Archive for August, 2006

There is more to the world than what I see.

There is more to the world than what I see. There is more to the world than what any one person sees. If we get together, we can see more. There will be differences and those differences must be lived out. They will add to the richness of life for all. We need to move beyond irritation, beyond live and let live, to moving around in this bizarre, bazaar world. What is there to do with this mess but live, love, squabble, laugh?

:- Doug.

Published in: Conversations | on August 31st, 2006 | No Comments »

Peace making

The job of peace making may be more difficult than the job of war making.

:- Doug.

Published in: Conversations | on August 31st, 2006 | No Comments »

Blowing the clouds apart

The wind is blowing the clouds apart, opening to me the smiling blue.

:- Doug.

Published in: Conversations | on August 31st, 2006 | No Comments »

Craft

These years, I am learning the craft of poetry.

:- Doug.

Published in: Conversations | on August 31st, 2006 | No Comments »

Not all questions

Not all questions get answers.

:- Doug.

Published in: Conversations | on August 31st, 2006 | No Comments »

Polarization is safe in our hands

If we allow our polarizations
to breathe in our presence
we will find polarization is safe
in our hands and the content
of our views matters far less
than our coming together.

We fear polarization because
we have never looked on
its other side and
seen it is in us.
Fear not; take
my hand, let us
walk round and see.

The object is not to heal
the divisions among us
nor yet to blend us into
one bland pablum
—there are so many of us that
seething creativity is sure—
the object is to bring
it all in
to whole
For it is all us, human

:- Doug.

Published in: Conversations | on August 31st, 2006 | No Comments »

We cannot make peace

We cannot make peace
by talking
only by hearing

:- Doug.

Published in: Conversations | on August 31st, 2006 | No Comments »

A whole

It’s a whole, but it’s not systematic.

:- Doug.

Published in: Conversations | on August 30th, 2006 | No Comments »

If we’re different

If we’re different
We have something together
Boys and girls
Black and red

:- Doug.

Published in: Conversations | on August 30th, 2006 | No Comments »

Footprints in the Wind sm # 697

Footprints in the Windsm # 697

The sign on the highway says: “Advertise here. I’ll make you money.” But I don’t want to be money.


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© c 2006, Learning Works, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Easy reprint permissions: 574/291-0022, or by e-mail to mailto:Doug AT FootprintsInTheWind.com. Back issues available at http://www.FootprintsintheWind.com

Please publish in your print or electronic periodical, with the above info.
To subscribe, send an e-mail with the word “subscribe” to mailto:Doug AT FootprintsInTheWind.com

Published in: FootprintsintheWind/sm | on August 30th, 2006 | No Comments »

Missing

If we’re missing real life, we’re missing G*d.

:- Doug.

Published in: Conversations | on August 30th, 2006 | No Comments »

Another modest proposal…

It occurred to me that my previous proposal was Swiftian. And then another proposal occurred to me, based upon the notion that Jonathan Swift was not genius to be held up for all to admire; rather he is an example of what humans can do: be humorous, purposeful, pointed. So our literature classes could be a whole lot less lecture and discussion and even reading, and a whole lot more imitation: You have now read two Swift pieces, now try your hand at a half dozen satires of your own. See what you can pick up of the art. See what you can now observe of Swift’s practice of the art. What does he do well? What do you do better? Learn in your fingers as well as your head.

:- Doug.

Published in: Conversations | on August 29th, 2006 | No Comments »

Demands

Our very presence demands of others: to meet us; to allow us to be human; to allow us to have needs and value.

:- Doug.

Published in: Conversations | on August 29th, 2006 | No Comments »

A modest proposal…

Here is something telling about our current approach to air traffic safety. The latest plot was people planning to carry liquids which could be made into a bomb; the response was to ban all liquids on flights. We get disrupted and reminded of the terrorists every time we get on a flight—so they have won the attention they desired. The result of their terrorism is—to terrify us. It does not matter if they make a large killing—they have disrupted many more lives with the headlines they have won, and the fear they have injected into our lives.

We are trying to lock down the doors to keep out fear.

It will never work.

If we want to prevent all terrorists from boarding flights, then there is an easier solution: forbid all humans from boarding flights.

:- Doug.

Published in: Conversations | on August 29th, 2006 | No Comments »

Other melodies

The way we move beyond debate is to look for larger vistas, patterns and rhythms, to open our ears and hearts to other melodies, starting with the people here in this room.

:- Doug.

Published in: Conversations | on August 28th, 2006 | No Comments »

Adversary

Our conversational partner is our
Adversary
There to tear us to shreds
So we cannot return

:- Doug.

Published in: Conversations | on August 27th, 2006 | No Comments »

Remember being a kid…?

Remember being a kid, lying on your back, watching the clouds drift and change shapes? Isn’t that part of the job of humans—adult humans—on earth?

:- Doug.

Published in: Conversations | on August 27th, 2006 | No Comments »

Four, four, everywhere four

Business books often seem to feature fours. Even Ken Wilber. Four kinds of people needed, quadrants for this and for that. It is as if we are unable to think beyond two binary dimensions and their interplay. Or we think our readers cannot. We perhaps need to raise questions and ways of thinking that are beyond the two factors, ways which take not just 3 or 10 or 10,003 factors into account, but realize that they might interact not just mathematically but exponentially and beyond; requiring many minds to be able to wrap around them enough to ask wise questions.

:- Doug.

Published in: Conversations | on August 26th, 2006 | No Comments »

Nothing to add?

It is not that front line people have nothing of value to add to the conversation: after all, they are human beings too. It is that what they have to add adds a level of complexity with which the “decision makers” are not prepared to deal. See this key: prepared.

:- Doug.

Published in: Conversations | on August 26th, 2006 | No Comments »

Life lives together

My work is how life lives together.

:- Doug.

Published in: Conversations | on August 26th, 2006 | No Comments »

passage to…

There is a huge world
out there we say
of which we are a part

Another like it but larger
—our imaginations—

Three small portals
Allow us passage between
ear—mouth—ear

:- Doug.

Published in: Conversations | on August 26th, 2006 | No Comments »

continually run to small

We are all part of something
Larger than us
And continually run to small
At least we can turn our eyes
Or maybe stand out on the porch
In the storm

:- Doug.

Published in: Conversations | on August 26th, 2006 | No Comments »

Footprints in the Wind sm # 696

Footprints in the Windsm # 696

G-d rested on the seventh day
—and not forevermore—
creating—loving—in our day—
manure producing fragrant flowers—
creative transformation—death
of death—unfolding love—
which day—or more—is this—the eighth?


Please pass it on.

© c 2006, Learning Works, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Easy reprint permissions: 574/291-0022, or by e-mail to mailto:Doug AT FootprintsInTheWind.com. Back issues available at http://www.FootprintsintheWind.com

Please publish in your print or electronic periodical, with the above info.
To subscribe, send an e-mail with the word “subscribe” to mailto:Doug AT FootprintsInTheWind.com

Published in: FootprintsintheWind/sm | on August 26th, 2006 | No Comments »
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