FootprintsintheWind.com

Wisdom = Dream

:- Doug.

What is the nature of wisdom? Is it a thing? Static? How does wisdom act? Is it able to grow?

:- Doug.

What have you pondered and what insights from the last two days?

:- Doug.

Who could benefit from your wisdom?

:- Doug.

This wisdom thing is at the edge of things because we are creating something new. Wisdom is not a thing to be described and used: more it is a wind blowing through us, urging us on, going on without us, oblivious to us, but dependent on us to invent itself. We are at a new place in history. We are about, this instant in time, to write a new story. A new chapter perhaps, or only the first sentence. Make no mistake: the work we do here this specific day is invited to be profound, a new beginning.

:- Doug.

It is impossible to describe all of spirit, to get an overview because by definition it is moving, creating, inventing, conversing. So I resolve to stop trying to get a handle and instead to let it expose me. Draw me.

:- Doug.

We are at the edge of things because wisdom itself takes us to the edge of things so wisdom may be renewed. We feel like we are reaching out, feeling our way blindly, simply because we are. We are at the beginning of the new story, and we are it actors and its raconteurs.

:- Doug.

We cannot, dare not, restrict wisdom to a thing, reify it, hold it up for people to see. Indeed it is not wise to do so. Wisdom has to keep transforming, keep drawing its people to throw out the old wisdom and invent some new.

:- Doug.

Wisdom is not some lump on a shelf. Make no mistake: it rolls up its sleeves, it works, it creates.

:- Doug.

So when you take a piece of paper and write your issue or opportunity, consider the long view before you write. You may not change a single word, but your thoughts of what is profound or sacred will infuse others.

:- Doug.

There once was a gathering of a dozen sages in South Bend. They were the last of the sages known on earth and they were intent on something: a bold new story. A procreation of sages, a bringing forth from wisdom meeting humanity, for the seventh generation. From that gathering little seeds were offered: insignificant things really. But O! the stories we can now tell! One sang, one danced—such a dance! Such a song! One painted—O the colors of life! One told new stories that bored into the people’s hearts. Plays and businesses and social actions and justice! Now it is up to you to enact what happened. Here.

:- Doug.

What is the story of human wisdom we want to tell? What the story of South Bend wisdom? Of your family’s wisdom? Of yours? Is it a good thing or evil? Is it large, small or nonexistent? Ever?

:- Doug.

You can choose to believe there is climate change or not; you can choose to believe the world is billions of years old or not: no one will force you onto the train before it leaves the station, though some may dare invite you.

:- Doug.

There are no initial conditions in meteorology: every butterfly can choose to flap or not and where and when.

:- Doug.

To relate to the wind,
to the light, to the sound
be as you are: wind, light, and sound

:- Doug.

Wind is energy
multiplied by mass
to the power of
surprise
W=EM^Q

:- Doug.

It is not energy, E = MC², but rather the movement that causes the energy. Energy is not primary, but secondary.

We are breath, more accurately breathing, we are wind, more accurately blowing, we are movement, more accurately the action doing the moving and not the thing being moved. We are verb and adjective more than noun: this has been said before. But now we can see the most real part of it is the acting, the forms we think we see and think we are are clouds coalescing and dispersing, only the evidence of our passing.

:- Doug.

What in the world matters to you, now?

:- Doug.

Tracks & Traces
are these wordlings
and markings

:- Doug.

Metamorphoses
movement
modifiers
are not things
even less energy
of these, holders
carriers
embracers

:- Doug.

Tossed salad
are we
more than
heads
(beyond lettuce)

:- Doug.

The wind, the breath, the movement
all of this is…and is within
who can deny it?
and who can any of it hold back?
This is the stuff of which we’re made

:- Doug.