The great correspondence between Buber and Christopher Alexander: find two people…

There is great correspondence between Buber and Alexander. My particular wondering is how to bring all this (centers and whole and the Whole; mutual action, meaning, and going out into the world) to the arena of persons. This is the relating that includes all relating, the whole of wholes, the Center of centers. How do the smaller centers and wholes support the larger and each other? How do the fifteen transformations relate to these three elements of mutual action, meaning and meaning in concrete action?

We are ever supporting and increasing the life of the other centers round about and in the whole. What Buber describes seems to be an endless circle or spiral: mutual action gives meaning gives action going out to meet in more mutual action and on.

Viewed as emergence (this is not so simple as it might seem at first; indeed it is complex—folded together): persons meet; they find-create meaning in their meeting (this starts as the inviting question and morphs into the persons they are changed into, and the persons they meet, and the persons between themselves and the persons they meet, and is then an integral part of them down to their guts); they carry this out into the world, not so much as words as action and more meeting. And the world turns again.

This is a micro view. The macro view is that this is how the whole world operates: by meeting. When enough persons meet, things get done, and when more meet, larger things get done. The large things might be built worlds, or they might be organic worlds, such as when social attitudes toward age, race, gender, or origin change.

So what is the work to make it happen, or open space for it to happen? Find what matters to two or more persons, invite them to meet.

It really seems to be as simple and as complex as that. It takes that much work and courage. It means meeting with them before they meet to find out who they are and why what matters matters.

:- Doug.

Published in: Conversations | on September 10th, 2009 | No Comments »

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