An integral look at the world has us noticing both the external nature of things and the corresponding interiors. Ken Wilber says this repeatedly and with much hubris. Henry David Thoreau says it better:
From Through The Prism of Human Collectivity by Huck Gutman:
I, an amateur, iron quickly. He, a professional, did not. He took care, making certain that each sweep of the iron made a flat expanse of brilliant white fabric.
As I watched him, I realized I was receiving instruction in how to iron properly. The man in the window was of early middle age, seemingly of Central American background. He was totally focused on his work. (Only when I left, and bowed my head slightly in dual acknowledgement of his excellence and my gratefulness at being allowed to watch him, did he indicate by a small smile and a brief nod of his head that he had been aware of my presence.)
So that was it, my �spot of time,� my peak experience. A moment � 15 minutes, actually � of observing menial work in the modern city. Only the work was not menial, even though its status, and no doubt the ironer�s pay, were low. The man I watched took great care with what he did, and seemed in a quiet and unobtrusive way to be proud that he ironed shirts well. Would a customer have noticed if he ironed more quickly, and the shirt were not as perfect as he strove to make it? I doubt it. But the man who ironed worked to a different standard. If his labor was worth doing, it was worth doing well.
Huckman goes on to quote Wallace Stevens and Pablo Neruda in noticing the pride of work and care in the busyness and chaos of cities.
I have always loved Erik Satie. The French composer wrote beautiful modern music, tying much of his creativity to the explosion in avant garde modes of expression sweeping Europe in the early part of the last century.
This piece is called “Gnossiennes No. 1.” and the score has little verbal instructions for the pianist that are intended to guide one’s approach to the music: “Shining”, “Questioning”, “From the tip of the thought”, “Wonder about yourself”, “Step by step”, “On the tip of the tongue.”
Taken together, this short piece captures the process of the emergence and expression of a thought and all the internal voices at play between conception and the moment of speech.
Interesting stuff…Rykodisk has released a podcast (mp3) of Brian Eno talking about his new album, Another Day on Earth. The interview is accompanied by a rather nice little ten minute mix of most of the tracks from that album, all of which are songs. Some of the transitions are a little rough, but there is a nice overall feel. The album sounds great. You can see all the lyrics here. My favourite section is from “Caught Between” which captures some of the sense of what it’s like to facilitate a learning process with a group:
Forced to be
A broken line
Let to hold
What we could find
Then to learn
And go again
Nothing sorted out
I’m just returning from Calgary where my partner Susan Neden and I have been doing some design and faiclitation work with the imagineCALGARY Roundtable. imagineCALGARY is a 100 year sustainability planning exercise, in the spirit of the Imagine Chicago process.
Last night we took the group through a short Cafe process about their engagment and reasons why the roundtable participants agreed to join the enterprise. In the midst of all the conversation a line stood out for me that rocked me very deeply. In going over the table notes afterwards Susan read out this zinger:
“Cities last longer than countries.”
So true. In 100 years, North America might not host Canada and the United States, but it will still host populations, and it’s more than likely that these populations will still be centered in most of the cities where they now reside. Look at Europe. In some places, people have lived in the same city all their lives, but have been ncitizens of several different countries in that time.
Countries are ideas and so no one does 100 year planning for countries. They depend for their existence on the success of their cities and citizens. Tip O’Neil once said that “all politcs is local” and so too is citizenship. When we ask questions about the future, we do so much more effectively if we can forget about the false and illusive notions of nations and countries and instead look at the concrete places where human beings gather to have their needs met.
It makes me wonder about long range planning for organizations too. Does it make sense to talk about the 50 year plan for XYZ Inc, or ABC Community Services organization? Or instead should we ask questions about what it is that the organizations do? In 50 or 100 years, where will people buy their food? How will they travel from place to place? How will they create culture?
There are real needs and there are illusory structures. We spend an awful lot of time coming up with strategies to prop up houses of cards instead of looking at how our temporary structures meet ongoing and universal human needs. It’s funny what we consider permanent. We think that our organizations will solve problems, that the human needs are temporary and that the organizations will last beyond them. In reality it is the opposite, and useful organizations are those that can grow and shift and be agile enough to continue to serve the constant needs (food, shelter, clohting, expression, community….etc) in an impermanant context.
