FootprintsintheWind.com

Only in the what could be do we progress, not ever in the what is.

:- Doug.

Throughout the sweep of history humans have been developing, coming together, making cities and nations and larger and larger groupings. The move to keep others out is a natural resistance, but not consonant with the path of history which is bringing people together, so is unlikely to prevail.

The resistance however shows that we want to keep our individuality, and in that it is good. The resistance is not logical since it is entirely possible, if we work at it, to honor the diversity and the individuals. This is the work of evolution, unfolding: to unfold in such a way that persons are not smothered but instead released.

It is significant that this resistance be faced and understood, so it can be channeled appropriately and we can get on with our work of growing the world.

From small tribes to larger, to nations and international organizations and alliances, to seeing ourselves as one blue planet: this is the direction of our culturing. This is important to see. Why? Because it shows us the direction of our progress, and seeing allows us to choose. What will we choose? Will we choose to come together (is this not the definition of love?) or will we choose some other unfolding?

:- Doug.

Classes are based on the explicit premise that you have something they don’t. Conversation is based on the premise that they have something you don’t.

:- Doug.

People are about involvement.

:- Doug.

G*d helps those who together help others.

:- Doug.

Why do we think we are in competition when we are in meetings? Why do we think we must win and another lose? It need not be that way, and in fact the only way to progress is to break out of that thinking. This then is the challenge of group work: to break out of the shell of competitive thinking into group cohesiveness, and more than cohesiveness, an explicit group intention of creating new people.

Of course the why is I-It thinking: insular ways of looking upon the world from outside. The way is to jump to the inside: mix it up, consciously realizing, consenting, and intending that we will come out changed. So the How and the Why, the way and the intention, are identical: changing us.

This takes faith that who comes out will be better than who goes in. It will not always be so, of necessity. Or more precisely, we may not think it is so every time as we come out. We may feel we lost, and therefore lost something of ourselves. We may feel bruised—we are. We may seek to disengage. But if we keep meeting, if we keep standing up for truth in the face of others standing up for their truth, growth and life and imagination comes out. This is the faith we need.

:- Doug.

Are your meetings contests? What if they were somehow turned cooperative?

:Doug.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the Commander in Chief of the Terrified States of America.

:- Doug.

Who are you Lord? You are the one we meet. Personally. You are the glue that calls us together. And propels us apart. Reaching out, reaching out, to gather in, to gather in. We are one and several and in you.

:- Doug.

People act together. People change things. People change.

:- Doug.

To be a person is to be perceived as a person. To be a person is to perceive other persons. Therefore, we come forth as persons when we meet other persons.

:- Doug.

You are personal, you are the G*d we meet.

:- Doug.

I speak not out of optimism but out of process.

:- Doug.

It takes not a rosy view
to say what I have said
merely an eye on who we are
—sharers in divinity, creativity—
and a call to set about our work
I am less an optimist
and more a prophet
telling what’s possible

:- Doug.

The difficulty with our ability to meet productively has less to do with the people and more with how we meet and with what intention. Do we meet from habit or because the boss or the culture requires it? Then we do not meet. Or do we meet with a common aim and common guidelines in mind and heart? Do we say what we are about and raise our sights, expectations and hope? We could and then more is possible.

:- Doug.

Have you fallen for the common trap
thinking me an optimist?
Never have I joined that club
nor more than thrice attended
Were to me the world a rosy playground
I’d take the side of the pointed thorns
against those mothers who seek to protect
their children from life and imagination
For we have only ourselves and no guarantee
that the risks we take and the sweat we invest
will ever end
Surely those who oppose us
will be abetted by masses who don’t care
Still we have only ourselves and no guarantee
There is work to be done so let’s get to it

:- Doug.

King George processes
Missiles and warheads in his right hand
slaver chains in his left
a crown of electrons spinning his head
all about people choose to bow
thinking him the god of their prosperity

:- Doug.

Act upon your world
the persons you meet
not just be acted upon
as if you were some dumb It
nor just created clay but creator
prophet, poet:
act upon your created world
the persons you want to meet

:- Doug.

What can we in conversation create? For starters: new persons, new communities, new species.

:- Doug.

Have you met your Meeter? When, then? Are you willing? What gift can you take with you, but only your vulnerable self?

:- Doug.

G*d is the one who is coming.

:- Doug.

Born in meeting is
each person’s uniqueness
Each meeting this person
grows more
unique, inimitable, undefinable

:- Doug.

Ode to A Grecian Urn by John Keats said – – ‘”Beauty is truth, truth beauty,”
that is all/Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.’
As sensythesic and synesthesic humans we can see, hear, feel, taste, and smell anything we focus on. That skill will become more commonly used in sensing truth in the future. Even “a foreign to us language can” be so sensed.
When all five senses yield a congruent, coherent report – – – it is pretty, it smells nice, feels good to our heart, and makes beautiful sounds and is integrated in a beautiful pleasing gestalt, we will know that what we thought or were told or read or spoke is true, as truth is beautiful. We can sense and know without any doubt what is and what is not true.

sorry – this was my first post and was not spell checked and i did not identify myself, Bud, as the person posting this.