[Oe List ...] Deciding the future; and Imaginal Ed "presence"

Mon Aug 31 13:09:14 PDT 2015

Hi Steve,

I’m guessing that the disappearance of the Decisional (if that is actually the case), is because in our wider culture, folks are not trained to journey (aka facilitate) conversations from the objective, to the reflective to the interpretive possibilities and then step back to invite possible next steps, decisions, the “so what’s”.  I see this capacity lack everywhere – in the mainstream media interviewers, educational leaders from local to national, church leaders on all levels, etc.  It’s not their fault – they’ve just not been trained/enlightened.

Re: your ruminations on “attitude” in Imaginal Education.  My recollection from the Summer ’66 Teacher’s Cadre and subsequent elaborations on those key understandings was that the imaginal educator decided to stand as a presence of the Word: all is Good; all of my past is Accepted; all that I am is Received; all of the future is OPEN and filled with Possibility.

That stance was grounded (in life the way it is), disciplined (chosen by me, over and over and over again); corporate (shared by a primal community whose support I can count on); and risk-averse/ sacrificial (willing by me to walk over the proverbial 1000 fathoms of jello without flinching to do what is needed for the larger good).

At the end of Summer ’66 so many of us dispersed to “explode” in our curriculum (as we talked about it then) images of the many dimensions of the Word, noted above.  

Some went to Marshall High, some to Leif Erikson Elementary, some like Jim Campbell and Rob and I to universities in PA and NH, many to other comparable places.  And we committed, upon being sent out “to be the presence.”  I’m not sure where the category of “attitude” crept in, but “presence” is what I have seen over the years in the life and work of my alums from Summer ’66;  Kaye Ent Lush, Marilyn Miller Oyler, Ann Harrison Avery, Gordon Harper, Nancy Simms, Jim Campbell, Jeff ____(RC priest from 5th City); Jerry _____; Judi Weigel (Jim’s sister, not his wife); Robertson Work; Betsy ______ ; Marilyn Miller Crocker (me) and many others that my memory eludes.

So, these are my two cents re: the foundations, as I experienced them in Summer ’66, of the Imaginal Education Teachers Academy, taught by the mentors who shaped many of our lives/values/life understanding for decades thereafter: Donna McCleskey (Lidona Wagner); Pat Scott (d.); and Sue Burdick. May these mentors be recognized and celebrated by our whole Order for ever and ever.

Grace and peace,

Marilyn Crocker

From: OE [mailto:oe-bounces at lists.wedgeblade.net] On Behalf Of steve har via OE
Sent: Monday, August 31, 2015 2:02 PM
To: W. J.
Cc: oe at lists.wedgeblade.net; dialogue at lists.wedgeblade.net
Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] [Dialogue] Breakfast News Conversations...

Jack Gilles quoted earlier this tread said that the "D" in ORID has disappeared. 

"D" might just as well stand for disaster or maybe a "dumpster" for the seemingly un-ending list of issues,  crisis's and interpretations in this world. 

Do you know where your "D's" are? 

It seems like the "I's"  - the interpretations - are trying to say into existence some stance with which to engage.

---

 In the  Imaginal Education course stance was called "attitude"

Attitude was about having place to stand -"to be" in the world", to be a  self with a past history and future to decide as a free human being. See this photo image: https://goo.gl/photos/sD8E79aA4D7K584R6. 

Bill Salmon and I had some fun trying to write a little about those old board images and try to bring them to life in the 21st Century. He's a pretty good writer, by the way -short and straight. 

 Attitude was an essential part of actually having a place to stand in the -then education crisis of the times - and still have something to have some vitality to offer any learner 5th City Preschool student, or a Training Inc student...RS1 CS1 LENS, it didn't seem to matter.  

David Scott describes in an Archives oral history interview the same basic sense of things.

He and his wife and the Fishels as new members of the Order met in a PSU and developed the Summer 65 for 50 young college students, pastors, and metro cadres. It was right after he and others left the Selma march and Martin Luther King...to drive to the West Side of Chicago. 

What was this stance or attitude stuff about?

One sense of having a stance or attitude  was you were actually "being in the game" of your own free will, not being "in the stands" spectating, opining, booing and cheering the play in someone Else's game. 

--

On a more personal note, now being in the game, being in Phase 4 and being not far from the end of my own game is different now.  

When I play, more often it is something like hide and seek with my young grand-daughter, Indi, she always wants to be in the play of the game. She is not interested in watching and spectating. 

Indi doesn't even want to keep score...she just wants a chance to play full-out and whole hearted. She is clever at finding! She knows how to help people find a place in the game...says, you go hide Grandpa, so I do! 

I'm the one learning to be in this game, she is the teacher, she keeps the play of the game. It is serious fun and new and altogether.  

Once in a while I bounce her on my knee and tell her stories of people hiding, then seeking then finding their way from my world. And I show her her iPad like this one of a friend of teachers and children learning new things: https://goo.gl/photos/9qTepcXCFs9FDzUx6. 

A friend that she knows goes there to help once in a while. 

---

Soon we're going to launch  "Imaginal Inquiry" -a place to introduce people to Imaginal Educational materials available from the Archives Online. You can see the Twitter site here: https://twitter.com/50newqs and follow if you like.  

Steve 

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