of directors is exhausted, wounded,
>> numb and
>> fundamentally clueless about how to approach the future and how to
>> relate
>> concretely and helpfully to former staff members and to members of
>> our
>> intentional community and other stakeholders in the ICA. The
>> consequence
>> must surely be an uncomfortable mixture of consternation and
>> remorse. We
>> need to wrap our collective arms around them and hold them tightly
>> until
>> they find the grace and confidence once again to govern with enough
>> peripheral vision and depth perception to include more than
>> economics and
>> profitability in their calculations. Care for these people. Ask for
>> a role
>> on the Board. Take charge again.
>>
>> Some, if not all, former (or soon to be former) ICA staff
>> members--of whom I
>> am one--are exhausted, wounded, numb and fundamentally clueless
>> about how to
>> approach the future of the ICA and how to relate concretely and
>> usefully to
>> the shell of the organization that remains and to the members of its
>> board
>> of directors. The greater share of the employed brains, vision and
>> memory of
>> the ICA has just been let go without so much as an exit interview.
>> Pilots
>> and mechanics get more say about the future when their companies
>> face
>> bankruptcy. The consequence is a kind of bewildering sense of being
>> cast
>> off, discounted and left without standing to figure out how to
>> relate to an
>> institution and vocation that we helped shape and embody but from
>> which we
>> have just been practically abstracted. Help us talk through this
>> discombobulation and find our way into a role that is useful to the
>> future.
>> Help mediate the severed friendships and damaged collegial trust.
>>
>> CONFESSIONAL AFFIRMATIONS
>> The least I can say about this 33-year experiment in evolving a
>> conscious
>> strategy to be the People of God in a global, secular world is that
>> we were
>> all naive to think that we could remain viable, let alone thrive,
>> with part
>> time amateur managers managing by committee. We fell all over
>> ourselves:
>> interpersonal feuds and tyrannies, team revelries and guarded turf,
>> tacit
>> agreements to hold our noses and ignore the sacred cows and
>> collusion,
>> Byzantine (or is ³Rube Goldbergian² more apt?) accounting systems,
>> and
>> failing to acknowledge the harm done when one person¹s genius was
>> felt or
>> understood to threaten or diminish another¹s. We were never able to
>> maintain
>> our corporateness--after Joseph¹s death? after Oaxtepec? after the
>> shift to
>> regional offices?
>>
>> No one I know doubts the genius of the Learning Basket Approach,
>> Imaginal
>> Education, and the Rite of Passage Journeys; the Neighborhood
>> Academy,
>> community drama, and community resource centers large and small; ToP
>> methods
>> of facilitative leadership for participatory design, economic
>> revitalization, organizational transformation, and international
>> development; and HIV/AIDS education and prevention based on
>> community
>> capacity building and engagement. Lord have mercy on my challenged
>> mind if I
>> have inadvertently left out any of my colleagues¹ inventions; mia
>> culpa in
>> advance. But we were a collection of irresponsible geniuses, some
>> would say
>> uncharitably, working on immortality projects. Most would affirm
>> with
>> profound gratitude, that paid staff members and volunteer colleagues
>> alike
>> shared work on many fronts that, in sum, established lasting social
>> inventions with the power to transform society.
>>
>> SUBSTANTIAL CHALLENGES
>> Now we¹re faced with at least four tough, interrelated questions:
>>
>> -- Do we intend to be an intentional community that shares 
>> responsibility
>> for the future of the ICA?
>>
>> -- Is the ICA a strategy whose mission has been fulfilled that we 
>> may
>> celebrate and let go of or is it an institution with a futuric
>> purpose and
>> mission that we need to resurrect and reinvent?
>>
>> -- Do we have energy for this agenda or have we run out of steam?
>>
>> -- What on earth do we intend with the Ecumenical Institute? Death 
>> by
>> neglect?
>>
>> I intend to write more in the coming weeks and I hope that you will
>> talk and
>> write too. I¹m posting these talking papers on the
>> www.wedgeblade.org
>> "Repository" site under Reflective Writings.
>>
>> ---
>> David Dunn
>> 740 S Alton Way 9B
>> Denver, CO 80247
>> 720-221-4661
>> cell: 720-314-5991
>> icadunn at igc.org
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>>
>
>
> Marilyn R. Crocker, Ed.D
> Crocker & Associates, Inc.
> 123 Sanborn Road
> West Newfield, ME 04095
> (207) 793-3711
>
> _______________________________________________
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> OE at wedgeblade.net
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