What a mensch Gordon is! Still practicing being in the game being a social pioneer even with -- gasp 20 somethings. Shades of HR Neibhur addressing the needs of the times. Still willing to have integrity Integrity. Yes, that Joe Mathews Invention. My personal working definition: what you say is what you do; what you do is what you say, except when it isn't and then I get to clean up the mess, --- 100% free, a100% responsible. Gordon It must be exhilarating being with 20 somethings engaged, fearless. Tell us a STORY! Better yet make a YouTube or a VoiceThread.com, 21st C style. Make the local story sing a global song. By the Way...Ellie Stock is working on an Internet story about Dreaming the Dreamer and it isn't going to live in an email or a text thread. For me, is exhilarating being with 20 somethings on my Stanford University Project Team. They are all about engagement not detachment. On my team are all about making something happen -- not having a bigger better gestalt or a better plan. They are fearless. They are making a software product they don't do "Rusty" they do Jane style we're in this together making something happen. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDDO3ob-4ZY They respect this 69 year old fart when I row the boat as well as they do and when I get tasks done like everyone else. Sometimes they ask me to "navigate" from experience, but they sure don't want some one to "facilitate" from the sidelines, they want someone fully engaged in the task at hand. Here is a piece of their work: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1yNi_WmF_qNddSLulOxc1yOYXUeBR72n02wio... Re-reading Jon & Maureens book -the 9 Disciplines of a Facilitator Ch 12 - this morning they say [paraphrasing] If awareness is is about understanding, action is about accomplishing [there are] three issues facing facilitative leaders They all have to do with effective action: -intent [which has do do with changing not planning], -implementation, -impact Re Lee's Dag quote: If you get past the nostalgia and the romantic/poetic words, what you see is a guy who is fully engaged and taking the risks he chooses to take [and in conversation with himself about it]. One time in NYC I met Kofi Annan on his very last day as Secretary-General of the United Nations at Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem. Another guy with an intact value system who chooses to navigate in unsettled waters. Still in the game, long since retired. Thank-you Gordon for your leadership example, for being a guide, a navigator. Hunting for some stories of women navigators - not people of the peanut gallery but people who have an intact value system and lead in un-chartered waters. like the navigators in the Marshall Islands who used to navigate with stick charts and according to Wiegel bounced the babies on their knees and sang songs, teaching the young ones the sound of the wind and the waves. Grace Lee Boggs is a heavy hitter. Wish I could hear a 1st hand story of someone I know. Someone out there like Gordon. If you look at Kaze Gadway, she is hanging out with young-ones too. She might be achieving "universal grandmother status" Anyone know any other female navigators, any other female guides like Kaze? It would be powerful to develop some new leadership examples beyond the stale ones that get shared over and over again. We should do this kind of work now with and for 20 somethings -- and stop trying to amuse ourselves with one more client, just one more consulting contract, just one more set of custom workshop procedures from an unnamed but paying client. The role of Elders is to pass on practices worth practicing not nostalgia and opinions about the way it ought to be. It is past time to pay it forward. I'm getting older by the minute. How about you? -- Steve