What does deep mean?
To my good friends–
What is the important stuff to have a conversation about? What does deep mean, practically?
This morning it seems to me that deep is as deep as people go, to recall to mind what Ian Percy told me years ago. But I think we can put a finer edge on it than that. Deep is to talk about things that matter to the people, live questions, what people are struggling with. In our society, that means struggling with alone. So it could be politics, it could be a business challenge, it could be how to make good things happen at church or in our club. It could be relationships between people or between peoples. It is talk with a content. From there, we can get on our wetsuit and go deeper and deeper. Only here, the air gets more breathable the deeper we go.
But is that all there is to be said, that it is a topic that holds water? It is not just about the topic, but what we do with it: we meet it and the others with an open heart and an open inquiry. We meet the others as persons who matter. We meet them moreover as persons who can change us. We are willing to allow that change to take place. This is beyond an open mind, it is more visceral, it is a lowering of the shields.
So we have a topic that has meat, and an openness. But it is necessary to get to where it matters to our life. If we do not resolve this, we die. It is beyond gutsy: we place our life on the line.
Also, I see that as we place our life on the line, we must continue to place our life on the line. When we get to that current in the water, that place of warmth, we can and we must continue to follow it on pain of loss of life of the people. It is all of us, and it is life at risk.
And then we come to a place where it is as deep as we can go–for today. We need to stop, take a breather, leave the next descent to the next day. Or the next person. Which is the point where I am at the moment.
Still, I want to go deeper. Who can help?
So we have: a topic that has weight; open shields; life at risk; spiral down and rest, down and rest, breathe in and out.
:- Doug.
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