Dick, superb witness! A little reflection on your context on the struggle with an organizations core values. An organization is not a conscious entity. It is a creative collection of people about something. Its value system is about how it goes about doing that task. So its value system is clearly contextual. It may value speed, or innovation, or quality, or design, or flexibility, simplicity, etc. It is what enables them to do what they do exceptionally well. Organizations should have a limited number so that those values enable the collective capacity and all can easily speak about the corporate culture. I refer to these values by having a small ‘v’. Individuals also have small ‘v’ values. They usually govern our behavior and tend to be related to our priorities in life. Most people put high value on their family, health, career, job, and how they are seen as human beings. But they may or not be Universal Values. Let me illustrate with my own life. For many years I saw myself as having a value of care. I tried to be such a person in situations that confronted me. Life became a budgeting task as there were many things I cared about. I felt my budget was pretty well balanced, but there were occasions where I had to make adjustments, mainly regarding family. I thought I had care, but then Life hit me hard, and I discovered that I didn’t have care, Care has me. Care (C) is Universal Value, it is just the way Life is. And when Care has you, it will take you where you do not want to go. I believe there are five Universal Values; Care (we often call that Love), Mercy, Justice, Compassion and Truth. The trouble comes when we try and define what these mean. They are just words, and words are the vehicle of the left brain rational knowing. But Universal Values are the domain of the right brain, and that brain is mute. It “knows” and communicates in a different way. It is the domain of our relationship to the Mystery, TWLI, or G-O-D. Therefore we can never be sure our response will be “right”, for we are not GOD, we are the instrument of the Mystery. And it is our requirement therefore to act, take responsibility and then render the deed to history. We grow in our understanding of these things, that is what the Journey is all about. We grow in our ability to understand what it means to be a child of the Mystery and a servant of the Mystery. And sometimes it takes a fall on a bike to remind us the Truth of that fact. Peace brother! Jack
On Dec 13, 2018, at 21:29, Richard Alton via Dialogue <dialogue@lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote:
Oh My God, Life …the things that happen in life are astonishing..being driven to and fro by the mystery.. a few recent examples
I attended part of the ICA USA Board meeting last month. We broke up into small groups and I was in a group with John Cock II. He and I were in Kenya together. I think it was John’s 9th grade trip. I was impressed to hear him rattle off the villages he worked in: Kwangware, Kamweleni and Mugumwoini...just like he had been there yesterday. John was a great addition. Probably, the first Board member literally born into the organization- now an urban engineer with a focus on bike trails. Had his middle school daughter with him. I wonder when she is going abroad.
The afternoon I was there, the Board brainstormed ICA core values- things like community development, ToP methods, being a learning organization, even poverty, chastity and obedience. I struggled with this question of core values. I think the core of the core is the ability to give a witness.. to stand present to one’s life and the amazing things revealed or that happen to one…the mystery at work in one’s life.
Like on Halloween night I was coming home late at night on my bike and ran right onto a big pile of leaves- it knocked me off my bike, split my lip and banged up my ribs. I made it home but the next day was having trouble breathing so went to the hospital. They performed a CT scan. There were no broken ribs, but the scan showed that I had spots on my lungs...so this all happened to catch my attention about my lungs... and on Halloween (the Day of the Dead).
The second part of my Halloween leaf event: it seems the leaves grabbed my phone- so the day after the fall, I could not find my phone- that really hurt. I went back to all the places I had been including the leaf place but no phone. Finally, after I had given up Sally asked me, “doesn’t Apple have an app that will help you find a lost phone?” so on my computer I found the lost apple link and sure enough on the screen map there was a flashing signal. It was about a 100 yards from where I fell. So I follow the map and there is my cell on the curb like it had been waiting for me… think those leaves put it there. Is this not The Other World in the midst of this world…a Visit to the Land of Mystery?
These Visits seem to come in 3s. I work on the One Earth Film Fest through which we show environmental movies all over greater Chicago and engage people in conversation and action in response to the films. So I received an email from a Dexter Watson at St Malachi/Precious Blood Parish about showing a movie. I set up a meeting with Dexter on the Westside of Chicago. It turns out Dexter is not only the parish coordinator but also the former Alderman of the area. And yes, Fifth City is in his former Aldermanic area. In fact, one of Dexter’s favorite people and a mentor was the late Verdell Trice, the head of the Fifth City Auto Center and board member of the Preschool. Dexter even tried to have a street named after Verdell at one time. This is the second time I have been driven back to 5th City. You know we are going to have a great film fest event there.
Dick Alton, introduced to the mystery in December,1968 and working with the mystery on the future of planet Earth ever since. Oak Park, Illinois