I am indebted to Jane Pritchard who inspired this conversation, and to
Ron Mann
who contributed material.
Werner's work
it could be said, generates, brings forth,
demonstrates
a plethora of manifestations of
transformation,
all of which could be considered to be
empowered
by / grounded in a possibility given approach to living.
"What's a possibility given approach to living?" you may ask. To deploy
a more colloquial expression (I'd like to avoid the
slippery
slope over which perfectly effective
languagedevolves
into jargon when used in a new
context),
a possibility given approach to living is akin to "living outside
the box" - notice I said "akin to" and not "the same as".
So that we can have a
conversation
about a possibility given approach ie so that we can have a
conversation
which leaves us clear about what a possibility given approach is and
the effectiveness of
Werner's work
in making it available, it may be prudent to begin by saying what a
possibility given approach isn't ie by saying what living
inside the box is - something with which, if we tell
the truth
about it, we're all already very familiar.
Living inside the box is essentially a euphemism for staying with
what's familiar, for not going past what's comfortable, for trying to
solve new problems with what's
already known.
Although it took Professor Albert Einstein to
originally
articulate "The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the
same level of thinking we were at when we
created
them" (in other
words,
problems caused by living inside the box cannot be solved by thinking
inside the box),
the truth
is you don't have to be a genius to figure it out for yourself.
Another characteristic of living inside the box is our insisting that
the
source
of the problem (ie where the
being upset
occurs) lies out there with someone else and / or with
something else, rather than taking responsibility for
being upset
over here. Not
viewing
the unwillingness to own the problem and be responsible for
being upset
over here as an option, is not a bad thing or a good thing. Rather it's
an undistinguished thing which, once distinguished, is
useful,
powerful,
and profound.
Yet another characteristic of living inside the box is being unaware of
and / or being unwilling to confront the impact our unkept promises and
broken agreements have on our lives (not to mention on other people's
lives). We think "It's no big deal ...". But
listen:
it is. The impact of unkept promises and broken agreements is a
huge deal. If you've never thought about including unkept
promises and broken agreements as staple fare from (and evidence of)
living inside the box, think again ...
The quintessential question from inside the box is "What can I do given
the circumstances, given what I'm familiar with, given what I'm
comfortable with, given what I
already
know?"
(no possibility ie everything's a "given" except
possibility). The question from outside the box is simply "What's
possible?" or
spoken
with
rigor,
"Given anything's possible, what can I do?" or "If anything's
possible, then what's given for me to do?" or even "Given possibility,
then what possibilities does possibility give?" (the latter clearly
qualifies as a
self-referential
"no no" I'll grant you, yet it's very apropos
nonetheless). This is a possibility given approach. It's the access to
living outside the box. It requires the boldness, the brashness, the
verve, and the audacity to be willing to grapple newly with that
which is unfamiliar.
Clearly Albert was right: solving our issues
(personal,
interracial, intercultural, intercontinental, international) requires
living outside the box ie it requires living in a way in which
solutions aren't given by what's familiar, by what's comfortable, or
by what's already known, but rather by what's possible. And the
trouble is inside the box there's no possibility. We say a
possibility given approach is
simple ... it is, but it
isn't always easy
(if it were
easy,
the whole world
would be
transformed
by now).
The first recognition ie the alpha recognition of
possibility in a possibility given approach, is recognizing it's
possible to live outside the box. After that, after I take on
living outside the box, I start seeing possibility
everywhere - which is to say I start seeing the
possibility of possibility itself everywhere. The
conversations
which comprise
Werner's work
tease out the possibility of possibility itself, and with it inter
alia the possibility of being responsible, the possibility of
being in communication (ie the possibility of
languaging),
and the possibility of being of
service
and more, making them readily accessible and
masterfully
available worldwide.