[Oe List ...] A conversation with John and Lynda Cock and the Progress on my proposals

Mon Aug 19 11:11:29 PDT 2013

Thanks Herman for the inspired nudge, I have many cool, yet to be written
recollections from our time together in the Cleveland House. I remember a
collegium spin that you did about 'journaling' where you pushed us to
incorporate our reflections and journaling time into the contexts that we
use in meetings and courses, rather than spend time on journaling by itself.
I still operate out of that insight, although I do keep a journal going,
especially on airplane flights. 

To get the stories rolling, I was thinking of mini-formats like half-page or
one-pagers to make enable short bursts to be shared that will remind people
of their version or other experiences to jot down. Like the Epps recent
encounter and Jack's story about the musician, and many of the Earthrise
witnesses over the years. Will we need a dedicated cyber space for this
interchange? (God forbid that I trigger another online dialogue on how many
websites we need J.)

Similar to the Archives project if we can do both retrospective and current
encounters we can get all of the generations of "us" going at the same time.
The knowing and being dimensions are the seedbed of our doing - past and
future; life does not allow us the luxury of dealing with one dimension at a
time. 

For me the most powerful tool that we have used continuously over the years
is the commitment to discern both a Rational Aim and Experiential Aim for
every event, every meeting and every conversation. This is a powerful common
thread that extends from the Faith and Life Community through RS-I, Church
renewal, Town Meetings, Human Development, LENS and The Technology of
Participation and Virtual meetings. We care about what happens to the people
in the events that we guide. Changing lives in real time encounters is who
we are and what we promote. 

Ciao for now, Sherwood

From: oe-bounces at lists.wedgeblade.net
[mailto:oe-bounces at lists.wedgeblade.net] On Behalf Of Herman Greene
Sent: Monday, August 19, 2013 9:27 AM
To: OE Listserv
Subject: [Oe List ...] A conversation with John and Lynda Cock and the
Progress on my proposals

Dear all,

I had nice dinner with John and Lynda Cock last night. There's no doubt
about it, but those of us who were in the Order share a deep common bond
that goes on just like family bonds. Our shared history enabled deep
sharing.

I presented the idea that the period 1965-75 was the deeply creative period
of Order/EI life, that the important ideas and concepts came from that
period.

John divided it into knowing, doing and being, and said the knowing and
being were developed in that period and doing was the focus after that
continuing through today.

It seems clear to me that our "methods" meaning our facilitation methods are
in history. It also seems clear that the doing whether as you all did it
after I left in 1975 or as others may do it in the future will carry on.
There will be people working on human development and some will use our
methods.

What remains important to me is our being and knowing. This is what I feel
may not carry on. It's something we recognize and feel in the presence of
each other and don't recognize and feel in the presence of others, or at
least we feel it in a very different way. It's a shared interior space. 

Those of us in the Order in 1965-75 (and perhaps after though I have no
first hand experience of it) know that we were part of something fantastic.
A mighty flame of spirit and vision burned within us. We had within us a
"motivity" that will never go away. And we had all those sayings and
concepts we sometime hammered each other with that were critical to our
being. And we had the Christian story, heritage and symbols which were very
much a part of our interior reality.

I don't think that can be captured with archives or numbers. The interior
part can only be captured through stories. This is why I have called on
people to write stories on "the way we were" or "who we were". They can be
anecdotes that capture just one memorable moment, like the excitement felt
at preparing for a doing the grand ball or in a moment in Fifth City
Pre-School or the night of the MLK riots. The response, to say the least has
been underwhelming, but I'm not going to let this die. Our second generation
is already reaching retirement in some cases and what about the third
generation and others? These are stories that need to be told. I thought I
had Betty Pesek's book on The Circle of Life. Maybe this covers this, I need
to get a copy . . . but intuitively I don't think so. We have a grand story
and grand stories to tell. We were a part of something fantastic despite its
faults. I don't want to justify it, I just want the story(ies) to be told.

On the knowing side, I'm not that interested in the content that may be time
bound. What I am interested in is the principles that formed us--the ones
that related to out being, our power and our motivity--ideas of
corporateness, being under assignment, living missional lives, etc. This is
what I want to pass on to my children, grandchildren and others. Again the
response has been underwhelming to say the least, but I'm not giving up.

And the book called "RS-1" that I proposed? Gene Marshall I gather is
working to put a version of RS-1 back in to the stream of things. Here I'm
thinking about something else. I'm thinking about how did we come to
understand God, Christ. Holy Spirit and Church in both its contentless and
contentful (being related to the Christian tradition) aspects. I want to
tell the story of RS-1, though this one might involve more concepts than the
first two.

So folks, you aren't dead yet, but you're close. Let's tell the story of
this amazing body of people and reality of which we were a part.

Herman

-- 
__________________________________________________

Herman F. Greene

2516 Winningham Road

Chapel Hill, NC 27516

919-942-4358 (ph & fax)

hfgreenenc at gmail.com

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