Today at an Open Space I kept saying that the muber of people present was 53. Some folks corrected me, but the truth was that the number present kept changing as people came and went, but I was trying to make a point. Fifty three is a prime number. Prime numbers are good numbers to use to estimate a group’s size in Open Space because they are not easily divided.
Ha ha.
Matt made me do it…
These are my URL ABCs:
I discovered that I have been linked at Declan’s blog, STV for BC – Vote Yes!, which encourages us to vote yes for the shift to a single transferable vote system of electing government. Declan’s blog is the one that was getting all the attention from Elections BC last week.
Also, following up on the Olympics logo story, Marja-Leena send me a link to this article quoting an Inuit Elder on inuksuit (the proper plural) and why what the Olympic Committee has on it’s hands is not infact, even an inukshuk. As if the goofy smile wasn’t a hint.
More coverage here
Michael is a great friend and colleague and one of the most important lessons I’ve learned from him over the years is this notion of living life as a practice of invitation. Today he posts a really nice example of how he might respond to a request to help create an invitation. I quoted this post today in a conversation with Dave Pollard who is crafting an invitation for his current initiative, AHA!
It’s great advice, elegantly offered.
From a post on the OSLIST, a poem from Neruda:
Now we will count to twelve
And we will all keep still.
For once on the face of the earth,
let’s not speak in any language;
let’s stop for one second,
and not move our arms so much.
It would be a delicious moment
without hurry, without locomotives;
all of us would be together
in a sudden uneasiness.
The fishermen in the cold sea
would do no harm to the whales
and the peasant gathering salt
would look at his torn hands.
Those who prepare green wars,
wars of gas, wars of fire,
victories without survivors,
would put on clean clothing
and would walk alongside their brothers
in the shade, without doing a thing.
What I want shouldn’t be confused
with final inactivity;
life alone is what matters,
I want nothing to do with death.
If we weren’t unanimous
about keeping our lives so much in motion,
if we could do nothing for once,
perhaps a great silence would
interrupt this sadness,
this never understanding ourselves
and threatening ourselves with death,
perhaps the earth is teaching us
when everything seems to be dead
and then everything is alive.
Now I’ll count up to twelve
and you keep quiet and I’ll go
